On Monday August 15th 2016, something happened to me, it was so significant it changed the course of my thoughts. That was my first day as a real life teacher; I stood in for someone who was unavoidably absent. Since I studied some aspects of psychology as sociology major, I know that one way that we can heal from trauma is to talk about it. I can literally write a book about what a train wreck that day was. I went into the class praying to God that he instilled His fear in the students. I had to quickly get their names and master it, because I was prepared to pin each student to their crime instantly. I went into the class room with a little bit of Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating.
Someone once said he was carrying out a research of what makes a good teacher great, after over twenty six thousand responses from students from all over the World, one response that stood out was, that ‘a great teacher eats apples’, it looks funny and sounds weird, but in all the silliness and weirdness, the students were sending a strong message, they meant that they as children want to see their teachers as people who want to receive gifts from them, the apple is in fact a symbol for their relationship with their teachers. The students saw goodness in that, and trust. Some students prefer their teachers chill, but that’s their language, what they really mean, is that teachers should be calm and not easily overwhelmed. Okay, simply put, don’t take it too seriously.
Research shows that thousands of students in schools perform poorly; they are unserious, too occupied with anything but studies, or dyslexic. And in my career as a teacher I have seen teachers never give up on students, they find something the student is good at, because they know that every kid is good at something. Great educators successfully pull out the best out of their students each and every day. There is a method in theatre known as black box, and at its core, it talks about the only two things that are necessary for theatre, which are simply an audience and an actor. Every other thing can be stripped away, but as long as an audience and actor are present, the show can go on.
Education can take the same direction, tests, technology and every other thing including a classroom. In the core of teaching, all that is truly needed for teaching and learning to happen is a teacher and a student. Both of whom are human, engaging these fundamental human relationships with compassion, is the core work of every teacher in any setting. It is said that the greatest predictors of student engagement effort and achievement is the relationship that they have with their teacher. Teachers are more than content experts and test gurus; they should be able to engage their students with compassion.
Compassionate teachers believe that ‘they are no bad dogs’. Good teachers are able to have the patience and humanness to engage with ill-behaved students in ways that they the students can understand.
I learned that there are students who are yearning for a teacher who will treat them with compassion, who will lead them, although it is easy and common to label students who are underperforming or misbehaving as either ‘careless or lazy’. Some teachers will talk about some students they just can’t wait to get rid of, yet the teachers I know to be compassionate rarely have these issues. The reason I believe is that they have learned to check themselves, without even thinking about it, by believing that there are ‘no bad dogs’, they forestall premature judgement and that’s what allows them to get to the root of the matter. Because some of these student might be looking for love and attention in the classroom, that they are not getting at home.
A teacher once gave a story about one of her student she met 15years later, it was at a grocery store, she had heard her name, and when she turned around, a young woman walked up to her, as she came closer her teacher had recognized her from fifteen years ago, they hugged and chatted, after a while, the student talked passionately about a book the teacher had read to them in their second grade. Afterwards the teacher said, ‘she asked me if I remember what I had told them after reading that book to them all those years ago’. The student said she had told them that winners aren’t always the fastest ones that sometimes winners are just the brave ones who don’t quit. The teacher said, ‘then she said to me something that every teacher longs to hear’, she had said ‘you know sometimes, when things get really hard and I feel like giving up, I think about that book and what you told us and I just keep going’. That teacher said that moment in time was the highlight of her career as a teacher and her life as a human being.
We have all had a meaningful connection with our teachers. A teacher in every part of the World impacts every other human being. As the present teachers make impact on the lives of students, their teachers also impacted their lives, and impact just goes on and on. Students of every teacher will remember them for what they said, did, didn’t say or didn’t do. I remember my primary school teacher, Uncle John, he made me realize I had a good writing and communication skill, he always told me I was made for greatness. And thanks to a man like him, that small girl has grown into a woman who is ambitious enough to go for greatness. It isn’t gestures that make impacts on students; it’s the meaning they ascribe to those gestures.
Students don’t remember been taught, they remember being transformed, we all remember the teachers who helped us change and grow, those that facilitate our transformation. That’s why every student remembers some teachers so clearly, and others, not at all. Every teacher changes the mind and heart of their students, just as much as a school can transform a community. It is said that if you want to see growth and development in a country, their educational system must have absolute priority. Teachers do not just produce every other profession in the World; they give a piece of themselves to each and every one of their students. They give their knowledge, heart, attention, soul, their entire being goes into the service of humanity.
So I came to realize overtime that, no matter how many degrees you have, or where you got them from, the things you think you know about education, if you never taught students in a classroom, day in day out, there is no understanding how incredibly demanding and challenging the teaching vocation is. Today it is massive moments of insight for me, I am always overwhelmed with a deep sense of admiration for teachers, that are in classrooms everywhere getting it done, doing amazing jobs connecting with hundreds of students every day. A teacher does more than just teach, you open minds and eyes of students who think that being born poor means hopeless, you are the ones who find that spirit, the genius, and you cause the spark. The glint in the eyes that keeps hope and ambition alive.
Teachers are the ones who change individuals, societies and the World at large, long after books are closed and school is over. How you make each and every student feel and what lessons you have prepared them for the outside World is your biggest achievement or loss. We all know that poverty, peer influence, low attendance etcetera cause low students’ performance. The value and connection of human connection is so strong that James Comer said that no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. When next you think that your students are not listening and you just can’t wait to get rid of them, you must know that the only truth is, children don’t learn from people that they don’t like, Simple!.
Teachers sometimes have to raise the self-esteem of children and academic achievement at the same time. A teacher must make students understand that they are somebody, they were somebody when they got into your class, and a better somebody when they leave your class. Students have somebody to impress and change to create, and you are the architect of that reality. Tell the students something great about them every day; tell them long enough that they begin to believe it themselves. Show up to class everyday knowing that you are there to build greatness because you have the noblest profession in the World.
Halima Imam
Twitter: @sadee_eemam
Founder (Climate Action Team.
