Andrew Niemeijer, via his TEDx talk (Niemeijer, 2013), expresses two supremely important concepts: (1) the need for teachers to fuel student curiosity rather than to suppress it by requiring them to strictly color within the lines (so to speak) and (2) the need to “invest in teachers” to ensure that “excellent education will follow.” I deeply appreciate that he chose to highlight these two areas (they are quite meaningful to me, personally), yet felt as though his talk could have been further developed. Perhaps he is referring to some prior context; if true, as viewers, it would have been useful to know just what that context is and how we could access it.
That said, I’ll take the opportunity to expand on these two concepts: primarily “following the rabbit down the hole (a metaphor that Niemeijer uses well and that I find engaging and attractive) and also, briefly, teacher investment for the purposes of developing teachers of excellence.
Fueling curiosity in students is of paramount importance for me, as a teacher. There is a huge difference between “training” and “education.”
Training is something tactical and practical; for example, a class on how to use Adobe Illustrator as a graphic designer within a marketing department. Training is the teaching of a particular skill that allows a task, simple or complex, to be accomplished.
Education, on the other hand, is something that is strategic and theoretical. Education is not so much about how to execute a task, but more about how to find ways to think about solving problems. It is a graphic designer using the sum of her experiences, innate talents, and practical skills to create a means of visually expressing an idea and its potential benefits to others. The oft misunderstood liberal arts are a deep manifestation of education: the combination of critical thinking methods applied to solve not just a specific problem, but any variety of problems, even those of which the problem-solver may have little initial knowledge.
As an aside, the value of the liberal arts reminds me of an experience in college. My girlfriend had contracted mononucleosis and her mother had flown from Washington, D.C. to Boston in order to accompany her back home. Mrs. Yurow was a very practically-minded mother who, I am certain (now that I am a parent), was simply attempting to look out for the best interests of her daughter’s future). After meeting her at the airport and exchanging a few introductory pleasantries, she asked me what I was studying. I replied that it was ancient Greek and Latin. In an incredulous and concerned tone, she queried, “What are you going to do with that?” Subsequently over time, reflecting upon my life’s profound experiences and relationships on occasion, I’ve thought to myself, “Well, Mrs. Yurow, can you now see what I’ve done with that?” She might still disagree (I should note that after this encounter she proved to be a kind and gracious person towards me).
Returning to students and curiosity, my idea is that while there are foundation components of education that all students require (literacy, mathematical concepts, sciences, social sciences, health, etc.), once students being to achieve levels of mastery over these basic elements, knowing simply how to execute them may not serve one entirely well in modern life. Knowing how to apply them and why to apply them to the myriad things life will throw at a person is more valuable by at least an order of magnitude.
As teachers, we need to provide students with the core skills of learning and education. Once our students have tasted these, then we may need to follow them outside of the classroom and “down the rabbit hole” to help them build upon their innate senses of curiosity. There is also a greater, though more subtle lesson here: that following one’s curiosity develops a student’s understanding for the inherent and intrinsic value of doing something simply in and of itself. Confer also, Joseph Campbell’s concept of “following one’s bliss” (Campbell & Moyers, 1988).
At the end of his talk, Niemeijer exhorts us to understand that “teachers are pivotal to the future of excellent education” (Niemeijer, 2013) and to trust that investments in teachers will result in “excellent education.” I agree, but he does not expand on how to cultivate teaching excellence. For this, I want to point to research by Farinde-Wu, Glover, and Williams (2017) regarding “culturally responsive teaching among award-winning teachers. . . [who have been] identified as most successful by their peers and administrators” (p. 280). Their objective was to study the critical factors these award-winning teachers “considered key to their success with students in urban schools. In their classrooms, they implement RACCE. They respect, act immediately, communicate, celebrate, and encourage students” (p. 287).
These teachers all shared common approaches and concepts about how they connected with their students: scheduling “get to know you lunches” with individual students; establishing clear roles and accountability in their classroom (not only for students, but also the teacher); and developing teacher-constructed lessons and materials with specific student interests and engagement in mind that promote student-driven and student-led activities (Farinde-Wu et al, 2017).
Farinde-Wu et al. (2017) use a phrase in the title of their research that steps beyond the purely academic and delves into into areas not typically depicted in drier scholarly writing: It’s Not Hard Work; It’s Heart Work. They provide, in great detail and with an engaging narrative structure, just what it is that makes award-winning teachers “award-winning.” As they note in their introduction, this is an area lacking in research. This study is welcomed and certainly more research is necessary. If I may use an observation regarding my own career in the business sector: I spent much of the early part of my work years learning from my managers. What I learned was mostly how not to manage effectively. It was not until later that I encountered managers who demonstrated positive ways of being a leader (all the more appreciated because of my ability to compare to less effective predecessors). So it is with teaching. It is important to understand what does not work. But it is even more instructive to examine what does work well for educators and what are the characteristics of specific superb educators.
References
Campbell, J. & Moyers, B. D. (1988). The power of myth. New York: Doubleday.
Farinde-Wu, A., Glover, C. P., & Williams, N. N. (2017). It's not hard work; it's heart work: Strategies of effective, award-winning culturally responsive teachers. Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, 49(2), 279. doi:10.1007/s11256-017-0401-5
Niemeijer, A. (2013, October 13). Striving for excellence in education: Andrew Niemeijer at TEDxAmsterdamED 2013. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNeY8vkhdgY
Note: Originally written (June 21, 2019) as an academic reflection for a graduate class at Pacific Oaks College (Pasadena, California).
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