PLO Ae Fie ealilay)2019.08.14 11:53SE vats NEVER MET, fellow teacher, but your act of opening these pages is introduction enough. It tells me something important about you. Either you will soon launch your career in the classroom and would like some tips on what to expect; or you have already started to teach and would welcome some tips on how to hone your skills. My title has obviously stirred your curiosity. All good teachers and would-be teachers are eager for tips on the what and the how of teaching. Before getting down to these, however, let us examine a more fundamental question—the why of teaching. Why be a teacher? Why spend your days in the humdrum routine of a school (and believe me, at times it is excruciatingl ini ‘oneal eas 2 to hordes women the mysteries of math : ee aie lematics or geography Oho) sa alaeae LetTTER TO A YOUNG TEACHER or literature? The answer you give will determine, more than anything else, your success or failure in the class- room. If you answer wrongly, no amount of advice from me or anyone else will be of much help. Why teach? Many answers are possible, but one spells death to a career in the classroom. If your over- riding motive is money, go elsewhere. The world has many respectable ways of making a living, and most of them hold out hope of a far fatter paycheck than you will ever pocket as a teacher. In many parts of the world, in fact, teaching is a relatively low-paying profession, dooming its practitioners to lives of gen- teel poverty. So if money is your motive, try trading or farming or even hair-styling. But don't inflict your- self on innocent students. They deserve better. Then why teach? At least part of the reason [hope is on your lips will possibly strike you as banal. It is that for reasons you yourself may not fully compre- hend, teaching appeals to you. You feel somehow at- tracted to it. Like all good teachers, you have a touch of the actor, perhaps even the ham actor, in you. You like to perform. You also have a touch of thi or nurse in you. You like to help other people, espe- cially young people. You enjoy the prospect of pre- oung and by e doctor siding over a captive audience of the y the magic of your words opening their still half-formedWhy Teach? minds to new and exciting realms of knowledge. I suspect you always liked school. More perhaps than you have yet admitted even to yourself, you en- joyed your own days as a student. It was then that you discovered how much pleasure is to be found in exploring the world of learning. You are now con- vinced that a career leading others to explore this same world is not only in itself more important but more personally satisfying than a career immersed in the everyday world of business. Introducing the young to such subjects as the history of your nation or the work- ings of the human body or the pleasures of poetry strikes you as infinitely more gratifying than hawking products like cornflakes or cosmetics. In short, among your motives for choosing a teaching career, this one stands out: you expect teaching to be fun. Fun is nota very lofty motive, you may think, and probably not one you expected me to stress. True enough, but | am convinced that without this to start with, even the loftiest motive cannot guarantee suc- cess in the classroom. Don't even think of making teaching your career unless you expect to find it an enjoyable and fulfilling career. As someone who has spent half a lifetime as a teacher, | cam assure you that teaching certainly is fun, often a barrel of fun. It always was for me, 2 Bo) e ise mara LETTER TO a YOwNe Teacher Look back over your years as a student. Tick off the teachers who impressed you most, who kept their classes alive from the opening to the closing bell and from whom you learned the most. Didn't the vigor in their voices and the sparkle in their eyes prove they took pleasure in what they were doing? And didn't their colleagues who were duds in the classroom let you know in a thousand subtle ways how tiresome and unrewarding they found their occupation? That you expect your life as a teacher to be re- warding does not mean, however, that you should expect never to feel tremors of misgiving during the moments before you enter the classroom. All teach- ers, veterans as well as novices, know how daunting it sometimes is to look out ona sea of faces and start expounding on their subject. Such nervous flutterings are natural, even desirable. They prove you are en- thusiastic about your subject and anxious not to fail in sharing your enthusiasm with your students. Ac tors and orators—the first rate ones at least—all know what they feel like. heres You should also expect that teaching will often be a wearying task. First of all, it will demand the grind of daily preparation for class. Worse still, it will entail seemingly endless days of tedium as you correct €x- amination papers. Finally, you must be prepared forWhy Teach? inevitable misunderstandings with students and clashes with school authorities. Weathering such storms is part of the teaching profession. For dedicated teachers, however, their job is never just a chore. They are so filled with the conviction that they are performing a valuable service for the younger generation that they don’t bother counting its costs. And above all, they never cease finding that despite all its inconveniences and setbacks, teaching is still fun.2019.08.14 11:54LETTER TO A YoOUnS TEACHER but he sounds as though he’s reading facts from an almanac. Geography used to be my favor- ite subject, but he’s managed to make me hate itas much as math.” “Miss Santos was a real pill today, Sat at her desk and droned on and on about the battles in some ancient war. Didn't say a thing that our textbook doesn't say better. We all fell asleep.” Students do not judge their teachers by the aca- demic honors they have won, the learned volumes they have published, or the number and level of their higher degrees. Their favorite teachers are of course in total command of their subjects, but even that is not the main reason students praise them. It is rather that they have the knack of making the seemingly dreariest subject interesting. Students are no different from the rest of mankind. They dread being bored. This, then, is the main challenge you face as a teacher. How can you keep your pupils alert, alive, watching you and listening to you during every mo- ment of your instruction? First of all, keep in mind the old Latin saying, Nemo dat quod non babel, meaning you can't give to others what you don't have yourself, Interest passes from person to person the way electricity passes through a wire. 14-—= Staying Alive in the Classroom Don't expect to hold your students’ attention unless you are plugged into the current yourself, They will be interested only if you are. That means you must never stop studying, never feel you know all you need to know about your sub- ject and can coast along on habitual knowledge. Just knowing what your syllabus requires you to cover is not enough. Like any motor in active service, you need a constant supply of new fuel. Why do some teachers dry up after a year or so in the classroom? Why are their classes as dead as the proverbial doornail? Because their own interest in their subject has expired. They have lost their appetite for | it and no longer believe in its value. They have stopped : reading about it, talking about it, caring about it. Once their students sense that a teacher is scraping the bottom, is no longer growing in curiosity and knowl- edge about the subject of instruction, their attention level sinks too. Stale bread is uninteresting bread. Do you teach Spanish> Don't just rely on your text- book, the notes you took in college or graduate school, and the plans you drew up during your first year of ‘caching, Read deeply in the literature of Spain and MS former colonies. Keep your eye open for tours to Spanish-speaking lands. If possible visit their sies and see what kind of support they can OLYLeTTER TO A YOUNG TEACHER teacher of Spanish. (You may be surprised at the warm welcome you will receive.) Make Spanish and every- thing connected with it a lifetime hobby. Do you teach history? Read biographies of the famous men and women who lived in the period you are covering. Science? Learn as much as you can about the beginnings and development of your science and the lives of those who contributed to its advance. Geography? Devour travel literature and accounts of great explorers. No matter what subject you are teaching, you will find more than enough material in the library and elsewhere to keep your interest alive. Vacation time can be precious. It may give you a chance to take additional courses, attend seminars, visit museums and other exhibitions. Even movies and television programs can be of help. Your own curios- ity will suggest further ways to expand and strengthen your grip on your subject Don't be surprised or disappointed if what you learn from these activities does not gain a single direct ee [abe That i not their purpose. you earning and curious to learn more, they are worth every moment you spend on them. Whe i ~ 2 your own enjoyment of your subject and T Curiosity about it die, the teacher in you also =_"——e™ a Staying Alive in the Classroom dies. You will start hating your subject, hating your job, and possibly hating your students too. You will be just another burnt-out teacher. If you feel these symptoms coming on and find it impossible to rekindle your old enthusiasm, you have one last resort. Go to the authorities and implore a change in the subject you are teaching. | have seen such fresh starts accomplish wonders for teachers who were suffering from burn-out. 2019:08)14 11:542019.08.14 11:54fe ees YounG TEACHER formal education. It also includes the continued study and interest you devote to the particular subject you are teaching. This we have already looked at. Now let us suppose you have completed this remote preparation with honors. Tomorrow you will meet face-to-face with a room full of live students. What more must you do? What kind of immediate preparation is necessary? As much as possible, on the day before you meet a class, you should go over the material to be taught, How long this will take and whether you should trust memory or bring some jotted notes with you to the classroom will vary. But the rule is clear. Never walk into the classroom cold. You must know in advance exactly where you are going, what material you intend to cover. Meticulous planning is necessary. Don't think you can fake it. Remember your own days as a stu- dent. Your students will be no slower than you were in spotting the shabbily prepared teacher. In this matter, students are rarely fooled. Next comes the hard part, where even the most promising teachers are in danger of missing the mark. They think no further preparation is needed. Do you? Say you are a history teacher and have an exact knowledge of the battles you are going to discuss, a literature teacher and have worked out a careful ana-Always Prepare lysis of the poems you intend to discuss, a science teacher and know all there is to know about the law of physics you are going to explain. Is that enough? Are you now ready to enter the classroom, call the students to order, and commence teaching? You would be if your students were pure intellects. Then your task would be simply to give a clear pre- sentation of the ideas and information that are stored in your own brain, confident that these will automa- tically enter the brains of your students. If they do not, then your students will have no one to blame but themselves. They must have been sleeping or day- dreaming or watching the shenanigans of the class clown who sits in front of them. Can anyone hold you responsible for your students’ lack of attention? Yes. | can and do. | say your preparation has been incomplete. You have prepared intellectually, yes. But teaching is not a purely intellectual enterprise, any more than students are purely intellectual creatures. Aristotle defined man as a pasos animal,” a defini- tion that is a in the 1LETTER TO 4 Younc TEACHER nalit The pr TH challenge you face when you walk into the inh ee: 's not intellectual but Psychological = he ps) attention, Ne os We can distinguish tw (0 kinds of attention, neous and willful. The fj N: sponta. rst is effortless, We give it to ly interesting mogt women the subject you teach falls in a similar category! Do not count on such luck, however. Only the rarest of students finds anything inherently interest- ing in quadratic equations or English punctuation or the geography of Iceland. Yet subjects like te make up a large part of what is taught in school. Don't me the mistake of thinking that because you find a sub- i ill feel the same way. ject interesting your students will Ze pe More often than not it is the teacher's job to a their as yet dormant interest.2019.08.14 11:55LetTeR TO A YOUNG TEACHER on them, our minds riveted on what they said, They cast a spell. How did they do it? What was their secret> Actually, it was no secret at all. Some of them were naturals. They knew the art of compelling attention intuitively, but any teacher can master their techniques the hard way, The much maligned tribe of psycho- logists has helped us by analyzing the phenomenon of human attention. Poke around in your library and you can find their conclusions in almost any elemen- tary psychology textbook. | have often been astounded at how few are the teachers who take the trouble to consult such books The first thing a teacher can learn from these psy- chologists is that it is not usually the subject matter one is teaching that captures the students’ attention, but the way the subject matter is presented. They point to what they call attention factors. However uninterest- ing the day's lesson may be in itself, however distracted the students are, the teacher can package the lesson in such a way that one or more of these factors is brought into play. Call them the sugar coating on the pill of learning, the bait that hooks the unsuspecting student. Used with skill, they have the power to make the most unappetizing material tasty and the drab- best lessons exciting.AST NO ae MESS On2019.08.14 11:Letter TO aA YOUNG TEACHER the classroom, pacing the aisles and addressing their pupils now from the front, now from one of the sides, now from the rear. Some (this was one of my favor- ites) like occasionally to sit on the desk as they con- duct their class. Some use gestures frequently, point- ing to the writing on the blackboard or to other objects connected with the lesson. Choose whatever method suits you, or better still, a mixture of all, The younger the teacher, the easier and more natural to keep in motion. But the older ones make a mistake if they forsake physical activity in the class- room altogether. Whatever your age, it is unwise to spend every moment of every period sitting behind your desk as still as a marble Buddha. Let your pupils see you are alive. Make your lesson move too. In your anxiety to drive some point home, you may be tempted to stay on it too long. Move on, especially if you notice the class growing restless. You can always return to that part of the lesson on another day. Above all, bring your students into the act. The easiest way to do this is by frequently interrupting yourself to ask questions. Devising good questions and asking them properly are skills that all teachers must acquire. Without them, almost all teaching would be by the so-called “lecture method,” a discredited 2g= “Sree é PCE I Oo it y method of teaching that hardly works even on the upper levels of schooling, where it is usually found, and not at all on primary or secondary levels. Once we eliminate the give-and-take of question-and-answer between teacher and students, the whole point of building schools and hiring teachers is lost. Listening toa lecture is little different from reading a chapter in a textbook. Who needs a classroom ora teacher for that? The Greek philosopher Socrates was by universal acclaim one of the greatest teachers who ever lived. To him we owe the method of teach ing that still goes by his name, the “Socratic method,” which relies almost entirely on questions. He was fond of profess- 'ng Ignorance of a subject and then questions to the person who had sou, from him. Gradually, like a clever ¢ putting a series of ght enlightenment TOss-examiner in aLetter to a Younae Ttacuer Even if your method is not asking questions should take up m the classroom. Their usual purpo: grade students on the accuracy to keep them awake and on thei the students know this is their can easily do by your manner. 1 mentally grading their answers, and clam up. exactly Socratic, uch of your time in se should not be to of their answers, but T toes. Itis best to let Purpose, which you f they think you are they may grow tense What should you question them on? The material you told them to prepare the night before, of course But even when you have assigned nothing for them to prepare, questions are a good way of holding their attention, You can often interrupt what you are say- ing with questions like “Why do you think that is sor” or “Can you suggest any examples?" or “Does anyone have a better idea?" or “Do you agree? Why?" Occa- sionally you might try an elliptical (fill-in-the-blank) question, in which the pupil supplies the missing word. Asa ule, address your question to the whole class, pause briefly to let it sink in, then single out oe a dent for the answer. That gets all of them thinking an adds to the suspense. Move from student to a for the answers, picking especially those a signs of nodding. Do not stay on any student i i ng. long, however. It may give the impression of naggi 30°Activity One other point. Your method of questioning should always be Platonic in the sense that, like him, your manner should be gentle, never sharp and impe- rious. Martinets may make good marine instructors but not good teachers of the young. In my experi- ence, the most successful teachers had a classroom manner that was relaxed and conversational. You have probably attended public lectures at which the speaker closed his remarks by inviting questions from the floor. Remember how the audi- ence instantly perked up and the atmosphere grew | livelier? As a teacher you will have the same effect if you welcome questions from students. It is better not to set aside a special time for such questions. Let your students pop them throughout the class period. Some of the best teachers | had hands fora question when In this way we were Occasionally, encouraged us to raise our ever curiosity prompted us, constantly being perked up. of course, you will have material you At eeraeh 2019.08.14 11:55r SHOT ON MI A2 Ml PLU NUR alceayVv bbe tee, Vm CHILDREN GO to school they leave behind the cozy comforts of their homes as well as the free- dom of the fresh outdoors. These make up their real world, the unfettered and ever changing world of friendly sights and sounds. Once the doors of the classroom close behind them, they find themselves cooped up in a gray world of inflexible rules and irksome tasks. To elicit and hold their attention the wise teacher strives to inject into the classroom reminders of the many-colored world outside. In this regard, teachers of the physical sciences have an advantage. If their school has adequate equip- ment they can give tangible demonstrations of the arid statements in their textbook. | remember how silent and attentive my thirty or so high school class- maies and | were when our chemistry teacher brought an odd-looking piece of equipment to class and 23300LerterR TO A YOUNG TEACHER announced that we were about to behold a myster;- ous process called electrolysis. He proceeded to pour some tap water into the contrivance, pulled a switch and presto, gases started gushing through two ripes Until that moment I think we had only half. believed what our textbook said about water being composed of atoms that were one part hydrogen, two parts oxygen. Now the abstract symbol H,0 repre. sented unquestionable reality. We had actually wit- nessed that the water we used to slake our thirst and wash our hands was in fact a union of two invisible gases. The world of science was beginning to make its secrets known Conversely, | remember how apathetic my col- lege classmates and | were when our physics teacher tried to explain the secrets of the atom (this was shortly after the explosion of the Hiroshima bomb) by filling the blackboard with a series of incomprehensible for- mulas. The blackboard can bea great aid to teaching, and all teachers should learn to use it. But it must be used wisely—to elucidate, not obfuscate. Some subjects, like quadratic equations, the quan- rbs, prob- tum theory, or the conjugation of irregular ve! he reality of ably cannot be linked in any fashion to t er subjects can. everyday experience. But many oth ae History, for example, should not be taught 34Reg lity series of dates and dry facts but as a story, for that is what it is. Like all stories it is about the successes and failures of human beings who inhabited the same world we do and had inner feelings no different from our own. It is not going too far to say that the history teacher should prepare for the class the way a profes- sional storyteller prepares for a public recitation Once the students are aware that history is a true-to-life drama as gripping as any they read about in the daily newspapers, they are hooked I knew a teacher of history who tried to make his classes on the American Civil War as exciting as a movie. His vivid descriptions recreated the battles He even mimicked the dialogue of the officers and politicians as they plotted and fought their battles This did not demand extraordinary acting ability on his part. Actually, he had no such gift. But it did de- mand some internal rehearsals before he entered the classroom, as well as a willingness to throw himself into various parts. Of course, an extremely shy per- son would not dare do what this teacher did. But extremely shy people usually have the good sense to join some profession other than teaching. One of my colleagues, a teacher of freshman eco- nomics, made a yearly field trip with his students to the stock exchange, where they could watch the dis- NSS: 2019.08.14 11:LL VL 80'6L0d Cs LETTER TOMASTOUNG TEACHER mal science in action. After observing how the world of high finance actually works, they had to write a report, interpreting what they saw. A field trip like this does not bring the real world into the classroom, but the classroom into the real world. Of course, not every subject can be the object of field trips. But where possible, wise teachers make them Part of their annual schedule A teacher should learn to use what visual aids and other props are available in the school—slide shows, maps, globes, charts, pictures, diagrams, recordings, videotapes, and so on. All these add a touch of color- ful reality to the drab uniformity of the classroom I once knew a literature teacher whose syllabus included Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem featuring that preposterous land-and-sea bird, the albatross. He knew that the odds that any of his students had ever seen an albatross in the flesh were close to zero. So when he learned that a nearby mu- seum had a stuffed one on display, he had them go and inspect it. Even Coleridge never had that opportunity. wn Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth whose © 5 minimal, was by schooling was by modern standard fall “st teachers © common acclaim among the greatest teache a est. Although not W! time, if not actually the great Is tell us more about ten for this purpose, the gospe 36SE Reality the art of teaching than a thousan gogy. Teaching the high truths ry so down-to-earth that the sim comprehend them is a challen, of the gospels must face on S among them realize that to meet this challenge all they have to do is look at the gospels, see how the itinerant preacher named Jesus once taught, then go and do likewise. All teachers today, even of the most secular subjects, can Profit by doing the same In the gospels we see Jesus teaching, not in the rarefied language of theologians, but in the gritty language of common folk. Centurie €ra was invented he knew dear to newspaper people, thousand words.” His Pictures, of course, were made with words, but they were picture- abstractions, They pointed to the listeners lived in, the fields, hills, estine. That is the kind of language every teacher should strive to adopt. Never try to impress your students with highfalutin language. Your job is to make them attend to the meaning of your words, not their fancy pedigree. Jesus was famous for making his points with sto- ries, Some of them, like “The Good Samaritan” and d textbooks on peda- f heaven ina manner plest churchgoer can ge that every preacher undays. The wise ones s before the cam- the truth of the saying that “a picture is