OLD SCHOOL, NEW SCHOOL…

Does it really matter as long as you give a _________?

A seasoned, master teacher, willing to embrace new technology, how efficiently and effortlessly can he or she weave it into a teaching moment in a course. The bright-eyed, energetic enthusiasm of the first year teacher, not yet adulterated with cynicism of a repeated redundancy of those who think all students are “a lost generation.” How magnificent teaching is when those at the beginning and those at their full peak are there to influence and enhance the minds of those eager to learn.

The torch for learning is lit not only by the brain, but also by the heart. So as long as either has the passion to bring out the best in students, that is what I believe is the difference between a technician and a “teacher”. Imparting of information to those who are left with “What the heck is that teacher saying? Is a far cry different from, “Wow, now I get it?” Maybe a teacher should not be so readily evaluated during classroom observation by how well the lesson plans are, but maybe the number of “aha” moments that are revealed during discussion.

Haven’t we all had those teachers who have been teaching for years and are a drag, but of course, the only teacher that teaches the course that everyone has to take in order to graduate? Boy! Or Girl!, not to be gender specific…wasn’t that a fun course, huh? Admit it, it was probably that statistics course that you dreaded and you were happy if you came out of it alive, right? Or was it someone new, but had a charisma that seemed infectious and you never missed a class because of it?

In either case, was the course difficult or easy solely because of the content or how the teacher put you at ease or not? Old school or new school, does it matter?

I think most of us, somewhere along the way, hated that teacher that made you be clear in what you said or wrote and your second chance at trying to pull something over on that teacher would be not too promising. How many years went by for you, before you realized how that structure served you well later on?

 Or, the teacher who set no boundaries and at the end of the course, when you reflect back on what you learned, did you scratch your head? Was it an easy “A”, but you realized that the next course was dependent on what you learned in that easy first one—well, did you find yourself cursing just a bit?

Some say, we have lost our traditional values of hard work and discipline and that is why America is behind other developed countries and others, not so far behind us in our rear-view mirror. And if you check your best seller lists in education, there must be at least one or two books or web sites that suggest we tear down all the schools and start over. Old School or new school, does it really matter? If you give a ________?

I think there is a need for both new and experienced points of view. We need some maturity to guard against illusory goals that eventuate in a repetition of looking for new panaceas that seldom work. We need to have new ideas to guard against repeating old techniques that never did!