The Age-Old Question. Teaching: Art or Science?
For several years, I read and evaluated applications from teachers interested in becoming the Michigan Teacher of Year. The application consists of various lengthy essays on important questions around the profession of teaching. One of the first questions asked candidates how they came to the classroom-- what motivated them to consider teaching?
Invariably, there would be one or two applicants who would explain that they'd always wanted to be a teacher, from the time they were very young children. They'd write: I'd line up my teddy bears/dolls/siblings and give them assignments! Playing school was my favorite game!
My personal response to these revelations? Not "Wow! Born to teach!" More like "predisposed toward authoritarianism."
I don't think there's a teaching gene. While would-be teachers may pursue the career because they're certain they will love it, genuinely excellent practice and enthusiasm for the daily routines of the classroom are hammered out over time. They don't emerge as a result of a package of innate abilities or temperament. They are learned--absorbed, honed, revised and tweaked, and occasionally dumped and retro-fitted, multiple times in a long-term teaching career. Good teaching is all about paying attention to your results.
Does that make proficient teaching a science? Saying that--teaching is more science than art--generally draws pushback, if not wrath, from accomplished teachers around the country, who understand expert teaching as artistry--a context-dependent blend of creativity, rich content, playfulness and love. Not a template to follow.
In my educator heart, I want to see teaching as an art. (I'm a musician, after all.) I believe in the metaphor of good teaching as jazz--a creative art, open to individual expression. Here's the thing, though: Jazz, that most improvisatory art, cannot be played without a solid understanding of rhythm, melody, chord construction, traditional stylistic conventions and plenty of technical facility, learned The Age-Old Question. Teaching: Art or Science? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:
