PUSH IT!

Thursday's Open House was great. Besides several students from last year stopping by, several parents of this year's students sat and talked with me, giving me greater insight into their children. (I woke up to Sofia telling me I had four new grandchildren.)

I can analyze all the test data I want, but that will only tell me WHAT to teach each child. Like a doctor reading x-rays, this is the SCIENCE of teaching.

But learning HOW to teach them is the ART of teaching. It has finally been proven that a doctor's bedside manner has as much to do with a patient's healing as does the medicine that's given. (It was nice until she told me to give them love like I love her. I could only manage a bleary-eyed hug.)

A good parent-teacher relationship greatly speeds up the process of learning what is the best bedside manner for each "patient".
American education is doing a great job at recognizing the benefits of identifying the individual needs of each student.

But because teaching to individual needs is so daunting for one teacher, and chaotic for the administration to make sure each child is being taught everything, we go back to covering the same thing at the same time, usually in just one way for all, instead of the right way for each.

And with one giant leap forward, we take one giant leap back, all the more tired and worn out from all the jumping.

This is the same thing as two people with different ailments going to the same doctor. Yet they wouldn't be diagnosed the same and therefore wouldn't be treated the same or go home with the same remedies for their ailments.

Would you give flu medicine to someone with a broken arm or who is bleeding internally, or with cancer?

No! You cure the patient before it becomes terminal.

The difference is doctors treat one patient at a time, while a teacher treats an entire waiting room all at once. And while a doctor moves on to the next patient his staff does all the important paperwork.

Teachers do most of their own paperwork, and in all honesty, some of it is only to prove that we covered the material. If the child didn't learn it wasn't our fault, there must be something wrong with the child. We tried our best.

But if the results are not what we want, then all the valid excuses for not truly reaching all our students doesn't matter. We either have results or excuses, and blaming it on the butcher, baker or candlestick maker doesn't change the result.

"I tried my best" is rarely true, and has become a cop-out in most cases. That's like lifting weights or working out until it becomes difficult or challenging, then stopping. That is not your best. Your best is going to the point of failure, and then pushing yourself until you go beyond. This is when real gains in strength and stamina happen. Anything else is at best maintaining your current state.

(Teaching Brosden in a way that allows him to in turn teach Sofia. That is one way you know that real learning has occurred, when the "A" student can teach it to another. This also helps them develop interpersonal intelligence as they learn how best to effectively communicate with different people.)

When a student recently defended his lack of results by saying he was trying his best, I said, "While you are trying, others are doing. It's time to try UNTIL you DO.....UNTIL your best BECOMES good enough. And when you ARE really giving your best and can't give anymore, I want you to give for just ONE MOMENT MORE.

Because that's exactly what I'm doing with you."

Guiding the kids into states of failure and frustration, holding onto their hearts and minds in the process, is a big reason for the high student achievement that occurs. That and massive amounts of love, laughter, humor and happiness.....and just as importantly, learning where other teachers are better than I am and incorporating that new knowledge into my teaching.

The job of a teacher isn't just to try our best, it's for our best to be good enough, no matter how difficult the challenge.

(reading Shakespeare to Sofia. Education should be so much more than just the basics. It should be enriching and filled with the Biggies of the Heart, Mind, and Spirit!....real role models for us to follow as we try to develop our own gifts.)

Our job isn't to try and teach them all, it IS to teach them all, letting none of them being thrown away or fall through the cracks....Especially when we absolutely think we have given everything we have. This is the moment of our own greatest growth, when we have reached our failure point, and holding on a little bit longer.

When we have a solid foundation we are far from reaching our breaking point and can push ourselves past failure point after failure point, becoming stronger, smarter and faster as a result.

Look at champion athletes, and you'll see the same thing. Why can't champion teachers do the same?

I think it's great when an individual pushes his mind and body to the creation of incredible ability. I think it's even greater when a teacher does it.....Because it's not just a football game that's being won, it's the people they touch for the rest of their lives.

People are important....And to my fellow teachers I say....PUSH IT!