My Life as a Performing Artist

[telescopes]

I don't know if this makes sense on your end, telescopes, but I think the worst change I've seen in my incoming students over the decades (yikes) is that they have become extremely risk-averse. So terrified of being wrong that they are unwilling or unable to take the kind of risks that are necessary for the learning process.

A doctor friend of mine who teaches at UCLA medical has this story to tell:

Doctor Friend: Who can come up to the board and explain what type of rhythm pattern they see on this EKG?

(No takers)

Doctor Friend: Okay, I would like you, you, and you. Come up and tell us what you see.

Three medical students go to the board. This is UCLA med school. All three give the wrong answer.

NEXT DAY

Doctor Friend to Me: You know what happened the next day. The dean comes to my office and tells me that all three complained about going to the board. They said they had the right to opt out and that I was guilty of micro aggressions.

Me: What did you say to the dean?

Doctor Friend: I told him to fuck off!

 

[Skatutakee]

A doctor friend of mine who teaches at UCLA medical has this story to tell:

Doctor Friend: Who can come up to the board and explain what type of rhythm pattern they see on this EKG?

(No takers)

Doctor Friend: Okay, I would like you, you, and you. Come up and tell us what you see.

Three medical students go to the board. This is UCLA med school. All three give the wrong answer.

NEXT DAY

Doctor Friend to Me: You know what happened the next day. The dean comes to my office and tells me that all three complained about going to the board. They said they had the right to opt out and that I was guilty of micro aggressions.

Me: What did you say to the dean?

Doctor Friend: I told him to fuck off!

Your friend has the right attitude.

 

[telescopes]

Is it safe to assume that there has been a loss in the critical-thinking and reasoning skills compared to when you first started teaching?

Yes, there has. I started in 1986. The slide was already well on its way. But, by 2001, with No Child Left Behind, it quickly took a fast downward drive. And never recovered. The political right used test scores to make the case for privatization and competition. Today, the left uses public schools to indoctrinate and foster social and political re-education.

Dear MODS or anyone else who might see what I've written as political - the above statement is not in anyway depicting a political point of view, but is defendable based on current educational practices and Department of Education guidelines. Numerous lawsuits have limited or done away with suspensions and expulsions, retention, as well as using grades to make educational determinations about what a student needs or requires. We provide students AND their families three meals a day in some places. We use CPS to monitor and control not just how a child is disciplined at home, but what they are taught by their parents as well. I can go on with examples and if required, show educational research to back up my statements, but I am retiring, and while I was a college professor and hold a doctorate in educational leadership, I just don't want to do any more research.

No where in my stories listed above have I taken a stand on gender identity, sexual identity, or whatever. I merely have pointed out the things that have been happening and the changes that are occurring. Each reader can determine for themselves what to make of it.

 

[telescopes]

We should make teachers all smoke pipes again. And, if they don't... we'll force them.

As a substitute teacher, before I was actually hired as a classroom teacher, I was smoking a pipe in an alternative education school while I was teaching. The principal called me in afterwards and asked me not to do that again. I was still in college and thought it was cool to smoke a pipe while I taught.

 

[telescopes]

Is part of what is happening today traceable to standardized testing, and the drive to conform, rather than nurturing creativity?

That is a great question:

There is something I would like to say about nurturing and creativity. The school district forced me to work the gifted students- I say forced because I had told them I preferred working with the more struggling students; however, in their wisdom, they knew what I could do with the gifted students. And that was, I could do for them the same as I did for my less "gifted".

Nurturing - Authentic nurture results when a student is placed into a situation beyond their ability to succeed by themselves, and then provided the necessary scaffolds to succeed. The teacher removes the scaffolds with care (nurture) and reinforces the student with praise that reflects any real success they are having at the moment. But unless the bar has been set high and has a level of demand that requires the students to provide real effort, it isn't nurturing, it is the opposite, a demeaning opportunity to succeed at something you can already do with ease.

Creativity - I routinely and daily challenged everything a student was taught and required them to provide and find solutions that were not in the text books or ran contrary to what they had been previously taught.

For instance, "Why do your teachers insist that you add an es to fox to make it plural and don't tell me it is because it ends in an x?"

What is the role of the extra "s" in Mrs. Jone's car?

What happens to the answer of a division problem when one doesn't multiply the reciprocal? Why is the answer the same either way?

How come I can effortlessly make triangles with more than 180 degrees all day long?

Find the area of a circle using only Length x width.

Obviously, I could go on, but you get the idea. Creativity is the result of not just finding a solution, but better understanding the problem in the first place. Most teachers can help students find solutions, but few, and I mean few - I taught teachers for over 17 years, can actually understand what the problem really is and what it is asking the solver to do by engaging with it.

One thing I did from time to time was to give a test and supply all of the answers. I then required the students to explain how those answers were not just derived, but were valid.

These were the tests most people failed.

And now you know why I probably drink too much.

 

[Trainpipeman]

That is a great question:

There is something I would like to say about nurturing and creativity. The school district forced me to work the gifted students- I say forced because I had told them I preferred working with the more struggling students; however, in their wisdom, they knew what I could do with the gifted students. And that was, I could do for them the same as I did for my less "gifted".

Nurturing - Authentic nurture results when a student is placed into a situation beyond their ability to succeed by themselves, and then provided the necessary scaffolds to succeed. The teacher removes the scaffolds with care (nurture) and reinforces the student with praise that reflects any real success they are having at the moment. But unless the bar has been set high and has a level of demand that requires the students to provide real effort, it isn't nurturing, it is the opposite, a demeaning opportunity to succeed at something you can already do with ease.

