Teacher Evaluations, Grouchiness, and Rigor
Will, the grade school principal, asked me today if I would be willing to spend time observing each of the teachers at the grade school and evaluate what I observe. I joked about having to be in a grouchy mood to do that. What I really meant was that I'd have to be stern with myself to work up the gumption to say anything negative even if I thought it was necessary.
Somewhere I'm sure there is a checklist that professional evaluators use in such cases. I wonder what is on those lists. I wonder if a person with my renegade ideas on education is qualified to critique a traditional and normal classroom teacher.
*******************
Over supper tonight I remembered a dream I had several years ago. I was near tears during part of the dream and woke up feeling exhausted. In my dream, I was facing a new school year, and I was the teacher for one of the grade school classrooms. I did not want the job, and all I could think was that I would have to find a way to make the school year tolerable for myself and the students.
Then I got an idea. I got the students to help me, and we shoved all the desks to the edges of the classroom, facing the wall. Then we brought in several large tables and set them up in the middle of the room. We put chairs around the table, one for each student and one for me. I set up camp at that table with my teaching supplies, and told my students that we would spend the year around that table, working together as much as possible. They would keep their supplies in their individual desks, and we would use their books when we needed them, but we were going to learn interesting things, and much of it would not be from their books.
In my dream, what I had done, in effect, was to transfer to school what I had done around the dining room table with my boys when they were school age. In the classroom in my dream we were going to act like a family, even though we were forced to be away from our homes.
It's a shame that my dream did not include all the details of how to implement such a classroom strategy, because I think it was actually quite a remarkable idea.
*************************
Since Will talked to me today I also remembered a recent conversation with Joel and Hilda about rigor in educational programs, and Joel disagreed with me. Imagine. I said I thought rigor was highly overrated. He thought it was a good thing. I usually think that when people disagree with me they just don't really understand my viewpoint or they would surely see the wisdom in my position, so I explained my position in a torrent of words, just as I will explain now.
It's not that I object to expecting a lot of students. I just think it's unwise to convey to students the idea that the most important commitment they have is to their school work. When educators take pride in their rigorous programs, I'm not much impressed by it. I suspect that sometimes it may be a smoke screen for what is actually empire building and consolidation of power in educational institutions--anything but a humble desire to serve for others' benefit.
How many times have you heard a teacher remind departing students to "remember to be available tonight for whatever your parents might need from you." Or "I hope this weekend all of you will find time to prepare well for your Sunday School class." Or even "I understand there's a youth group activity tonight. I hope you all will be able to make it."
Teachers and school administrators are usually very good people. They don't want to turn out unbalanced products, so they tweak here and add there to fortify weak areas wherever they appear. In the process they require an ever increasing time commitment from students. Why doesn't anyone think of just backing off on school demands and giving students time to participate in more outside-of-school learning and service opportunities? That would be a reasonable way to promote balance in the lives of students.
************************
At least a dozen years ago when Arlyn was headed to NYC to teach, I remember telling him that I hoped he would remember that part of his job was to keep giving his students back to their parents at every opportunity. It wasn't a very fleshed-out admonition, and I don't know if he understood what I meant, but I suppose he does now. His fourth child was born last week.
I could have added that I don't mean to underestimate the importance of a teacher's contribution to a student's life. But students never really belong to teachers. They belong first of all to God, and then to their families. In time they will take their place in the church and community, and in the wider world. Teachers who forget this lose a sense for where they themselves fit into the bigger picture.
They tend to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. They are, pure and simple, assisting with duties assigned by God to parents. Those parents, for some reason (perhaps a good and right reason), are looking to a teacher to do the job they can't or won't handle primarily by themselves.
In an ideal world, everyone would understand this, and parents would be ever-so-grateful for the help they get with carrying out their responsibility. Teachers would take care to be faithful to their parent-employers' agenda--not primarily concerned with how supportive the parents will be of the teacher's agenda.
The reality is that parents who don't embrace the demands of their own job are not likely to appreciate it very much when they get help with that job. Teachers who are party to the deception about who is primarily responsible for a child's training are not blameless. Parents who put teachers on a pedestal are not blameless either--as if teachers are astride white horses, doing a job not suited for lesser mortals. That's simply another way that parents sometimes excuse themselves from embracing their own responsibility.
****************
If Will reads what I've written here, I wonder if he'll still want me to critique his teaching staff. He probably won't believe that bit about my having to muster up the gumption to say something critical. He'll read this and think it looks like it all comes naturally.
Really. I am much better at saying negative things when I don't have to do it to a real live person in front of me. And yes. I do love to share my opinions. Maybe when I do so on Teacher Evaluation Day I'll be able to refrain from detailing the whole load of my stellar insights. But this I will try to work in: "Remember that part of your job is to keep giving your students back to their parents at every opportunity." Someone should have told me that when I started teaching more than 35 years ago.
P.S. I do think highly of the teachers at the grade school, and I am not plotting to cut them down. I hope to be encouraging and helpful in every way.
Somewhere I'm sure there is a checklist that professional evaluators use in such cases. I wonder what is on those lists. I wonder if a person with my renegade ideas on education is qualified to critique a traditional and normal classroom teacher.
*******************
Over supper tonight I remembered a dream I had several years ago. I was near tears during part of the dream and woke up feeling exhausted. In my dream, I was facing a new school year, and I was the teacher for one of the grade school classrooms. I did not want the job, and all I could think was that I would have to find a way to make the school year tolerable for myself and the students.
