BG: When you are preparing to teach a new course each year, say, in the summertime, what is the first thing that you do to prepare.
MS: Well…I ask other people who have taught the course about the pitfalls and approaches to the curriculum….No! Wait! First, I take a look at the printed, or at least published, curriculum. I look at what the state is expecting me to teach. Then I try to find out what the district wants me to teach. Then I ask colleagues. Then I start planning.
BG: Interesting…
MS: What do you mean by “interesting”? It sounds like you think that there is something missing.
BG: Very perceptive of you. I DO think that there are things missing.
MS: Missing? Like what?
BG: Well, you included the state, down to the district, down to your school and then other teachers. What do you, or who do you think, is missing?
MS: When you say it that way, I see you are talking about students and parents. But how do I ask them? I don’t have contact with them in the summertime. Am I supposed to call them and ask? I don’t think that their focus is on that sort of thing in the summertime. We are probably the only ones thinking about that.
BG: You are absolutely right; we, as teachers, are just about the only ones thinking about what to teach the following fall. But that is where our experience and imagination comes into play. We probably can’t have in-depth conversations in reality with these groups but we can converse with them in our heads. We have talked with enough parents and students to know how they are going to react. So, what I am saying is, that you can know their desires as long as you have a dialogue using your best imagination. I think it’s really important that you have your students’ desires in mind.
MS: I agree about the students’ perspectives but isn’t that reflected in the curriculum and other teachers’ advice?
BG: Really?! Can you hear yourself?! Students views reflected in state curriculum?! That’s probably the biggest gap in education!
MS: You’re right. I get it. That’s not what I meant. I meant it in a more roundabout way.
BG: How did you mean that then?
MS: The bottom line for parents and students is the SAT and the game getting them into “a good college.” Part of the game is taking the SAT and doing well on it. That means doing well on a test based on the national curriculum imposed by most, if not all, states. State curriculums are a good source for knowing what’s required of the student.
BG: Good point about intention. It is what most parents are tapping into and, as a consequence, students. However, that game is designed for the elite students, economically strong parents and other small factors. Many students and their parents play this game but there are very few winners. The losers suffer many psychological consequences. I am more concerned with larger population that will not get into those choice universities. They are the ones who refuse to play that game or are disappointed with the school they “had to settle for.” I am also concerned for the many kids who get into those schools and find out that they don’t really fit in there.
MS: That’s very noble but how do you expect to help them?
BG: On the short scale or the long scale?
MS: Let’s take care of our “right now.” Let’s shoot for the small scale.
BG: Good call…The first thing we need to do is to convince them that everybody ends up in “the right school.” It may not be what they want but we always end up at the right place. We just need to realize that it is the right place for us and learn from the experience.
MS: That’s a tall order. It seems to me that is more of the big scheme of things. What do we do from place we are right now?
BG: I agree. I slipped onto my soapbox. Sorry.
MS: So, what can we do at the individual planning stage.
BG: Right! I got a little lost….I think that the key to all of this, for ALL students and parents is to ask why we teach what we do. From the broad reasons to the very minute reasons. From the logical reasons to the altruist reasons. We can’t really look at anything else until we look at that.
MS: Wow! That’s a lot to look at!
BG: It is a lot but it is a very important, to my mind.
MS: Where do we start?
BG: I believe that it is important to start broad and work our way down to the minutia.
MS: Okay. Makes sense. How broad do we start?
BG: I believe a great place to start is the general purpose of education for teenagers.
MS: Okay….
BG: If we look at our country’s history and education, different times called for different types of education. If we can ignore the elitism in education for a moment, education mostly met the needs of the time. We’ve had basic education modes that matched rural situations and liberal educations that matched the needs who had the resources and influence to attend college. As a result of the industrial revolution, we designed the schools to help teenagers to prepare for factory jobs.
