I recently read
with interest a mother's commentary that was
published in our local newspaper. The
piece, "When Teachers Show They Care,"
complimented a particular public school teacher
who was having a major impact on her son's
success in school.
It was good that
the public was again reminded about the valuable
job teachers perform, albeit increasingly under
more difficult and challenging conditions.
And, we in the profession should always remember
the power that we do have to affect the lives of
our students.
But the title
of the piece concerns me. Is it necessary
for teachers to work harder and spend more of
their own personal time in order to "prove" that
they truly care about their students?
Is this an unspoken
assumption held by the public?
Would this teacher be an "uncaring"
teacher if he had not necessarily been able or
willing to meet each and every week outside of
class to help this child, but simply did his
very professional best in class to meet the
needs of his students? I think not.
There seems
to be a general assumption that the number one
person who needs to "care" in the education
process is the teacher. I believe that
most teachers do care about what they do, and
how they provide instruction in their classes.
And, they do care about the academic success of
the students that they teach. Most
teachers I know work overtime in an attempt to
help their students. The teacher, however,
isn't necessarily the most important person who
needs to care.
Ultimately in
my view, the primary person who needs to care is
the student. He or she needs to care
enough to get a good night's sleep prior to a
school day, needs to care enough to come
everyday to school, needs to care enough that he
or she values an education for what it will do
for his or her future, needs to care enough to
behave respectfully and responsibly in class,
needs to care enough to pay close attention to
instruction, and needs to care enough to
actually do the schoolwork assigned; because,
education is an active process requiring the
actual involvement of each student.
I quote teacher Phillip Brown of
San Francisco who wrote in the San Francisco
Chronicle, (May 9, 2010) "…about
students failing … the two main causes are…
(though it's) not politically correct to mention
them, but they are still true.
I'm talking about the responsibility of
the parent to help the student learn and the
responsibility of the student to learn.
The most brilliant instructor in the
world can present information, knowledge and
content to the student, but that brilliant
instructor cannot make the student learn.
That is the student's responsibility.
Education is a contract between the
teacher and the student, and the student's job
is to learn. It's the old
saying, you can lead a horse to water but you
cannot make him drink. It is
the same with education.
Knowledge can be presented to the student.
Once that is done, the student needs to do the
work that results in learning."
Unfortunately, teachers today find too many
students who don't care enough about school to
obtain a quality education. Many are
easily distracted. Some come to class
tired from lack of sleep. Many students
are lazy and unmotivated. Many make bad
choices, including refusing to do their class
work, much less doing homework, no matter how
much their teacher warns them of the resulting
consequences or tries to motivate them.
Many have "learned" (and we
unintentionally "teach" them) that no matter
what they do or don't do in elementary school,
they will be promoted to the next level and a
more difficult set of standards regardless of
whether they have mastered the "essential"
standards (that's what we call them in
California)
of the previous grade level.
So why do any work? Hence, the
great number of students failing courses in
their freshman year in high school. In
addition, many students view school only
as an opportunity to continually socialize
rather than to be on task. Many
have a misguided sense of entitlement, or have
been endlessly enabled.
While saying
that, it is also unfortunate that not all
students have parents who adequately support or
are involved in their child's education.
Some children unfortunately must contend
with a dysfunctional situation at home.
And this also is bad, because the next
most important person in the educational process
(one could argue the most important in practical
terms) is the parent. To be a parent is to
be a teacher. Overall, it
doesn't matter most what teachers do -- what
matters most is what parents do.
As some have noted, a great predictor of
a child's academic success is the degree of
parental involvement.
Parenting is
a challenging job. It is the parent who is
charged with the task of raising a child
properly. It is the parent who really has
the power of motivation, more so than the
teacher. Parents have the "carrot" to
reward and the "stick" to punish their child in
order to motivate him or her to do the right
thing. Classroom teachers really are
limited in their power to provide motivation,
yet I continually hear from many, even in the
education establishment, that it is teachers who
need to find a way to motivate students.
Like all
students, it is inevitable that at some point
that this mother's child who was struggling in
class, who was able to do the work but who was
not highly motivated, is going to come upon some
new tasks in his class that he will find
challenging. He will need to
pay attention, practice, ask questions, and get
feedback from his teacher. He will need to
make an effort to do the work, and will need to
have the fortitude to struggle, and to keep at
it even if it is difficult. Whatever his
issues in school, he will need to focus on his
improvement and overcome his propensity to
become distracted. He may have to work
harder at this than other children.
Of course, children being who they are, this is
more easily said than done. But this
attitude and work ethic needs to be promoted not
only by teachers but by each child's parents
from day one. Ultimately,
the road to success for our children will be
made easier if they themselves are taught to
value and care about their education, and if
parents realize the instrumental role they play
in making this happen in concert with the effort
by the teacher in the classroom.