The Art of Teaching: Do Educators Really Have Creative License?

After rereading a book by Dr. William C. Byham that I was previously assigned to read some twenty years ago, Zapp! In Education: How Empowerment Can Improve the Quality of Instruction, and Student and Teacher Satisfaction, I was moved to reflect on how far education and educators have really come. This professional introspection, though healthy, also seriously reminded me that when entering into the field of education you could find yourself feeling "zapped", or "sapped." I have been on both "sides" of education, twofold. I've been a teacher then a school-based administrator. I've also been school-based and central office administration. This has afforded me the vehicle for asking a well-rounded, albeit rhetorical question, "Why do some teachers succeed and others fail?" It is my experience that this occurs for two main reasons:

1. They have never validated and fully committed to providing a good education, or

2. They are limited in tangible resources, whether it be pertinent professional development, or resources to teach their respective subject areas well.

I am in no way trying to sell the ideology of a "perfect school," but what I am suggesting is that in order to be energized and hence, an energizing and engaging teacher, one must be committed to the profession and display a genuinely enthusiastic passion for their pedagogical art. Additionally, resources shouldn't just be provided, that is without site-specific input, but financial availability for teaching teams, departments, and individual educational practitioners should be accessible so that the teaching process can be truly customized for the student from the teacher.

Although we get hung up on the first suggestion-- it is easy to place the finger of blame at a teacher's perceived lack of commitment-- but if teachers are to be valued, their voices deserve to be heard. Although there is a metric that is used to measure student success, instead of focusing on the destination, I am suggesting that we place more emphasis on the journey. Allowing educators to have more creative license and encouraging innovation in school will lead to not only greater teacher satisfaction, but also better student attainment.

As a former school-based educator and educational administrator I have interacted with numerous educational professionals. Most, when asked what would make their educational experience better, have responded, "more discipline support." As their colleague, and a new teacher at the initial time of my informal query, I was perplexed. Why were my educational seniors stunted into thinking that "control" was theanswer as opposed to truly engagingtheir charges? Clarity came when I received my textbooks (out-of-date and non-representative of the students I taught), and my budget of $50.00 to cover 140 students for the entire school year; any creativity would have to come from my own coffer.

To be fair, there was a glimmer of hope the next year when I was given $75.00, but it was still not enough and I took an equity line of credit on my home, worked a second job, and supported my primary job through personal funds. I did this because I soon realized that when students aren’t engaged, they tend to exhibit more discipline problems.

Moving into administration, I received a lot of disciplinary referrals for students who came “unprepared to class” (no pencil or paper). Our funding sources were failing our teachers and engendering apathy; the discipline policy was brutalizing our students. If we were being honest with ourselves, we would have known-- and acknowledged-- that 97% of our students were coming to school under the poverty line (as evidenced through our free lunch vouchers), and that we had a substantial amount who also fit the definition of "homeless."

I asked a teacher why she wrote her children a referral for not having supplies; she nearly imploded. “Why should it be myresponsibility to purchase theirsupplies? I already don’t have enough [money] to buy my materials I need to teach with.” This seemed to—initially—reek of dispiritedness and indifference, but then isn’t frustration easy to pigeonhole as apathy? Looking at what classroom teachers have to provide today, isn’t the role of fundraiser pushing them a little too far and more than a bit too hard? Another teacher describes using her planning period to fundraise through a district-approved website for materials for her class. Coming prepared to class must move from the basis of supplies and materials, if it is going to be used at all, and rather be descriptive of a mind that is open to learning.

It is my professional and personal estimation that if teachers were truly empowered in--and their voices heard from--the classroom, if students attended a school that was fully equipped to teach them, then as previously stated, discipline concerns would decrease, and academic achievement would increase. This proposed intellectual proprietorship would encourage teachers to be more engaged in active learning themselves, and as pointed out in Jonathan Kozol's book," Amazing Grace," if teachers regularly read to themselves, their students achievement would boast significant gains.

Listening to current colleagues in the field it is still apparent that teachers are rightfully expected to have high expectations of their students, but they are operating under a system that regrettably has low expectations of the teacher. I asked one such educator, "What is motivating about your job?" Her response, "I'm close to retirement." Clearly there is work to be done.