MS: True enough…
BG: Nowadays, almost everybody goes to college. Not all of them are cut out for college but most of them go. On top of that, colleges and universities have become training grounds for technical jobs, rather than places of innovation and deep thinking, like they were in the recent past. That is, this happens at the undergrad level. The innovation happens more at the graduate level today, but not at all disciplines.
MS: That sounds like education inflation. That’s not too bad. It’s just that a new Master’s Degree is equal to an old Bachelor’s Degree. More expensive route but not terrible.
BG: First of all, it is terrible when that new Bachelor’s Degree cost $100,000….We’re getting distracted again. The main point here is that innovation is not happening at the undergraduate level but it is happening with people of that same age that are not in college programs. The sad thing is that most of these innovators are not being guided by mentors that a post-secondary situation could provide. As a result, innovation is rather chaotic and inefficient. Innovators are doing things on their own, without the resources that a post-secondary entity could provide. These innovators are forced to sell their product as pitchmen; and that may not be their strength. As a result, ideas fade away or taken over by salespeople looking for a profit. This results in ideas that have lost their passionate pursuer. This is bad for everyone but the profiteers. Then again, these profiteers could get a more lucrative product if the passion was not removed from the equation.
MS: I feel you! But what do you think the solution is?
BG: The solution, as I see it, is to give teenagers the avenues to pursue the lives that they want to pursue and give them all the guidance they need that a school district can provide.
MS: What if they all want to be basketball players and/or rappers? They can’t all go into the same field.
BG: You mean like they can’t all be engineers?!
MS: Touché! I get your point.
BG: What I mean to point out is that, no matter what field they choose, they are closer to their passions and what they were born to do. By picking the wrong career, they learn ideas and skills that will most likely help in their Life’s Calling. When one follows their heart, their true purpose can’t be far behind.
MS: Okay, I get it about the uniqueness of each student’s inherent purpose. However, the problem is that our school has 1,800 students. You certainly can’t expect a staff of 125 to take on 1,800 different curriculums.
BG: No, that would be crazy. But what we can do is offer a lot more choices. Instead of a mathematics teacher teaching 5 math classes, he or she could teach four classes and one mentoring class. In the mentoring class, the teacher could guide the students in what the teacher is at good at, other than mathematics. In that way, student and teacher can share things that they are passionate about. The student could sign up for 6 classes and one mentor.
MS: Interesting idea…
BG: Now, this is just one idea. There are probably dozens of others. The point here is that, with a little creativity, we can serve the unique natures of 1,800 kids at one time.
MS: I see; First, we must serve what the student feels his or her needs are. Then we can build upon that.
BG: Right!
MS: I hate to do this but we need a reality check here. These are great ideas but our school district is not going to allow this by August.
BG: I realize that. My point is that we need to always keep the student’s Inner Purpose in mind as we design a class. We need to take opportunities to be a mentor to 30 kids at a time. We need a relationship and structure that allows the teacher to guide the student in a non-academic way.
MS: I see what you are saying! We can still teach the subjects we currently teach but also see ourselves as mentors and as experts in other areas of Life other than our subject area. That way we can guide them to their Life’s Purpose, or at least point them in the right direction to get there.
BG: Precisely! I know a lot of things about other subjects but I know zilch about rap music or really pop music in general. But I certainly have enough resources to know where to find out more about the business of popular music. In that way, I can teach the necessary mathematics for graduation but also guide the student towards his or her passion. In that way, we keep two worlds happy; the administrative world and the student’s world. Who knows, I may end up teaching some relatable mathematics. Even if I don’t, I have made a relatable connection with the students.
MS: Excellent! That’s great news! So, what are we saying our purpose for teaching is?
BG: Thanks! We have been all over the place and we need to put this all in perspective. Our purpose in teaching our subjects is to satisfy administrations and giving the students a vehicle to find who they are and what they need out of education. When they start to figure who they are and what they want, we can interject those lessons into the daily carrying out of our subject matter.
MS: How are these subject matters related to their daily lives? How does math…
BG: Hold on a second! I answered that question in one of my college papers. Let me find that….Oh, here it is.
