Are you excited to see this new movie? I know, I am showing my Nerd Card when I wear it on my sleeve like this, but I just don’t get into the reality tv shows and I’m not interested in Dancing With the Stars nor can I commit to any television that is an hour long in duration. That’s just too much commitment from me right now. I’d rather take dance lessons anyway which, incidentally, is exactly what I’m doing. I’M NOT LYING ABOUT THIS. I’m in a couples dance class that meets every other week and I’ve already mastered the Nightclub Two Step, the Rumba, and something else that I can only remember as put-your-hands-on-top-of-your-partner’s-and-step-step-rock-step. Sure, I can’t recall the technical name right now, but trust me. I’m good at it already.
Anway, I really want to see Waiting for Superman when it’s released.
Not long ago, a close friend asked me what the ingredients were for a good teacher. As I began to try to list them I quickly realized that there are good teachers who don’t have all the ingredients I was listing and the conversation shifted to this basic question: if you had to categorize only four types of teachers, what would those categories be?
And then, we added wine to the conversation.
And then, my comments were peppered with fury and outrage and a couple of delicately placed choice words.
Nothing gets me going more than to discuss public education in America. It seems that it is my Kryptonite and no, I didn’t even have to try very hard for that Superman pun. I’M JUST THAT CLEVER. Our conversation continued until I came up with the following descriptors of educators I have either had as teachers or worked with in my career.
The Magnificent Artist
At the top of the list would be the person who is called to the profession. They are the artist and the crafter and the way they reach out to students to ensure they learn is a skill that cannot be learned, even over years. In fact, they are so good at this that it comes naturally and they cannot tell you how this is done. If you watch them closely, you know that what they do is magic. Their modesty is commendable, but they just do this…well, just because they do this. When they see students failing, they do not accept it. No student is afforded the option of just not doing it. These are the teachers who return papers to students so that they can do better because the teacher knows they can. Accepting mediocrity is unheard of, and they always ask high level questions and challenge students. If the majority of their students fail a big test, they are quick to blame themselves but never the other way around. They think outside the box. [Madame Esme comes to mind. I read her book Educating Esme: Diary of a Teachers First Year. When she talked about roller skating down the hallway in her book I knew exactly what kind of teacher she was and I went to hear her speak at a conference once. She was still magical, but I'm sad that she left teaching.] They go to great lengths to see students outside of the classroom and spend lunches and after school hours working with kids who didn’t get it the first time it was taught. Everything is not in black and white for them because they see the nuances of the grey areas of teaching. For instance, they might accept that a kid who is struggling do their test orally and not be so rigid as to expect that all assessments are multiple choice. They differentiate instruction, teach students to monitor their own learning, and can teach a lesson on tadpoles so thoroughly and so incredibly well that every one in the class will want to be a marine biologist by the end.
The Almost-There Teacher
There is nothing wrong with the Almost-There teacher that a little fire under their rear ends can’t fix. When they began teaching, they were passionate young newbies who wanted to change the world but now? Well, they’re a little deflated from the work they do. Don’t get me wrong! They still like it, but they are sometimes too tired to care that Maya didn’t get breakfast or that Dalten has family members who are fighting so much that restraining orders are being taken out against one another. What they do well, however, is teach effective lessons. Like the Magnificent Artist, they use all the right tools to get excellent student work back. Some of them quit after 3 years (which is an average I hate to see) because of burn-out, marriage, change of location, etc. Unlike the Magnificent Artist, however, they will not work one extra second with a student unless they are paid a curriculum rate for their time because they are tired of giving it away for free. Usually, they are very pro-union. Please don’t read into that too much. I see a need for unions, but I also see how well they’ve protected bad teachers and how much that affects student achievement or lack thereof. When students are hurt as a result of unions allowing a poor achieving teacher to retain their job for years and years and fighting tooth and nail for an adult unwilling to change their practices to allow for student growth, then I just can’t see what they’re doing in the business of education. Historically speaking in this country this is a long standing pissing contest and since I’m on The Dark Side (administration) I take a lot of flak for taking such a stand. For the record, I do not care. I’m here to advocate for the education of children, not for the convenience of the adults who are supposed to be doing the same.
