A teacher is a very valuable profession. Without teachers there would be very little learned. We would have to rely strictly on our own experiences. A teacher is someone who can communicate a thought or an idea to another in a way that it can be duplicated. Having said that, it would be safe to say that we are all teachers. We all have something to offer whether it be a life experience or a knowledge of a particular subject.
The quality of teaching would be based on how well that person could deliver that knowledge so that it could be duplicated and applied. If you had 2 people who were going to tell you what to do with a knife and fork. Both people could tell you what was needed in order to understand their purpose. One could be a lengthy explanation with a lot of data irrelevant to the subject. The other could be exactly what you needed to know. The end product would be to be able to make use of the knife and fork.
A good teacher would be someone who has knowledge of communication, how to get something across and someone who is open to all kinds of learning abilities. He/she would need to know how to communicate his expertise to all different levels. It is not enough to get a piece of paper that states you are a teacher.
There are many great educators who perform such abilities in their teaching methods they are warm, kind and interested in you and want you to succeed. They do not sit at a desk but are active in the classroom. They make it their business to learn each individual child's or adults strengths and weaknesses and adapt their teaching method to that child. They project worthiness, it is important to them that each individual is not labeled or left behind. They take full responsibility of their position. It is their job to teach and teach they do.
There are teachers who do not listen to their students. They are there only to get a paycheck. Once upon a time they may have been excited to go the their class. For them now, the student who asks too many questions can be a problem and is quickly sent to the pill line.
But how do we learn if we don't ask questions?
We have all failed miserably at some subject or another. If we do not know the purpose of the subject being learned we have no real concept of its use. Have you ever tried to learn something not knowing why you were learning it? How did that feel? Did you grasp the data?
Someone who is learning will not understand the subject if he does not know what is it's purpose or how he can apply it in life. For instance take an artist he is learning geometry, he is not told how it can help him or his art. Unless it was shown or explained how he could use it to create abstract geometric shape art work. Or figure out that he could create various shaped canvas. So why should he learn it?
If the child knew that a subject had some use he would have more of an interest and a willingness to learn.
To walk away from a class knowing that you know a subject, can in turn educate someone else on the subject and knowing that you have retained that knowledge is the sign that you have been taught well.
Our education system is set up so that everyone has to learn at the same rate. It is set up to fail. Not everyone learns as the same rate. Not everyone understands what they are being taught or why. Children who are slower are usually kept behind. Which would not be such a bad thing to go over the materials until he understood them if there were no labels.
But, what guarantee does he have if he gets the same teacher or the same learning method. None.
If the subjects had been given to him in a way he could understand there would be no reason for him to be kept behind. Observation would be to find out how many of the teachers students failed and then find out how many in the school. How many students are labeled with a dysfunction?
If you look at statistics you will see that there a millions of children labeled as some sort of learning disability or another. Well if there are millions of children labeled what does that tell you? It tells us that we do not learn at the same pace. So, is it the teaching or is it the system.
You often hear of the teachers frustration. Johnny can't do this, Johnny can't keep up, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. What the teacher is saying is he needs help. The system in which he has been educated is doing nothing for Johnny. There are all kinds of solutions to the teacher for Johnny which is to either drug the child (Ritalin etc.,), label him, remove him to another class, hold him back a grade or two or hire a tutor.
But, does this handle the problem? Has Johnny learned what he needs to know or has the buck been passed?
What would be the solution? We hear talk of education reform - what does that mean?
Funding for the No Child Left Behind act was at 24.4 billion in 2001 a 40.4% increase and the funding for reading went from $286 million to 1.2 billion so you can see plainly it is not a lack of funding.
We cannot reform education unless we ensure each child or adult is educated in learning how to learn.
The program must encompass a learning method that when a teacher is put in front of a class he is taking responsibility for ALL of his students. He must know his purpose inside and out, upside, downside, west ways and south ways. He must know his subjects cold.
If he doesn't he will never be able to pass on the information in a way that the person can understand. He must want to teach, he must want to make sure and go out of his way that his communication is understandable to all. He must ensure that the subjects taught are being retained and the students have a good firm knowledge, enough to then be able to pass on to others.
It is not that he must learn how to teach an ADD (attention deficit disorder) child. It is how to communicate and how to spot a child not understanding what he is teaching. To fail to find out what that child has not understood is the failure.
That then would be education reform.
