The Good Teacher
…
(Part One)
Even before I
get into this topic, I must state … oh
about … three caveats.
One: I am not holding myself up to be any kind of
a prime model of a teacher or
teaching. I have done the best that I
could for thirty years. My track record
for successful students is quite
long, but I am certain I made many mistakes too. For those students I may have failed, in some manner, I heartfully
apologize.
Two: Upon reading this, I can just hear hundreds
of excellent teachers adding all kinds of their own addendums. And, they would be correct, of that I am
certain.
Lastly: In those thirty years of teaching I have seen
and been a part of a major paradigm (shift,
change, upheaval) in education. Huge! Major! Changes …
But
first, before even approaching all those HUGE changes in later blogs, one thing
I have learned is in this Good Teaching Blog: Part One.
If
you want any person’s respect, and you can’t expect respect unless you extend
respect, I believe you must learn that person’s name. Truly connect with that name and that person
on a personal level, by tacking that name into your cerebral cortex. Individuals who say, “I’m terrible with
names.”, to my mind, are people who are mentally lazy and have very low
quotients of empathy and high quotients of ego.
I
have worked with and taught many children and adults with mental health issues,
mental disabilities, some quite severe.
Autistic persons, adults and children, those with Downs Syndrome – every
single one of them knows their own name.
They know who they are, they
respond to a word that is as deeply attached to their existence as their own
heartbeats. Plus nearly every one of
them with whom I have worked, will remember the names of others who have
treated them with respect. Even after as
much as several years of no contact with those persons.
One
conclusion I have drawn from that part of my experience, in life and teaching,
is that names, the name of every
person is important. So I learned to mentally file that under “stuff
that is really, really important.”
The
look in a young person’s eyes the second or third time you address them, using
their name, is a flash of morning sunlight.
“He knows me. He knows who I
am. I’m me, not just another kid.” The sense of validation this gives a young
person can upgrade the whole teacher-student relationship and learning and
self-confidence increases by factors of ten.
This
knowledge and connection with the
student also allows the teacher to infer,
“I know who you are and I expect you
to behave properly.” Saying, “Stop
that!” when a student is carving into a desktop, is not nearly as effective as
saying, “Johnny, stop carving up that desk.
You’re gonna be in here sanding that down for hours after school.” First, he knows you know him precisely, secondly because he knows you know this his
deeper emotions will be that he has
disappointed you personally.
Johnny
now knows you know who carved the desk.
You will remember who carved the desk and if there is a bad things I have done tally sheet in
your head, he’s now on it. If you have
developed that empathetic validation
of him, with him, he will not want to stay
on that list. You have now not only stopped
one instance of bad behavior, you have set the ground-work for an improved
thought and decision making process in that young man’s life.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T begins with giving r-e-s-p-e-c-t and
that begins with that person to person identity validation.
Learn
their names and always use their names when addressing them.
Dale Clarence Peterson © 2014
Please check out my new book Drawing Blind (Learn to draw
without looking) at:
It’s free – all I ask is that you post a review.
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