worth a words, not windy Physical world his and waters of Pal- 37LetTeER TO A YOUNG TEACHER "The Prodigal Son,” are among the world’s best. A teacher cannot tell too many stories. There is no surer way to hold the attention of students. Like the stories of Jesus, of course, they should have a point that connects with the subject being taught, Finding such stories is one of the challenges that face you every time you prepare for class. Where should you look? First, within yourself. Nothing captures attention better than an anecdote drawn from a teacher's personal experience. You can also hunt for anecdotes about the people who became famous for their work in your subject. | have already stressed that the teacher must read beyond the bare minimum contained in their syllabus. Here is one place where such reading proves its value, Just mentioning an incident from the lives of people like Karl Marx or Louis Pasteur or Robert Louis Stevenson adds a human dimension to your subject Every time you encourage reality to poke its head into your classroom, your students will turn up the volume on their internal attention machines. Make sure they keep it on high.JER YOU IMAGINE anything less interesting than a street map of some town you have no intention of visiting? Or duller than a set of instructions on how to build a raft? But think of how closely you would examine that map if in an emergency you were trying to locate a doctor's address in that town. And how attentively you would pore over those instructions if you found yourself marooned on a desert island. We have no trouble attending to things we consider vitally important. We are never bored by caring for our own needs. Admittedly, history records some people who gave scant thought to their own needs. Think of such pearls of Christian compassion as Damien the leper or Mother Teresa, who made attending to the needs of others the main occupation of their lives. These, how- ever, are the exceptions. William James told the truth 2019.08.14 11:4 39———_ LETTER TO A YOUNG TEACHER about the vast mass of humanity when he wrote, ‘The most natively interesting thing to a man is his own personal self and his fortunes.” This does not mean we are all evil, only that we are not all saints. Our primary instinct is self-preser- vation, taking care of Number One. This truth is important for teachers. Say you are teaching hygiene to a class made up of young male athletes and announce that you are about to explain how they should go about washing their faces and brushing their teeth in the morning. Can you realis- tically expect them to hang onto your every word? Young male athletes have more vitally important things to attend to than clean faces and sparkling teeth. Now tell the same group of young men that you are about to explain surefire formulas for preventing muscle fatigue and improving muscle control, and watch them sit up and listen. Or imagine you are told to give a group of girls two courses, one on how to add pounds to their weight, the other on how to stay slim for the rest of their lives. To which course do you think they will flock? Whatever subject you are teaching, the trick is to find some reason why it is vitally important that your students master that subject. When and if you " i ce on find it, do your best to impress this importan' 40The Vital your students. If you succeed in this, their attention will be automatic. Note that by ‘vitally important” | do not mean something that is absolutely necessary to preserve life. Unless you are teaching pilots how to land a plane or medical students how to do open-heart surgery, hardly anything you teach will be that important. To be what I here mean by vitally important it is enough that a knowledge of your subject will contribute strongly to a contented life. In this category most people would include such things as satisfactory employment, rea- sonable prosperity, and a capacity to use one's leisure time in a fruitful, fulfilling way. Mathematics teachers can emphasize how impor- tant in many careers are basic mathematical skills (the pocket calculator has not rendered arithmetic totally obsolete), foreign language teachers can explain why in today's global market linguistic versatility can mean the difference between success and failure in business, teachers of literature can dwell on the enduring and higher pleasures to be derived from the habit of reading the great masters of fiction and Poetry, If you can find any link between the subject you teach and the future career and contentment of your students, don't keep it a secret, Convince them that the link is genuine. Al 2019.08.14 111:aE LETTER TO A Younc Teacuer But what if you cannot convince them? Or if, hard as you search, you find no such link? | do not know if it is still true, but certainly some of the subjects that were routinely taught when I was young seemed then and still seem to me to be utterly unrewarding. Why in the world were we required to learn something called dry measure? Who cares