Teaching Journal Issue 7

I have to say it was with some relief that I welcomed Hargreaves, The Emotional Practice of Teaching. While on one hand I knew that to choose this profession you have to certainly love children first and foremost, and to be effective in the classroom you have to have some degree of passion about what you are trying to impart to your students, beyond a simple change in your voices inflection. On the other hand somehow I began to believe that perhaps teachers suppress a deeper emotional feeling that they might otherwise have to their teaching techniques. Certainly, we have seen it in the movie presentations of that super teacher who somehow turns her class around through the most unorthodox methods imaginable. Somehow when the educational system has given up on these “low achieving”, hoodlums, and turned Rhodes scholars, its OK for the teacher to resort to any method that gets results. I guess what I am saying is that my generation grew up in an educational system that pretty much embodied neat lines of desks and the teacher taught while you listened.

As my educational biography would indicate, I was not the best student, and had very few recollections of teachers that impressed, or challenged me. I laid down last night knowing that I needed to journal, and I wanted to talk about emotion, and I tried to recall any positive teacher exhibited emotions that I could remember from my youth to no avail. Classrooms were not even closely as dynamic, colorful and dripping with visual stimuli as they are now. Granted, technology was non-existent, so classroom tools such as active boards, and the Internet were not even a dream yet. But even yet, we did not go on class trips to the zoo, or to a nearby pond to exam life. It was as I said before, some stodgy teacher lecturing for what seemed forever in this emotionless dialog. With that said and to be fair, I was not the most attentive student and there has been a fair amount of time that has passed so my memory may be a wee bit cloudy on passionate teachers that I never realized. In any case I loved Hargreaves, “emotions are at the heart of teaching”, and with immense relief I learned that emotion is in fact alive and well and should be the most part of everyone’s classroom. I think children can reflect yourself when you exhibit the enthusiasm that you feel for teaching, and they can buy-in to the joy of learning.

I believe, as does Hargreaves, that the classroom, devoid of color, stimuli, and a less than passionate teacher is a “barren and boring”, place. I believe also that it is imperative that we capture the imaginations and interests of our children from the very start. School must be a place where they eagerly want to come to, where discovery, adventure, social interaction, and fun are an intricate part of the educational process. As a teacher, what greater reward can you have then to here a student say that you made a difference in their life? Wow, powerful stuff to be sure, and we have the power to create that result, as Mary Anne Raywid would say. More and more I am feeling that we as teachers have a responsibility to all our students, regardless of whether some of them endear themselves to us or not to never give up trying to reach and connect with them on some level. To not do so I believe puts that individual at risk for caring less and less about school in general. I remember, I believe it was Ayers, and the story of how the teacher connected with the skateboarder who up to then was disinterested in school. It was the opening, the connection that the teacher discovered to at the very least engage the student in school being interesting to him. Raywid says that while its so much easier to be attracted to the eager, cooperative student, the greater challenge comes in being appealing and successful with the ones that are least eager, engaging and cooperative. I think we have to continually examine ourselves, and the role we play to each student. With this power to effect both good and bad outcomes comes the awesome responsibility of continually being aware of it, and mindful of how it could affect our students.

For some fifteen years I did living history portraying a Civil War soldier. In that first person role I portrayed in classrooms and at living history events, a common soldier caught up in the hardships of those times, and as you can imagine it was a passionate portrayal. (My wife has often commented that I am a frustrated actor, and somehow always looking for a stage to act on). Somehow I have always felt that often you need a connection to something tangible to demonstrate and to teach someone. Maybe that’s because I learn best through example, and I can recall the answer through the recall of the example. Formulas, and memorizing on the other hand challenge me, as does peoples names.