Creativity - I routinely and daily challenged everything a student was taught and required them to provide and find solutions that were not in the text books or ran contrary to what they had been previously taught.

For instance, "Why do your teachers insist that you add an es to fox to make it plural and don't tell me it is because it ends in an x?"

What is the role of the extra "s" in Mrs. Jone's car?

What happens to the answer of a division problem when one doesn't multiply the reciprocal? Why is the answer the same either way?

How come I can effortlessly make triangles with more than 180 degrees all day long?

Find the area of a circle using only Length x width.

Obviously, I could go on, but you get the idea. Creativity is the result of not just finding a solution, but better understanding the problem in the first place. Most teachers can help students find solutions, but few, and I mean few - I taught teachers for over 17 years, can actually understand what the problem really is and what it is asking the solver to do by engaging with it.

One thing I did from time to time was to give a test and supply all of the answers. I then required the students to explain how those answers were not just derived, but were valid.

These were the tests most people failed.

And now you know why I probably drink too much.

Thank you for your explaination. You sound like a truly, caring teacher.

 

[Merton]

Congratulations on your career and retirement. May it be a long and happy one. I served as a high school teacher and school counselor for a dozen years and, later, as an adjunct law professor for more than twenty ( a few years ago law school enrollment plummeted around the country and, at most Law Schools, this resulted in the layoff of many, many adjuncts). Teaching is a noble profession and i treasure my years in education. There is a long tradition in the Law that students reward a professor whose class was both challenging and enjoyable with a hearty round of applause at the end of the semester. It always meant a great deal to me to receive that applauseand it was always touching and affirming at the same time. I relish the memory and frequently left the lecture hall (sometimes with a hundred or more students) with a flushed face and a lump in my throat. Good on you...

 

[Jaylotw]

My girlfriend is a college professor (PhD in Ecology) and I’ve worked with and met a many of her students, both as an employee of the college (a non teaching role, but a mentorship type role) and on a personal level, as well as hiring a few and managing them on the farm . Wow...

I don’t know what happened to the kids 10-15 years younger than me. Almost all of them have absolutely no life skills anymore. They don’t know what pliers are, or how to make scrambled eggs, and as others have mentioned are so risk-averse as to be effectively stunted once unleashed into the wider world and critical thinking skills are non-existent in many. Not all of them, I’ve met a few who are exemplary people, but a good chunk are like 10-year-olds who drink beer.
My graduating class in high school was the last to get HomeEc, and shop. I use those skills every day of my life, and it’s a shame to see so many young people completely lost.

This may just be cane-shaking on my part, as I’ve reached an age where anyone 25 or younger is a kid to me, and the world changes, but I think it’s the focus on test scores and

Congratulations on your retirement @telescopes, you’ve made a difference in the lives of many, and you deserve to be proud. It sounds like you’ve consistently done the best you could for the kids.

 

[mingc]

School teachers are often maligned and often for very good reasons. After 36 years in the education industry, I am hanging up the proverbial chalk holder. I've worked as a teacher, principal, teaching coach, professor, and finished off as a teacher, but through it all, I've had one real piece of advice for any aspiring teacher: teach for the applause.

i still remember the first lesson I taught to a group of 10 year olds and received a standing ovation at the end of the lesson. It was on the use of commas in making a noun a possessive. I was shocked that they responded that way and then the thought hit me, why shouldn't they expect a lesson so good each day that the natural inclination is to stand up, applaud, and whoop and holler with delight. So I started to change how I taught. It was my stage afterall, and I was in a sense, a performer. I changed not only how I taught, but I changed my own expectations of my audience. If I could keep them entertained and provide them with something they valued, the students would pay attention, feel valued themselves, and applaud.

it doesn't happen every day, but I did see a change in my students. During the last five years of being a classroom teacher before I began working as a teaching coach for new teachers, I had the highest rate of perfect test scores on standardized tests in possibly the entire county. All from students in the lowest income bracket and all of whom came from homes where English was not the primary language.

I don't write this to brag. As I learned long ago, public schools don't value teachers with a high batting average; they care more about perception and whether the teacher supports the administration and the idiocy of the school's curriculum. I write this in the hopes that if there are any new teachers reading this, know that if you expect more, ask for more, and teach like every lesson is in a theater or a comedy club, you will get more.

Congratulations on your retirement. Teaching seems to be a thankless profession. You sound like you were one of the rare ones who actually imparted skills and know how, rather than simply reinforce what the kids already knew.

 

[telescopes]

Congratulations on your retirement. Teaching seems to be a thankless profession. You sound like you were one of the rare ones who actually imparted skills and know how, rather than simply reinforce what the kids already knew.

Thank you. According to my students, who now number in the 1000s, they say I was the teacher who made the biggest difference. I'd like to think it was the way I imparted content, but ...

During the week, I tell the students the following....

"You are important. You are here for a reason. You have a purpose and the world would be less if you were not in it. You are loved and valued. It matters what happens to you. You matter."

My administrators always winced at the "you are loved" part, but I maintained that no one can never hear enough that they are loved. It was the least I could tell them.

I was aware that for many of my students, they would not hear the words, "I love you or you are important" for weeks at a time when going home.

It's hard for a kid to hate or disrespect their teacher when the teacher does neither of those to him or her but stands with love and kindness.

My teaching style was akin to Mick from the Rocky movies. I could be overly tough even if I was caring.