“Many math teachers will tell you that you need this for college or for a job. I’m not going take that route (various personal communications). First of all, a very small percentage of high school graduates pursue a degree that involves a large degree of mathematics (U. S. Department of Education, 2011). Therefore, my job is not to turn you into mathematicians. However, mathematics, especially algebra, is about using and manipulating symbols (Lockhart, 2009). That is, to communicate symbolically. Therefore, it is apparent that a mathematics education is about learning to deal with abstract ideas and acting abstractly. Hence, my job is to teach you to master abstract thinking. Along those same lines, science is about learning how the world works, languages are about communicating clearly and history is about learning from the mistakes and accomplishments of humanity. For example, we have many people in this school who have earned PhDs, and probably none of them in mathematics. However, if we asked them to factor a polynomial, most of them probably could not do it. On the other hand, if we asked them to do something that dealt with thinking abstractly, they probably could do it because they do it every day. Therefore, my job is to help you think abstractly because you will use that skill the rest of your life.”
MS: When you say it like that, I can see our purpose in teaching what we do a little clearer. This helps to see how we can blend mentorship and education….This rally helps as we go into preparing for the school year. Do you think we should record this somehow? I mean, like a mantra or a mission statement.
BG: That’s a good point. However, I am not sure what to write to record this. Any ideas?
MS: The first thing that comes to mind is a mission statement.
BG: That’s a good thought in general but let me tell you where I am on this. I used to work at a school system that required us to write a mission statement at the beginning of the year. I felt that it helped me focus on what I am all about, educationally. Our teacher assessment process has us write down SMART goals at the beginning of the year. These are pretty good ideas but the follow-through is vitally important, as is the amount of personal investment in writing these goals. If we use this method, it is very important that we post these goals somehow and check into them occasionally.
MS: Okay, sounds like a plan….Wait a minute! You’ve got more on this subject, don’t you?
BG: Looks like you read me like a book! Yeah, I have more. I once had a mentor who was a organizational psychologist. He told me that he often recommends that a business have a company mantra, rather than a long mission statement that nobody reads.
MS: A mantra?!
BG: Yeah, a mantra; a brief statement that tells what you goal is from a deep level.
MS: A mantra, eh? That sounds like a good option. So, which one are you leaning towards, a mission statement or a mantra?
BG: In my mind, a mantra is too brief and small and a mission statement is too broad and large. I lean towards having a series of mantras that express our goals when we educate.
MS: I agree. A series of mantras that cover our goals. Should we keep a limit?
BG: Yeah, I think that we should limit it. How does 50 words sound?
MS: That sounds like a good starting point but we should keep this number flexible. We don’t really know if it is too large or too small until we read it.
BG: Good point. I agree. How about these;
Mantra #1: The teacher should see personal growth through mathematics in the student in May that was not evident in the student in August.
Mantra #2: The class belongs to the student, not the teacher.
Mantra #3: The teacher, as a paid professional, is in charge of all policies and routines of the classroom.
Mantra #4: Student feedback is vital to student growth.
Mantra #5: The abilities and purposes of the students are very diverse.
MS: You know that these are more than 50 words, right?
BG: Yeah. It’s about 60 but they feel right. How do you feel about them, once the number of words is out of the way?
MS: At first glance, they are okay but they are not the mantras that I would have chosen. With a deeper glance, they aren’t really measurable, are they?
BG: Agreed. As for your first point, my mantras are different because our approaches to teaching are different. That’s okay. As to the second point, these are mantras, not goals. Goals are considered, in my mind, as endpoints, not the journey. Mantras, on the other hand, are sort of confirmations in that they should be reminders of what we should be striving for every day. As a result, I believe that they should not be very measurable.
MS: Good point! I think that you are right about the difference between goals and mantras. I guess we will save goals until we look at daily lessons and unit overviews.
BG: I agree with that. When we get to that, I will share my views on measurable goals. I don’t want to get off track…Do you have any thoughts, in particular, on any of the mantras?
MS: Let me see…I mostly agree with mantra #1. Seeing student growth is an important thing to see. However, I see the math knowledge as separate from their personal growth. I thought that our job as teachers is to make them maximize their abilities in our subject area. You don’t agree with that?
BG: I agree with that but I believe we should be careful about the word “maximize.” When we as teachers look at that, we think of test scores and in comparison to everyone else in the school, district, state and country, and sometimes the world. That’s not my interpretation of the word. I see it as the student’s growth at its fastest possible rate. But not compared to others but to that individual student. In other words, the student’s personal improvement. Does that make sense? What about the other mantras?
MS: Yes, that makes total sense to me. All the mantras are not what I would have said but I believe that they perfectly make sense for what I know about your approach to teaching. As for the word maximize, I understand your approach to the word but, to me, it’s not very measurable. I have a little problem with that. I want to have ways to measure whether I am doing my job or not.
BG: I get what you are saying about it’s measurability but that’s not the catch-all of my thinking. I used to get caught up with that but I found out that there is more to the results than test scores and comparing these scores to other people and groups. These scores are part of the story but not the entire story. It ignores the deeper part of each individual.
MS: I am not sure I know what you mean.
BG: This an idea that is expressed by Ken Wilber but it is also an idea I have learned over the past severals years. It is the idea that our society puts great value on the measurable, whether its individual or plural. However, it puts much less value on the things that are not so measurable but are very real, like sensations, emotions, etc. I have always given the analogy of considering a brick building with considering the mortar. That is, we look at the building and rarely look at the in-between stuff that holds the bricks together.
MS: I kinda see what you’re talking about. But the important people, engineers and building contractors give estimates of how much is to be used, right?
BG: True! Good point. Let me give a more precise example. On one of my visits to England with my wife, we visited one of the great old cathedrals at Cambridge University. It was vast and beautiful. It was hundreds of years old and it was still standing very solid. I then read that the cathedral was build with no mortar or nails. I was amazed. How in the world did it stay together, even through Nazi bombings? It was held together with three things; gravity, physics and friction. These were three ideas that were, at least at the time, unmeasurable. Yet, the building still stands with raw materials and concepts.
MS: I get why you’re sayin but I still feel uncomfortable with putting less emphasis on the measurable. Besides, we have jobs that are determined by measurable results. If we don’t produce, we don’t work.
BG: That is true but only partially. Yes, we are evaluated by our test scores. However, I firmly believe that, if we teach conceptually, then our measurable test scores will go up. And no school district is likely to fire a teacher with high test scores.
MS: So you are saying that you pay attention to test scores but it is not your focus.
BG: Precisely! But be careful about who you say that to and how you say it. I said that to one class and their parents went over my head and complained to the school district. It forced me to really explain myself on my school website. It was, overall, an uncomfortable experience. But a great learning experience.
MS: Great advice but I don’t think I’m there yet.
BG: That’s okay too. Just keep that in mind and maybe you can fully see and feel what I’m talking about. That’s the main reason our mantras look so different. You have to go for what is good for you.
MS: Good to know…So we have created some mantras, look them over and feel that they are good to go. What do we do with them? Are they for the teacher’s use, the student’s use or both? Or maybe they are used for something further than that?
BG: Well, that one is a judgement call, on the behalf of the teacher who created them. A teacher could just put them in a notebook and refer to them periodically during the school. He or she could post them by her or his desk and refer to them periodically that way. Even still, the teacher could also present them to their students, as an extra agreement. In my case, I plan on doing all of these plus one more. That is, I am going to post them by my desk and try to read them over about once per week. I am also going to going to post them in a place for all the students to see. On top of that, on the first day, when we are going over the class rules and routines, I will go over each mantra, lead a discussion and, if time permits, I will get students to write their own set of mantras. I may even go as far as requiring students to periodically to look at their mantras and report how close they are following them. It may be a closing assignment.