What I Learned from My Students

What I Learned from My Students

Today’s guest blogger is Amsco veteran author Henry I. Christ, who shares with us one of the most important aspects of teaching.

“Men learn while they teach.” Seneca

For 35 years I taught, the last 25 as chairman of English at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York. The later segment brought many challenges: overcrowding of students, teacher shortages, triple sessions, and stress brought on by bussing from other areas.

The classroom was a refuge. I taught thousands of students and worked with hundreds of colleagues. I met occasional negativity and cynicism, but mostly, my experience was positive and satisfying.

There are five things I learned from my students that made me a better teacher.

1. A normal tone of voice is more effective than an angry tirade. One successful teacher I observed had a voice just strong enough to reach the students in the back rows. Students actually leaned forward to hear him.

2. Learning is hard. In teaching, we often take too much for granted. My colleague, Ethel Gerstin, wrote an article on this subject. At one time, New York City teachers had to take an “alertness course” to qualify for the next salary increment. Ethel chose a sewing class and found herself with many of the girls from her “slow” class. Sewing was new to Ethel, and for a while, she was lost. Some of her students helped her through the hard spots. In her article, Ethel wrote that she understood the frustrations students feel when they just don’t get it.

Teachers are sometimes deluded by the COIK fallacy: “clear only if known.” Complicated directions for technological products show how true that is. To the expert, the problem is “kid stuff.” Today, kids raised on computers have left many of us behind.

3. Names are important. We identify with our names and appreciate those who remember them. Learning the names of all our students is more important than our favorite lesson plan. “Fred” is more effective than “that boy in the chair nearest the window.”

4. Check your assumptions. Teachers who assume that the students in their “nonacademic” class are unteachable need to think again.

5. Learn humility. I had taught Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” many times. In the first line, Frost states the theme: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Throughout the poem, Frost suggests how walls separate us in so many ways. A student raised his hand. “If Mr. Frost hates walls so much,” he said, “why is he the one to start the mending?”

“I let my neighbor know beyond the hill,
And on a day we meet to walk the line.”

Good point. I’d always accepted this as an act of friendliness, but the student saw these lines differently. Students often approach literature with fresh eyes. His comment made my day.

The five points can be summarized by saying I learned the importance of respect. We all resent indifference, condescension, and sarcasm. Mutual respect goes a long way in creating a positive learning environment. . . . for my students and me.