Recently I re-watched
a cheesy, feel-good movie titled The
Nanny Express. It was about the “battle” of two motherless children to ward
off the endless stream of nannies their dad paraded through their lives. They
did it with not-so-practical jokes having to do with laundry mishaps, burnt
dinners, sprinklers, a locked front door, and a pet rat. The last nanny in the
cavalcade was a young woman with a passion as a teacher. She put herself
through school while caring for her father, working, and starting an evening
tutoring session for kids at her local church. In the last few moments of the
flick, she was pictured in front of her classroom talking about fairy tales.
She asked her students how every fairy tale began. They recited in unison, “Once
upon a time.” She followed up with how every fairy tale ended. This time they
responded, “Happily ever after.” Although The
Nanny Express does seem to end that way, unfortunately life is seldom a
fairy tale…especially not the life of a 21st Century Tennessee
school teacher.
I’ve been an
educator most of my life first as a high school English teacher, then a principal,
and now as a college education professor. During those four decades I’ve
watched the fairy tale decay from the thrill of victory making a difference in
the lives of children to the agony of defeat as teachers face the often mundane
tasks involved in teaching to a test. I’ve been entering classrooms since I
started kindergarten at age five. That’s now over 60 years of being part of
that magical kingdom of pedagogy (the art of teaching and learning) where
passion and compassion once met in the interaction between teacher and student.
That magic occurs all too infrequently today.
Teachers who
once used their creativity to reach the brains and hearts of their students as
they brought fun and variety into class each day are now faced with misplaced accountability
by being graded on their students’ test results. They live and work in a world
of acronyms: TEAM, PAARC, CCSS, CAEP, STEM, and others. College-bound students
face a nearly endless pathway through tests ominously called such names as
PLAN, EXPLORE, ACT, PSAT, and SAT. That last describing what their day in the
classrooms has too often become. Gone from the description of pedagogy is the
wise reminder, “Hands-on is always better than sit-and-listen!” What
legislators, school administrators, and (unfortunately too often) many teachers
have forgotten is why “we” became teachers in the first place: love for
teaching and love of kids (all ages). One morning at about 3:15 a.m., the
thought came to me, “What if Dorothy had been a school teacher?”
When Dorothy awoke from the tornado and
discovered she and Toto weren’t in Kansas anymore, she began a long journey on
that yellow-brick road to the magical kingdom of Oz. Today’s educators (as well
as those setting the standards for travel along the road to teaching in those
emerald classrooms) must rediscover the brain, heart, and courage that brought
so many to the education profession in the beginning. We saw the munchkins; we
felt the need to return “home” to our classrooms and excite the children. We made
connections along the way and didn’t hesitate until none of our students were
behind. That took caring and compassion and reaching out to each child to form
a professional relationship in and sometimes outside of class wherein smiles
were exchanged for light bulbs exploding during the pedagogical process. The
magic is still in the ART of exciting teaching. A few years ago my wife and I
attended an educational retreat in Texas called Capturing Kids Hearts. It inspired
us with the challenge, “You must capture a kid’s heart to get to his head.”
How then do we
return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and restore the ART to the
pedagogy. We must focus on the teacher’s role in that ART. Yes, I have
capitalized that several times to prepare you for that acronym (not all
acronyms are evil). The ART of returning the magic to the classroom is Attention, Respect, and Teaching.
Hillary Swank
as Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers
and Matthew Perry as the title character in The
Ron Clark Story both discovered that, no matter the passion, the teacher
must gain the attention of the students and earn their respect before real
teaching can make any difference. I show these movies, as well as several
others that are based on true stories, in my education classes to demonstrate
that the magic of the fairy tale can reemerge in classrooms but only with the
teacher as catalyst.
Erin Gruwell
tried to teach internal rhyme and grammar functions to her diverse 9th
grade class made up of three gangs, a few strays, and one white kid. She failed
miserably until she got their attention via a stand-up activity she called the
Line Game. That paved the way for commonality and unity among the students who
learned that their “crazy English teacher” Ms. Gruwell really cared. Their classroom
and time together became a sanctuary in an otherwise fearful environment of violence,
drugs, and drive-by shootings. She gave them the respect they so eagerly craved
thereby earning respect from them. Test scores and writing ability soared! Erin
Gruwell has now compiled/authored three books that have become a foundation for
excellence in teaching everywhere.
Ron Clark,
national teacher of the year in 2001, used chocolate milk chugging to get the
attention of his 6th grade class in Harlem before he could earn
their respect with his compassion for them and his passion for teaching. He
then taught this diverse class to become a unified family in such a magical way
that their test scores individually and as a group exceeded any other students
in the district. He has now begun his Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta as a haven
for at-risk kids and a training ground for teachers. He has revitalized the ART
of pedagogy in the school and the thrill of victory in the classroom; and the
students are having fun while learning amazing concepts and critical thinking
skills. I believe that Andy Griffith described those methods in the Andy Griffith Show episode entitled Andy Discovers America when he got Opie
and his friends “back in the mood” for history by telling them a “little tale”
and putting “a little extra jam on the bread.” That’s what the ART of pedagogy
is all about: teaching that both enlightens and entertains.
As Dorothy searches
for the road back to her classroom in Kansas, she does meet several witches. One
is very good; two are very bad (one alive and one dead, if you recall). The
acronyms mentioned a few paragraphs ago are not witches although their
attainment can often derail the best intentions of educators and legislators. The
fact is that, with a little tweaking, they can be a positive rather than negative
mainstay of teaching and education at all levels. The real problem is the
manner in which some of these have been implemented and the way assessment is
used. The TEAM evaluation model does hold teachers accountable as never before;
but I see most of the assessed areas as necessary to the pedagogy. The Common
Core State Standards have met with much resistance; however, they do emphasize
critical thinking skills that are essential to college and career and often
overlooked in the scope and sequence of the K-12 curriculum.
With teacher
morale at an all-time-low and burn-out on the rise, teachers, administrators,
and those who are setting the standards for education must revisit the task of
teaching. Of paramount importance is the pedagogy that actually occurs in the
classroom. The teacher must be re-inspired and re-motivated to become again the
creator and guide to exciting methods. Rather than spending funds on new and
improved textbooks, other curricular materials, or technology (not that any of
these are necessarily bad) let’s budget for teachers to be exposed to the ART. Send
teachers to a Capturing Kids Hearts retreat by the Flippen Group or to spend
one to three days at the Ron Clark Academy watching, learning, remembering, and
interacting with the children . Those leaders will also come to campus and
inspire teachers and principals onsite. Regular exposure to demonstrations by
teachers who have not lost their fire is one method to rekindle the blaze that always
has made all the difference in the classroom. Sing the song and get on the road
with Dorothy, Toto, Erin, and Ron. We must restore the magic to the classroom!
