Five Axioms of Teaching
1. Teach what you love.
Every teacher has heard the question, “Do we have to know this for the test?” My reply is usually fairly snappy. “Of course you do. Life is the test.”
I teach what I love. I teach the things that I am passionate about. When a co-worker discovered that I was teaching Tolstoy’s “Confession” to a ninth-grade literature class, he was scathing in his indictment of the students’ ability to appreciate the work. “They should be reading Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys!” It shook me up, to be lambasted by a colleague, and I began to doubt that I had made a wise choice, but I took those doubts and turned them into a passion to inspire my students “because I know you are capable of grappling with Tolstoy.”
By the end of the unit the students had a deep sense of accomplishment, put simply by one of my students, “I’m going to be famous someday--Einstein, Tolstoy and me!”
But I would never suggest that the book be placed on a required-reading list for ninth-graders, any more than I would try to instill a passion for algorithms in my students. I know teachers who can make algorithms the most fascinating things on the planet and get students fired up about them--and they do. That’s because they teach what they love.
2. Teach who you love.
One of my master teachers once held me in check as I made a disparaging remark about a colleague. “Just remember,” he said, “for every student there’s a teacher, and for every teacher there’s a student.”
He was absolutely right. I know that my teaching style does not appeal to every student I have, yet for every student I am not able to connect with, there is a teacher who does have that ability.
There are the occasional students who drive me nuts. I’ve wondered, “Don’t all their teachers want to strangle them?” And yet I have seen those same students bond with and flourish under other teachers’ care and guidance. We can’t love them all, it’s true; but if we love none, how can we teach any? I know a man who taught third grade for 30 years--and he hated children. To me that is a tragedy: Not only did he waste their time but he has wasted his life. If you don’t love them, get out of the racket.
3. Teach why you love.
A classic proverb often well-told to first-year teachers is, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” There is profound validity in this quip which, far from negating the third axiom, enhances it.
“Show, don’t tell,” my high school writing teacher drilled into our heads. I realized later how significant her words were beyond the realm of writing. I don’t tell my students I love them, but I do hope they see it, feel it and understand it. I never tell my students why I love teaching, but I do work to show it in my appreciation of their effort, struggle, creativity, enlightenment, exploration, recognition and realization of all the wonders of the world and of ourselves.
4. Teach because you love.
One of the worst reasons to teach is because you need or want love. It is the same with marriage or pregnancy. Some go into teaching because they want to be surrounded by buddies, babies or sycophants. Some go into it because they want to relive their glory days. Others go into teaching because they don’t know what else to do after college. There are many wrong reasons to go into teaching and, fundamentally, only one right one: We teach for love of our students and love of the act of teaching.
To me teaching is a calling, a passion and a gift. For those who have already committed to teaching without a love of teaching in their hearts, I can only hope that, as in an arranged marriage, love will grow; otherwise they will have careers that are the equivalent of bad marriages.
5. Teach love.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
And really this is the essence of it all. Love is the core of our civilization, of our culture, of our spirits, ourselves. The student who has not learned to love learning, to love the world around him and all its wonder, to love his peers--that is the student who has failed. Teach love and you have done your duty.
