What Teachers Know
"What about the teachers unions who insist on this 19th century educational process? We take summers off because that's when people used to farm and stuff because teachers want to go on vacation."
Matt Lewis on Real Time with Bill Maher (7/12/13)
Working with a national non-profit on teacher leadership issues awhile back, the CEO introduced me to a young teacher leader by telling me that she gave her students five minutes to talk before beginning classroom instruction. "Genius!" he said, beaming at the teacher. "She lets kids finish their conversations before demanding their attention!"
Well...OK. It's a useful strategy, and I'm always happy to see novice teachers develop workable ways of engaging their particular kids. But the comment speaks more to what non-teachers see as pedagogical brilliance than a truly ground-breaking idea. This was on full display in Jay Mathews' blog Inside the Class of America's Best Teacher, wherein he quotes--at considerable length--Rafe Esquith's conversation with a student who wants to use the restroom.
With all due respect to Esquith, whose work I greatly admire, I'm not sure that his method of establishing bathroom routines and expectations is a) evidence that Esquith is the best teacher in America or b) workable for any other teacher. That's the thing about the craft