that a peck of bird seed equals eight quarts of bird seed? And except that it gave pleasure to those students who enjoyed any mathematical challenge, what profit was there in learn- ing the mysterious process for deriving square root? Who gives a hoot for square root? (Since writing these words | have learned of two groups that definitely do give a hoot—electrical engineers and statisticians How much or little this information would have mat- tered to my classmates and me when we were forced to learn square root over half a century ago, | leave the reader to judge.) If you are assigned to teach a subject you deem as unprofitable as square root or if, try as you may, you cannot convince your students that your subject ac- tually is important, you have one last recourse —Your students’ fear of the coming examination. In their quest for a good grade, students are often willing to give their undivided attention to subjects even duller than dry measure 42The Vital Some people (including me) think too many stu- dents are overly concerned about doing well in ex- aminations. They worry themselves into a nervous frenzy at examination time. But without going to that extreme, most students are rightly concerned about getting at least minimally passing grades. The last thing they want is the reputation of a dunce. They also dread bringing home a bad report card for their tuition-concious parents to scrutinize. And almost all of them are hoping to do well enough to gain admit- tance into a good secondary school or college. It would therefore be folly for a teacher to ignore the impor- tance of grades in motivating students to pay atten- tion in class. Take a lesson from the priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of the finest and certainly the most origi- nal poet in nineteenth century England. He was also, as poets often are, shy and dreamy, often to the point of being impractical. For several years he taught Latin ve seminary in Ireland. Half a century later, an aged — mwhto hadbeen one of his pupils was tracked ‘or an interview by an American scholar of Hopkins. When asked what Hopkins was like in the classroom, the priest barke. oe si d back: “Terrible teacher!” !s judgment? The following inci gests one good reason eae 43 ZA Oy Keo} sa Silas)—a—_ LetTTeER To aA YOUNG TEACHER Hopkins was once picked to compose the final examination for all students of Latin in Irish schools and seminaries. His own students were aware of this and naturally hoped it would give them an advantage. To his delicate conscience this posed a problem. How could he keep his students from thinking they could wrest from him some advance knowledge of the final examination? How make sure he would not let such knowledge slip out? To settle his scruple, Hopkins devised a unique solution. On the first day of the term he announced that not a word he spoke in class and not a Latin pas- sage he assigned for translation would find their way into the final examination. For examination Purposes, his students were entirely on their own. Let them study Latin for the beauty of its literature, giving no thought to what grades they would receive. Can you think of a surer way to forfeit their atten- tion? Is ita wonder that his students, no different from other students since the beginning of time, instantly put their pens down, closed their books and turned him off? For the rest of the term, his audience was the four walls of his classroom. So be realistic. Grades do count. Success in oe aminations is vitally important to students. There is , ten- nothing wrong with using this fact to arouse at 44And there is nothing illegal over Eiple questions from previous ations. These and similar strategies are old as the hills, but also surefire attention-getters. Don't neglect them. They work.ey THINGS WILL HOLD the attention of an au- dience as well as a judicious use of humor...It serves ee a relaxation from tension and thus prevents fatigue. (Alan H. Monroe, Principles and Types of Speech. [New York: Scott, Foresman, 1935] p. 87). Thus opens one of the chapters in an excellent textbook on public speaking that was in wide use when I was young. The author had mainly in mind the kind of humor we ex- pect from after-dinner and We have all seen how their fortable attention when th other occasional speakers. audiences sit back in com- ‘0 one ex; Of after-dinner strings of witty one. Pects teachers to rival th speakers or to regale thei. liners. We are neit © Most skillful ir students with her trained nor e 2019:08114 11:5)LS TO A YOUNG TEACHER Lerrer paid to be entertainers. What too many teachers fail to realize, however, is that a touch of humor can be as valuable in a classroom as in a banquet hall. A school is not so sacred a setting that occasional giggles and guffaws are utterly taboo. Anything that relaxes ten- sion and prevents fatigue is an aid to keeping students awake and attentive. It follows that although the fault is not fatal, people who are deficient in sense of humor are