Teaching Approach

 

 

Who determines the approach?

The teacher or the child?

That traditionally it’s been the former

Cannot be seriously denied.

 

The teacher is the jury and judge,

In his classroom he is the law

And when the camel’s back is broken

He also is that straw.

 

And when he does not succeed

It is the child he blames

For the teacher knows what is best

And deserves none of the pain.

 

Armed with degree and experience

His dogmas take control

And any who suggests it’s otherwise

Is considered stupidly bold.

 

Stiff and resistant to change,

Repetition is the hallmark of his craft

And his present claim to fame

Is what he did in the past.

 

The child’s failure is his alone,

He takes no responsibility for such

Because his approach is perfect

And no one could do as much.

 

If you are a teacher like this

Then it is high time that you change,

It’s not the child that you haven’t reached

But you are the one that’s strange. 

 

Take some direction from the child

Regarding the way he learns

And don’t be resistant to the change

After you are better informed.

 

Children learn in different ways

Very unlike yard fowls

Which as they scramble for the corn

Can become very loud.

 

But one will soon come to find out

The ones that are getting corn

And hopefully help the deprived ones

When they are better informed.

 

It is of critical importance

To understand the children you teach

And not regard your station as a pulpit-

Teachers are not called to preach.

 

There is much that a child can teach

Concerning how he learns

But a teacher must rid himself of himself

And be ready and apt to discern.

 

 

“IF A CHILD CAN’T LEARN

THE WAY WE TEACH,

MAYBE WE SHOULD TEACH

THE WAY THEY LEARN.”

 

Ignacio Estrada

(Mathematics Teacher)

 

Stewart Russell © April 8, 2021