"I know that I celebrate a kind of teaching that is exceedingly rare. I know that becoming an oustanding teacher is an heroic quest: Like Odysseus one must navigate turbulent and troubled waters...on the way toward an uncertain reward." (Ayers, 2001, p. 10)
In the first chapter of To Teach, titled "Beginning, the Challenge of Teaching," William Ayers calls us to evaluate what a decision to teach really embodies. Ayers analyzes obstacles in both thought and practice, he dispels myths, and he articulates some characteristics of good teaching. He sets out in a manner that really appealed to me - giving examples that highlight the importance of finding something of value in students. I was so impressed to hear about the young student, Kelyn, who found in his "difference" a source of pride. However, nurturing whole students like Kelyn, possessing healthy self esteem, means that we can't construe teaching to be simply the act of disseminating prescribed knowledge through instruction. This fact is easily overlooked. In recent years, such great emphasis has been placed on the successful transfer of prescribed knowledge from the teacher's curriculum-focused lesson plan to the students' brains - and then quantifying that knowledge through standardized testing, that is hardly surprising that important roles of the teacher have been neglected. Additional roles are required to create whole learners - modeling, listening, and interacting, to name a few that Ayers highlights.
Shifting our focus from content to method adds more dimensions to teaching. While it creates new challenges for the teacher, it also grants additional, sometimes immeasurable, rewards. "Teaching is spectacularly unlimited," Ayers reminds us (2001, p. 5), and this reminds me of why I chose to pursue teaching. To paraphrase Ayers, I chose teaching because I love what happens to me when I'm with children in the classroom, because I love watching them open up and grow, because I want to be a part of shaping and touching the future. Understandably, I believe, I got a little depressed when I read what came next - all the reasons not to teach, all the unfavorable attitudes we'll face, all the real challenges placed on teachers. I'll confess to something. Twenty years ago I would have laughed at the notion of becoming a teacher. When someone said to me "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach," my reply was, "Hear, hear." How opinions change! Even so, I grew a bit downcast as I read through his list - teachers are seen as intellectually deficient, teachers are seriously undervalued by society, teachers are paid a pittance, and on and on. Yes, yes, I know. Let's get on to how we can effect change! I was glad when he finally got to the part about teaching still being a powerful calling.
In the section on myth-dispelling, Ayers thoughts really struck me, especially in a few specific sections. One instance is when he discusses "Myth 4: Good Teachers Always Know the Materials." (2001, p. 12) The statement that "[m]any fine teachers plunge into the unknown alongside their students," (Ayers, 2001, p. 13) couldn't be a clearer articulation of one of of the reasons I chose teaching. The excitement of sharing in discovery with my students is a particular thrill. There's an almost indescribable elation that comes from discovery - and there are always new things for everyone to learn. Another myth that really stood out is that quality teaching can be measured through testing. The primary reason this myth stood out is because it's commonly, and frequently, cited as truth. In fact, it scarcely seems possible that there could be more emphasis placed on testing than there is today. Ayers isn't the only author to try and dispel this myth. Others, including Berliner & Biddle in my "Context of Learning and Schooling" class reading this week, "The Manufactured Crisis," refute this - even Diane Ravitch, proud endorser of the "No Child Left Behind" act, seems to have changed her mind. Yet the myth persists. I find myself wondering, why? Just yesterday, a new coalition to promote teacher contract changes rooted in so-called teacher performance, was reported on by NPR. Have these folks - "Communities and Parents for Public Schools" - read the research, or, at the very least, talked to any teachers? The persistence of this myth confounds me.
Ayers gave me a lot of additonal things to think about in this chapter, but I'll wrap up here by talking about his "ethic of caring," since I think it's some of the most important advice to heed. For Ayers, everything about teaching seems to boil down to love for the student. If our first priority is the student, if our first commitment is to the students' well-being, then the kinds of learning and types of learning environments required to foster empowered learners like Kelyn will follow. As Ayers states, the teacher that chooses to embrace "the 'difficult matter of moral choice'," (2001, p. 21) chooses, "to do something that enables the choices of others, that supports the human impulse to grow." (2001, p. 22) Though this choice entails difficulty, and as hard as holding my "own experiences as tentative...and open to question," (Ayers, 2001,. 22) may be, this is the kind of teacher I'd like to be. I believe this approach to teaching is will reap the "deeper, more lasting, and less illusory" (Ayers, 2001, p. 24) rewards.
Ayers, W. (2001). To Teach: the journey of a teacher. New York. N.Y. & London: Teachers College Press.
A rich chapter, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI'll add to your analysis of the strong emphasis on content that methods are also being strongly prescribed with "scripted" curriculum, required pacing of materials, the narrowing of teacher discretion. In the drive to raise test scores, opportunities teacher judgment is often minimized.
So kelyn will encounter teachers who are teaching in ways that others who have never met him have prescribed.
So, how is it that teachers can articulate a richer understanding of what students like him *are* learning and why those things are important for the children and for the world that they'll eventually lead? We need to find better ways of showing how narrow a range of learning is actually captured in tests.
IDeas?