Teaching is an Affair of The Heart by John Thompson
I am honored to feature educator John Thompson on the blog today. He and I met via Twitter, and he is a huge advocate of student-centered reform. More than that, he too believes that more compassion, love, and gratitude in the classroom will make a huge difference in schools across this nation.
John shares a little bit about his early days as a teacher below, as well as his view on teaching with open hearts, open minds, and open arms.
During my first semester teaching in a neighborhood school, I recognized that it had already become a calling. Davina (as I will call her) did not ask permission to interrupt when I was in the middle of a sentence; she just got up and walked across the room. I kept talking, I wondering what was in her mind as she went to the far back corner. This class leader acted as if she owned the place, but then again, there are worse things than students taking over their own room. She took a seat next to the only white kid in the room, a new transfer. Davina put her hand on the girl’s hand and said, “Honey, you look scared. Don’t worry. You will be alright.”
Over the next two decades, I learned that the first rule of schooling should be: Listen to the students and they will teach you how to teach them. The kids also taught me that if we build on our kids’ moral consciousness, our democracy will be alright.
When I attended public school, my teachers debated whether their job was to “teach the subject” or “teach the student.” Those who sought to “teach the student” often argued that education was an affair of “the Heart,” as much as of “the Head.” It was inconceivable that this perennial debate would ever produce a clear-cut winner, much less an outcome where all teachers must define the job in one way or another.
Today, too many educators have settled on the simple answer that their job is to “teach the subject” in schools devoted to “the Head.” Teaching to the intellect is important, and we must welcome educators who love to teach skills and facts. Schools cannot afford to exclude the talents of adults who see instruction in subject matter as their way of demonstrating their commitment to students. In my experience, though, the better rock on which to build our schools is “the Heart.”
We cannot trick kids into concentrating and learning for mastery. Teachers should heed historian David McCullough’s advice and show students what we love. And we must pay equal attention to what they love. The rocks upon which real learning can be built are the moral impulses and the values that are loved by both adults and students.
Early in my career, as our lessons approached closure, the kids knew what was about to happen, and often I would hear from around the room, “Here comes the Jesse Jackson speech.” As Reverend Jackson became less omnipresent, the phrase changed, and the Teaching is an Affair of The Heart by John Thompson | M. Shannon Hernandez: