Montag, 9. Mai 2011

Mothering, teaching

I was thinking yesterday, Mother's Day, about how becoming a mother affected my desire to become a teacher. I always admired teachers - I put them on a pedestal, even, thinking they were the most important members of society bar none. I thought I was too selfish, too concerned with my own advancement, to be a good teacher. That changed within a few weeks of giving birth, when all I wanted was to survive the 180 flip my life had taken. Then, as my child grew and I read to her and played with her, I discovered that I was a born pedagogue.

It's a discovery I think a lot of women make when their experience and knowledge base are taken more seriously than they ever have been before. Okay, teaching "Eency Weency Spider" to a 13 month-old doesn't involve a lot of classroom management technique, but it's still an addictive feeling when something you'd almost forgotten how to do yourself can bring so much delight to the most important person in your life. Suddenly, you are always right and you are always in charge. How big a step is that to the front of the classroom?

But to be great teachers we can never let the kids know that we know we are right. We should never even be in front of our students. That blocks their view. We should be behind them, leaning down and pointing over their shoulders, whispering questions to them, so that they can see and think for themselves.

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