Teachers Rough Draft

Education and the individuals who oversee such learning—teachers—can have a powerful and profound affect on a student. A good teacher can help inspire you to learn, help you get excited about furthering your knowledge and deepening your understanding of the world. A bad teacher can make learning distasteful, even hated. But what makes a good teacher? What defines good teaching from bad? From experience, I have learned that the best teacher motivates you to think on your own and hone your own skills, rather then conforming to a strict regimen of stale learning. A good teacher shows you how to hold on to your independence and originality, no matter what the world throws at you.

            One of America’s most quoted authors of inspiration maxims, William Arthur Ward once said of teachers, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”  (Ward, William) This is a powerful summation of the essence of good teaching. A good teacher must go beyond a simple impartation of knowledge; they must help a student to build self-confidence and hone skills. They must inspire students to seek learning on their own, and above all, impart on a student a love of learning itself. One teacher who exemplifies these features is my high school Chemistry Teacher, Mrs. C.
            One of the most powerful aspects of Mrs. C’s teaching was the way she pushed her students toward independent thought and discovery. One example of this was her general method of teaching, in which she would rarely give students a concrete outline of in-class labs. Instead, she would tell her students what she wanted them to achieve and then require that the students create, write, and execute their own labs in order to achieve that goal. Being required to write their own labs led students to a new realm of free thought. No two students had to do the same lab—if one student considered one method to be best, they could explore that method, while another could explore their favored method. It helped students build confidence in their own original thought; they were no longer constrained to a single process and that bred freedom and inspired students to discover new systems of achievement and learning. Another example of how she inspired independence was the way she conducted in-class time. Where many teachers would dedicate in-class time to study, Mrs. C used class time for lab execution and expected students to study on their own time. This forced students to become accountable to themselves. Without the teacher to check if they were studying, it was their decision as to whether or not they did. This taught students to independently seek the knowledge they needed to do well in class, leading them to free learning and discovery.
            Another aspect that made Mrs. C a good teacher was her ability to help students love learning. For example, Mrs. C would draw students in and connect to them by giving explosive—literally—demonstrations of scientific concepts. She would combine chemicals, light reactive metals on fire, anything to get a big, exciting reaction that would animate students. Students would laugh, jump and applaud the unorthodox examples, enjoying the show. This helped students get excited about learning and science. Rather then boring monotony, reading through textbooks or filling out worksheets, they were able to see and experience science, and it was fun!

Beyond that, Mrs. C connected to students through humor and jokes. She was always poking fun at students, as well as making jokes at her own expense. This created an environment of comfort and enjoyment. It was hard for students to dislike a class in which they were always laughing. When you enjoy the class, you are not far from enjoying the learning that takes place there.
            In Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating says to a fellow teacher, “I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.” (Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Robin Williams. 1989. DVD.).  Being in Mrs. C’s class taught students to do just that; think for themselves. While at the beginning of the year many were frustrated and unwilling to work with her methods, by the end of the year, most had embraced them. They had learned to use their own brand of thinking to solve problems, found independence and built up skills of self-discipline, which in turn helped them construct confidence in themselves and their abilities. And most importantly, Mrs. C’s students learned to enjoy the actual learning process, and were inspired to pursue their own interests and learning beyond the classroom.

            What good teaching is, in essence, can be illustrated through examples of bad teaching. By looking at what is classified as bad teaching, we can more clearly see what good teaching should be. One example of a bad teacher was my middle school English teacher, Ms. H.  Her teaching succeeded in stifling the creativity of students, forcing them to conform to rules, and making learning into a painful, boring task.

            In contrast to Mrs. C’s methods, which bred independence, Ms. H was strictly conformed to a stale method of teaching that taught her students conformity and stifled independence. For example, Ms. H always taught directly out of textbooks. Every student has a textbook and an associated workbook, and all class time was spent reading one and filling out the other. There was no room for abstract or complex thought. Students downloaded the information from one book and dutifully regurgitated it into another. These method taught students a very strict way of thinking; textbook thinking. Students received information, but didn’t discover how they would be affected by it. They learned what others thought on subjects, but were never allowed to explore their own thoughts in the same realm. As pupils, they became dutiful; as thinkers, they became stagnate.

            Another example of how Ms. H smothered independence was in the way she reacted to deviation from her methods of teaching. For example, in order to escape the monotony of the boring class, one group of students got together and created a mini writers club. When Ms. H caught wind of this plan, each of the students were punished for ‘wasting class time’ and given lunch detention for the infraction. Where a pot of creativity and originality had hatched, Ms. H sewed bitterness and frustration in its place. Students in the future were discouraged from similar exploits of the mind, and students of the time were reprimanded for something that should have—and likely would have been—nurtured by a good teacher.  

An additional feature of Ms. H’s bad teaching was her interaction with her students, and the way she made learning unenjoyably through such interactions.

The punishment detailed above is one example of this feature. Students were punished not for disrupting the class or being disrespectful, but for deviating from what Ms. H considered to be the proper method of teaching (and learning).  This kind of punishment breeds ill-will between students and teacher, and effective learning is very difficult when a student is in an environment with an individual they consider unjust.

            Additionally, Ms. H alienated students by picking favorites. For instance, Ms. H had an extreme dislike for male students, and thus favored the females in the class. If a group of students got chatty, the males in the group would be reprimanded while the females would be overlooked. If a male and a female did a joint project, the female would get the higher percentage of the grade. It was an extremely biased and unjust environment. All the students, male and female alike, resented it. The females disliked seeing their friends get treated unfairly and the males disliked being treated that way.  None of the students wanted to be in the class, a great contrast to Mrs. C’s teaching which got students excited and inspired.
Overall, Ms. H’s methods worked to groom students into conformity, destroy their independence and obliterate their joy of learning.

The contrast between a good and a bad teach helps reveal good Teaching. Mrs. C inspired, nurtured and helped her students. In contrast, Ms. H did almost the exact opposite. But that does not mean examining her methods is useless to those who wish to discover what good teaching is. In the words of famous author J.K. Rowling, “there is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be.” (J.K. Rowling, author). Ms. H’s unyielding teaching methods, and the negative effects they had on her students helps to exemplify the importance of flexible and nurturing approaches.  Her attitude of favoritism and the way she created a negative learning environment shows how important it is for a student to connect with a teacher and be able to get excited about learning.  In the end, we are left with a clear picture; that of the good teacher, who elevates their students and helps them think for themselves, and that of the bad teacher, who weighs them down and discourages the synthesis of original contemplation.