How do we create learning opportunities and experiences for students and staff that focus on empowerment, as opposed to engagement?
I had a wonderful conversation with a friend at church yesterday. Her daughter, Hazel, is nine years old and finishing up her third grade year. I told Kristin how I love seeing Hazel as an acolyte, a job I find my 48 year-old self doing quite a bit these days, a throwback to my time as a teenager.
Growing up in the '80s, my experience in the Episcopal Church was a regimented evolution of responsibility in assisting with the service. Sixth graders became torchbearers, moving on to flag-bearers, and finally becoming the crucifer, carrying the cross and assisting the priest (my dad) with duties at the altar.
My father retired in 2005, but he still supplies occasionally, and generations of acolytes characterize him as a patient teacher and empowering priest. His sermons tend to run about 12 minutes, always starting with a personal story, some self-deprecating humor, and a tie-in with the lessons for the day. He is not a hands-waving preacher. His audience is not captivated by an animated sense of engagement; they are empowered because he brings the Word of God to them and empowers them to act. One can call him "Reverend Sanders" or "Father Sanders," but even the youngest children know him simply as "Harv." Years before, he had his name removed from the church sign. The church is not Harv Sanders, not a building, but God's love empowering a congregation. It's a lesson that is not lost on me.
Kristin told me that Hazel is ready for summer after a somewhat dispiriting time in third grade. Hazel does not feel empowered. The kid has kept a journal since she was six, loves writing, and is captivated by reading and the written word. A recent assignment was to create a piece of writing and then revise it. Hazel felt her original writing was her best writing and simply copied the draft as a final edit.
She was marked down. She was deflated.
Hazel is not a compliant kid. She is a "good kid," don't get me wrong. She is not a kid who will do things a certain way because it pleases her parents or her teacher. Hazel wants to know the "why."
Her parents are masterful at teaching her the "why." She has not experienced that in the classroom.
I suggested that Kristin see if there is a male fourth grade teacher for Hazel. We both agreed that it would be a growth experience for Hazel to learn from a different-gendered teacher. My friend, Dan, is an elementary librarian and former fourth grade teacher, and it takes a special kind of guy to make a difference in the elementary setting, where male roles seem to be P.E. teachers and - less so now than when we were kids - principals.
I told Kristin that if Hazel were my student I would take her aside and answer her "whys." Why IS writing about revision? I would have offered the opportunity to edit with me and see what a fresh set of eyes would see. That is empowering.
I worked with a colleague who prided herself on a "well-managed" classroom. She has only taught first grade her entire career. She has no desire to do anything else, no impetus to teach at a different grade level, She loves the compliant children, the ones who fear and follow her without question. She requires kids use a hand signal to signify yes to a question. God forbid what would happen if a child uses verbal response. She has two boys and loves them dearly, but the boys in her classroom were to be broken and made compliant like the sweet, compliant girls she adores. Certain boys always had lunch detention and missed recess. Admonitions of "How DARE you" were commonly thrown at them. Shame was her game, and for many of these boys their tolerance level was hardened by their home experiences and they seemed to blow it off. Tragic. She would empower her own children but not those in her charge.
We had a few clashes, but for the most part I just steered clear of this toxic teacher.
One child was her model student, always being praised for her behavior. This child went to second grade behind in her reading and all were amazed considering how well-behaved she was. This child was compliant and engaged, but not empowered. She later moved to my wife's district and is entering 8th grade at my wife's middle school.
Isabelle (she now goes by Belle) is still sweet and well-behaved, but she has blossomed into an empowered adolescent. She loves the library, and visits Jodie every day. She is part of the empowered "Reader Girls" my wife has cultivated. (She has "Reader Boys" as well, but the Reader Girls are special. They remind her of our niece, Ella, who is the same age. Reader Girls steer clear of drama.)
How do we create a focus on empowerment and not just engagement? We build relationships with kids and inculcate the mindset that we learn to grow ourselves and not just to learn material. I began my career as a teacher of history but realized I am a teacher of children. A dear colleague has allowed me to push into her 8th grade US History class and work with students. Nearly two decades of life separate us, and our friendship shares a love of hockey, history, and the fact that either she is "an old soul" or I am just "young at heart." Perhaps it is both.
"Sanders," she told me. "You see history as a conversation to be had and not information to be retained."
I will never forget that. My dear friend empowers those kids in the same vein that I do.
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