Speakout Columns
Teachers need encouragement, too
Sep 21, 2006 2:40 PM
Now that school has started up again, it’s good to be reminded that it’s not just students and parents who have to be ready. So do teachers, and these days that can be very hard.
Research tells us we need good teachers. How do we get them? How do we keep them? Answer: Not the way we are doing it now. Criticism and blame do not result in better teachers, only more discouraged teachers.
Contrary to a lot of popular thinking today, I believe that teachers (and I see a lot of them in action) are working harder and better than ever.
One of the biggest concerns in education today, not often discussed, is lack of trust. Teachers feel the loss of trust from parents and the wider public. It’s hurtful, it’s disappointing, and it results in low teacher morale and burnout.
It’s said that if you can’t take the heat you should get out of the kitchen. If that were the case, there would be no teachers and no classrooms. For teachers, heat comes not just from the students. That was the old days. These days it comes over the school walls from often unrealistic legislation and from parents with often unrealistic expectations.
Teacher accountability is a popular word today. What still needs to be explained to the public is that no matter how good the school is, it cannot do the job alone. Teachers should be accountable for teaching with enthusiasm, knowing their subjects, caring about their students. Yet, there are limits to teacher accountability, and they need to be understood.
How do we encourage teachers? Let me count same ways. Parents need to be more accountable for preparing children for school, supporting schooling and teaching, making sure kids eat and sleep and know that education is the most important work of their lives. Students need to be accountable, too, coming to school prepared, ready to learn, with a can-try, can-do attitude.
New teachers (actually all teachers) need and should be ready to receive help. Many new teachers are assigned to the toughest situations and plunged into the classroom. The door shuts behind them, and there is no one to help. Teacher turnover costs to school districts are high. The costs in teacher morale are even higher.
My first year as a teacher with easy-to-teach students and supportive parents was exceptional. It gave me the confidence to continue as a teacher. Reality hit in my second year. I began to learn what I didn’t know. I began to learn that just because I taught something doesn’t mean that it was learned. I began to learn that I needed help and that it was OK not to know all the answers. I actually had students who had trouble learning and I had trouble teaching. That’s when I had to start to transform myself into a teacher. But, I couldn’t have done it without the encouragement of my successful first year.
We’ve made great gains in our understanding about education. We know that what takes place at home makes a big difference in school. We’ve learned that kids come to schools not as empty vessels waiting to be filled up but with lots of differences, especially in behaviors and attitudes. We know that the early years are vitally important. We know that different kids are different kinds of learners.
Yet misconceptions persist, especially about educational accountability, and who is responsible for doing what. This results in blame and emotions that scare and discourage students and teachers.
Discouraged teachers are not effective teachers. We need teachers who are encouraged themselves and who can encourage their students. Encouragement is a powerful educational strategy, more than we’ve realized before, for adults as well as students.
Dorothy Rich is founder and president of the nonprofit Home and School Institute, MegaSkills Education Center in Washington. This article was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant.
