Teachers - You Must Understand Your Clients
In the article, The Good High School Teacher, Barnett Berry of Center for Teaching Quality makes a strong case for teachers understanding the “Knowledge of Learners in Social Context.” He writes:
First of all, the good school teacher must understand how students learn, and in particular how adolescents view the world. They must know how their students think about school subjects as well as how they can best make progress in acquiring knowledge and skill.
In other words, if you want to be able to motivate your students, you best understand what makes each of them tick. Being a strong believer of the importance of knowing each of my students well, I often stopped my teaching of math and physics and devoted some class time towards that concept. One particular activity I used with great success over the years was to share the the following essay then ask a few follow up questions. The essay was submitted by a high school student and prior to his teacher reading the piece the author committed suicide.
MAY YOUR SKY ALWAYS BE YELLOW
He always wanted to explain things
But no one cared
So he drew
Sometimes he would draw and it wasn’t anything
He wanted to carve it in stone
Or write it in the sky
He would lie out on the grass
And look up at the sky
And it would be only the sky and him that needed saying
And it was after that
He drew the picture
It was a beautiful picture
He kept it under his pillow
And would let no one see it
And he would look at it every night
And think about it
And when it was dark
And his eyes were closed
He could still see it
And it was all of him
And he loved it
When he started school he brought it with him
Not to show anyone but just to have it with him
Like a friend
It was funny about school
He sat in a square brown desk
Like all the other square brown desks
And he thought it should be red
And his room was a square brown room
Like all the other rooms
And it was tight and close
And stiff
He hated to hold the pencil and chalk
With his arms stiff and his feet flat on the floor
Stiff
With the teacher watching
And watching
The teacher came and smiled at him
She told him to wear a tie
Like all the other boys
He said he didn’t like them
And she said it didn’t matter
After that they drew
And he drew all yellow
And it was the way he felt about morning
And it was beautiful
The teacher came and smiled at him
“What’s this?” she said
“Why don’t you draw something like Ken’s drawing?”
“Isn’t that beautiful?”
After that his mother bought him a tie
And he always drew airplanes and rocket ships
Like everyone else
And he threw the old picture away
And when he lay out alone and looked out at the sky
It was big and blue and all of everything
But he wasn’t anymore
He was square inside and brown
And his hands were stiff
And he was like everyone else
And the things inside him that needed saying
Didn’t need it anymore
It had stopped pushing
It was crushed
Stiff
Like everything else.
The essay always provokes a strong reaction from teenagers. After having students read the piece I would not initially share with the students that the author committed suicide nor would I discuss any specific aspects of the piece with them. Instead, I would ask them to answer the following five questions, doing so in as much personal depth as they were willing to share.
Ascertaining What the Students Think
The first question I had students answer was to express to me what the author was trying to say and which aspects of the essay, if any, could they personally relate to? If they could not relate to it, what was it about the piece that made it meaningless to them?
The second question focused on the line “And he thought it should be red.” I asked students to speculate as to why the author thought his desk should be red (and not brown like the others)? And, if it were a school practice to make a desk your own, how might you choose to decorate/paint your desk?
The third was to focus in on the picture. I asked them what they thought might be on the author’s picture besides colors? And, if you as a student were to carry around a drawing, a picture, or a photo, one that you might keep under your pillow and call your best friend, what would your picture be of?
Fourth, have you as a student ever felt completely crushed? If so, what happened to make you feel that way? And how did you deal with those feelings?
And lastly, is there one thing inside of you that needs saying? Something you want everyone to hear and think about, something that just doesn’t seem to be as important to everyone else as it is to you? And when you try to say it does anyone pay attention?
Facilitate an Open Discussion
I would then facilitate an open discussion about the essay and the answers students wrote down to the questions. It was always amazing as to how some could not relate at all to wanting to decorate their desk or carry a picture as a best friend. However, it was also amazing as a teacher to learn who did relate to these issues. Most importantly, we always would get into a deep discussion about what in fact did matter to them about school and about life.
Later, after collecting the answers, I would take a few minutes to compare the personal answers I received with my view of that student. Invariably, I would see many of them in a new light, particularly those that were so quiet and reserved it was often difficult to know what in fact was meaningful to them.
This was just one activity that I used and the questions are by no means necessarily the best - other teachers with more creativity could come up with even better ones I am sure. Of course, as a teacher I had to be prepared to deal with the occasional heavy hitting case of where a student opens up and gives information that leads to the impression he/she may need help from professionals.
But as Berry notes, the “knowledge of learners in social context” and “in particular how adolescents view the world” is critical if you are to be an effective teacher.
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