to that degree deficient as teachers. If you are blessed with even a slight capacity for creating laughter, cultivate it. Don't think that the pursuit of light-heartedness and good cheer is unbecoming one who occupies a teacher's pedestal. For your students your sense of humor will lighten the onerous process of learning, and for you it will brighten many an otherwise gray class day. lonce had a principal who took offense whenever he heard peals of laughter coming from one of his classrooms. He thought it destroyed the austerity that should permeate a school. In contrast, Gilbert Highet speaks of a “very wise old teacher” he knew who once said, “I consider a day's teaching wasted if we do not all have one hearty laugh” (The Art of Teaching [New York: Albert A. Knopf; 1959] p- 61), Hiletheei aii that their laughing together blurred the age-old hos- tility between young and old, pupil and master me 48LETTER TO A YOUNG TEacter prompted a piece of advice I received from a veteran teacher when | was about to begin my teaching ca- reer: “Don't crack a smile for your first six months.” That injunction certainly went too far, and | knew enough not to take it literally. But it contained a potent grain of wisdom, The peril for novice teachers is real. Fora while they should go easy on the humor. Onee a teacher loses control of a class, there is no regaining it. The game is over. Second, never indulge in the humor of ridicule at the expense of a student's feelings. Some gentle rib- bing may be allowable, provided you are certain the student will know you are not serious and will take it with a smile, But sarcasm is never in place, especially sarcasm aimed at a pupil's mental deficiencies. Finally, beware of canned humor, the kind one expects to find in a joke book. The problem is not that rehearsed humor is inherently out of place in the classroom, but that few non-professionals know how to tell such jokes effectively. Don’t even try unless you are certain you are one of these few. The rest of us * ae ae rwe usually find that either our timing is badly off a chline. cannot handle the dialogue or we muff the oe - ‘ ine for a pro- Creating the kind of humor that is routine i i ired slowly and by fessional entertainer is a skill acqu have When and if you n@ most people never at all. 50Humor acquired it, you will know. When in doubt, you al- most certainly haven't. So far I have used the word “humor’ in the sense of something that produces laughter. The word has another meaning, however, as when a student says, "My teacher was ina very good humor today.” This kind of humorall teachers, even those genetically incapable of telling a joke or relating a funny anecdote properly, have the Power to create every time they face a class. All it takes is a friendly, unthreatening, easygoing manner. Such a manner creates an atmosphere that makes school a plea- sure, a place where the pill of knowledge goes down easily. When the teacher is stern in manner the stu- dents grow tense, attention slackens, and little sinks in To generate this friendly atmosphere it helps enor- mously to learn the names of all your students as early in the term as possible. This may not be as easy as it sounds, especially if the class is large or has many ex- otic names. You may find it necessary to make a chart of where each student is seated and have them keep the same seats until you no longer need the chart. Whatever trouble this takes is well worth it. Once you know and call each student by name, the atmos- phere of your class will grow homey and family-like. Your students will no longer be an anonymous mass but individuals, each with a unique personality. to ances> LETTER PO Ay WOUNG TEACHER The price the teacher has to pay for favoring an atmosphere of good humor in the classroom may be a slight relaxation of discipline. If this happens, do not be alarmed. A teacher is not a guard in a prisoner-of. war camp. Allowing an occasional remark from the floor and ignoring a little whispering in the back seats are not necessarily formulas for disaster. To mix a metaphor, keep a steady hand on the till, but don't crack the whip at the slightest infraction. One important way to show good humor in the classroom is by praising your students, both individu- ally and collectively, when they do a good job. This costs you nothing and often gives a tremendous lift to the students, making them more attentive and ambi- tious to succeed. Too many teachers try to scold their pupils into better study habits. Praising them may not achieve all the benefits you desire, but nagging them never works When | taught English, I routinely assigned for the weekend a short essay. After correcting these with appropriate remarks in the margin, I would spend some time commenting in class on the more interesting Ones- | always saved the best for the last, reading parts aloud with suitable praise and announcing that the ane (and totally imaginary) literary y weekly had won my wee niet ean he award (designated the “Landy 52