Then I got an idea. I got the students to help me, and we shoved all the desks to the edges of the classroom, facing the wall. Then we brought in several large tables and set them up in the middle of the room. We put chairs around the table, one for each student and one for me. I set up camp at that table with my teaching supplies, and told my students that we would spend the year around that table, working together as much as possible. They would keep their supplies in their individual desks, and we would use their books when we needed them, but we were going to learn interesting things, and much of it would not be from their books.
In my dream, what I had done, in effect, was to transfer to school what I had done around the dining room table with my boys when they were school age. In the classroom in my dream we were going to act like a family, even though we were forced to be away from our homes.
It's a shame that my dream did not include all the details of how to implement such a classroom strategy, because I think it was actually quite a remarkable idea.
*************************
Since Will talked to me today I also remembered a recent conversation with Joel and Hilda about rigor in educational programs, and Joel disagreed with me. Imagine. I said I thought rigor was highly overrated. He thought it was a good thing. I usually think that when people disagree with me they just don't really understand my viewpoint or they would surely see the wisdom in my position, so I explained my position in a torrent of words, just as I will explain now.
It's not that I object to expecting a lot of students. I just think it's unwise to convey to students the idea that the most important commitment they have is to their school work. When educators take pride in their rigorous programs, I'm not much impressed by it. I suspect that sometimes it may be a smoke screen for what is actually empire building and consolidation of power in educational institutions--anything but a humble desire to serve for others' benefit.
How many times have you heard a teacher remind departing students to "remember to be available tonight for whatever your parents might need from you." Or "I hope this weekend all of you will find time to prepare well for your Sunday School class." Or even "I understand there's a youth group activity tonight. I hope you all will be able to make it."
Teachers and school administrators are usually very good people. They don't want to turn out unbalanced products, so they tweak here and add there to fortify weak areas wherever they appear. In the process they require an ever increasing time commitment from students. Why doesn't anyone think of just backing off on school demands and giving students time to participate in more outside-of-school learning and service opportunities? That would be a reasonable way to promote balance in the lives of students.
************************
At least a dozen years ago when Arlyn was headed to NYC to teach, I remember telling him that I hoped he would remember that part of his job was to keep giving his students back to their parents at every opportunity. It wasn't a very fleshed-out admonition, and I don't know if he understood what I meant, but I suppose he does now. His fourth child was born last week.
I could have added that I don't mean to underestimate the importance of a teacher's contribution to a student's life. But students never really belong to teachers. They belong first of all to God, and then to their families. In time they will take their place in the church and community, and in the wider world. Teachers who forget this lose a sense for where they themselves fit into the bigger picture.
They tend to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. They are, pure and simple, assisting with duties assigned by God to parents. Those parents, for some reason (perhaps a good and right reason), are looking to a teacher to do the job they can't or won't handle primarily by themselves.
In an ideal world, everyone would understand this, and parents would be ever-so-grateful for the help they get with carrying out their responsibility. Teachers would take care to be faithful to their parent-employers' agenda--not primarily concerned with how supportive the parents will be of the teacher's agenda.
The reality is that parents who don't embrace the demands of their own job are not likely to appreciate it very much when they get help with that job. Teachers who are party to the deception about who is primarily responsible for a child's training are not blameless. Parents who put teachers on a pedestal are not blameless either--as if teachers are astride white horses, doing a job not suited for lesser mortals. That's simply another way that parents sometimes excuse themselves from embracing their own responsibility.
****************
If Will reads what I've written here, I wonder if he'll still want me to critique his teaching staff. He probably won't believe that bit about my having to muster up the gumption to say something critical. He'll read this and think it looks like it all comes naturally.
Really. I am much better at saying negative things when I don't have to do it to a real live person in front of me. And yes. I do love to share my opinions. Maybe when I do so on Teacher Evaluation Day I'll be able to refrain from detailing the whole load of my stellar insights. But this I will try to work in: "Remember that part of your job is to keep giving your students back to their parents at every opportunity." Someone should have told me that when I started teaching more than 35 years ago.
P.S. I do think highly of the teachers at the grade school, and I am not plotting to cut them down. I hope to be encouraging and helpful in every way.
posted by Mrs. I at
6:25 PM
2 Comments:
Gerald has many evaluation sheets if you want to borrow. :) A lot of that happens at this teacher training institute.
What about families who very seriously carve out time for their children's school work? In fact besides daily-weekly chores, not a lot is required of them because this is the season of their life where school takes priority. I kind of admire those people and yet have wondered if it isn't just a tad bit overboard. I enjoyed reading your perspective on that and will have to mull over it some more.
By
Anonymous, at 2/04/2009
Cathy, thanks for writing. After I wrote this post I decided I would write my own evaluation sheet before I looked at anyone else's--mostly to help focus my thinking on what I valued most.
I'm not sure if the situation you describe in the second paragraph is for a family that homeschools or chooses classroom schooling. Either way, I don't think school should ever be the only important thing happening to a child at any stage of life. The main difference between the two options is that, at home, many more of the decisions are in the parents' hands. Because of this, the mix can be more purposefully designed to reflect balance, at least according to the parents' idea of what that looks like.
By
Mrs. I, at 2/04/2009
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