PATIENCE
Teaching and Training
When a teacher is educating a student, the energy is designed to draw out the talent within the student. When a teacher is training a student the energy is designed to put into the students the necessary memory of the information desired. Thus, teaching and training have distinctly different goals, methods, and outcomes. Depending on the nature of the information and what one wants to accomplish, it may be beneficial to have both the ideas of training and teaching working in concert with each other; however, in school settings it is important that we distinguish between these two very different approaches to learning.
There are times when athletic coaches and music directors need to train students to work together as a team: starting together, working together, and stopping together. However, there are times when the athletes and musicians have to be encouraged to bring out their talent in a special play to win the game or a featured solo with the band, orchestra, or choir. There are teachers and coaches whose best style in the learning process is training the students to achieve their goal while others have the best results at drawing out the talent within the student in the learning process.
Present day students will eventually become the next generation of teachers and coaches. How will they teach and coach? Most will teach and coach as they were taught and coached. What happens when the teaching and coaching is not good? The next generation suffers and so do the succeeding generations. Our responsibility as teachers to the future generations of teachers is overwhelming. Those future teachers are every student in our classes. When I look at my students at the middle school, high school, and college level, I see future moms, dads, uncles, aunts, grandparents, neighbors, and community leaders. How will they play out these adult roles in their lives? Who will be their role models that will guide their decision making from buying vacuum cleaners to selecting a university for their children?
Deciding what is important for children to know at each stage of their lives and how they should problem-solve on a variety of topics as they move forward in life is the challenge for each teacher. Students need to be both independent and interdependent learners. Good teachers and good students work together in sympathy with each other. Working together as a team for the benefit of the group dynamic is a major lesson in life. Every teacher in every discipline has the responsibility to make an effort to effectively communicate this reality as a life lesson.
How many lives per year does the average teacher save? I have never seen a projected statistic on this question; however, society too often equates saving lives with the medical profession rather than the education profession. For every student that teachers fail, how much of the taxpayers money go to rehabilitate or incarcerate that lost student? Depending on the state, one can project $25,000.00-$40,000.00 annually.
How much damage does a lost student cause a local community? This damage can be in the form of physical destruction, assaults upon individuals, or emotional damage to individuals and families. Not all solutions to a student's problems are going to be found in a school. With the resources available to a school in dealing with a myriad of student learners, there are times when the problems are so intense and so extreme that school cannot cope with the behaviors and effectively challenge the student to improve. Non-compliant behavior, anti-social behavior and conduct disorder behavior cannot be accepted in a school setting. Students need to be removed and put into a more restrictive therapeutic setting where there is more one-to-one communication with a strict behavior modification-type program.
When a student fails the system, everyone must accept the responsibility. Parents, teachers, clergy, counselors, therapists, doctors, and the corrections system all become partners in rehabilitating students at various stages of their lives. There is no price that can be placed on the value of a successful teacher. Teachers are affecting the lives of children every day in multiple ways. Parents can name the individual teachers that shaped their lives and the teachers that are shaping their children's lives. How do we say, “thank-you” to these teachers? Is it about the money? Is it about the hall of fame? Is it about a bonus check? Is it about merit pay? Or is it about watching one of your students in twenty years doing something fantastic with their children or their students in their classroom. This type of reward defines your career and your mission as a teacher. The rewards come much later in life in places and at times you would never predict.
The art of teaching is about the spiritual love and the spiritual connection between teacher and student and the trust that results from that bonding. It is the highest level of communication, and as such, neither the teacher or the student forgets the love that such a bond generates in the teaching process. My prayer is that every teacher experiences this bonding with at least one student per year, and that every student experience this same bonding with at least one teacher during their K-12 schooling experience.
Teaching is not for the faint of heart. Teaching is for those who are willing to walk the walk everyday of their life. To be a role model for students means to be consistent with your values and your expectation. Students need role models and beyond their parents and immediate family their best hope is the local public school teachers.