The Star That Faded Too Fast
I want to like this teacher. In fact, they are sometimes very kind. Other times, they are the most negative person on the planet. They are the kind of person you avoid like the plague. Let me tell you something about them: they are tired. Sick and tired. Yet they don’t seem to tire of telling you just how tired they are. While they began their days of teaching well, they have since become cynical and hard for students to connect with both in and out of the classroom. You may have had one of these fading stars as a teacher. They drone on about their subject and feel that theirs is the most respected content area there is. This teacher cares very little for the bullying that goes on in class, but they complain at every turn when the bullying escalates and disrupts their teaching. This teacher doesn’t recognize when a student is needy, but they put them out of the classroom for that very behavior. This teacher wants their coursework to take precedence over all others, but they never set foot on a field to watch their students play a sport or an auditorium to hear them in a musical or concert. They may teach science, but they’ll be damned if they have to teach them how to read their textbook. By now, they’ve gotten used to using the term “spoon feeding” and instead of making them read the text and have a firm grasp of the vocabulary, they just tell them what they want so that students don’t have to work too hard. Content literacy? Pshaw! Cooperative grouping? Ha! That’s just a fad! Most everything with regards to professional development and scientifically-based research methods are “a fad” and they are not going to try anything new ever again. “Oh, well now, young’un, if you’re around here long enough [insert wink] you’ll see the same thing come through again but with a different name.” I’ve been told that more than once and my response is the same, too: If we’d all make the necessary changes then we wouldn’t be DOING THE SAME THINGS OVER AGAIN WITH A NEW NAME BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T MAKE AN EFFORT THE FIRST TIME. And yes, for your information, I tend to yell this when this topic comes up in discussion. The all caps isn’t just for effect.
The Summer Schooler
You’ll know a Summer Schooler when you see one. In fact, it will take less than a 2-minute conversation about schools to call them out on it. This is the teacher who was a low performer themselves and has low expectations for other students. In fact, their M.O. is to consistently blame students for low achievement. I like what Geoffrey Canada said in the latest issue of Time magazine this month when he was quoted as saying, “If schools aren’t working, it’s the adults.” For some reason, the Summer Schooler has had leadership that has allowed their behavior. If someone else comes along and demands more from them they are suddenly very close to their union representatives and they seek protection from doing things differently. Many of these teachers give up their own power in the classroom by constantly sending kids to be disciplined elsewhere. If you send the kid to me and I have a conversation with them about the root of their behavior, then I fixed the problem but only the one I might have with that student. They’ll still have the same problems with this teacher and a cyclical pattern will begin. This teacher loves to get in the faces of misbehaving kids and they nearly have a coronary when they see low-cut tops on girls or baggy pants. It sets them off when students don’t dress the way they want, yet they aren’t the least bit concerned if the kid can’t read. Bizarre combination, that one. The reason they are called the Summer Schooler is because they live for the summer. They may fish or boat or camp or whatever and when they are doing those activities you had better not think about calling them during their time off. [Once, I called a teacher over to summer to ask a question about our fall courses and she hadn't realized that her phone was answered and I could hear her say, "What now? MY time." before I heard her change her voice completely to a chipper, "Hello?" Caller ID can sometimes bite you right in the butt.] Many sentences from this kind of teacher begin with “If the kids would just…” and they are entirely too focused on how students are dressed, what is pierced on their faces, and if they are flirting and not paying attention to schoolwork. Whether or not they can multiply three-digit numbers never comes up in their conversation unless they are talking about how stupid kids are “these days”. Ah, yes. They never delight more in conversation than when they can talk about when they were in school as a kid. These are the teachers who desperately need our help in getting out of the profession. They need a career counselor of their own to find a different path, but summer is just so attractive to them that they hang on and hurt kids in the process.
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This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it was one of my favorite conversations about teaching and I thought that if I didn’t get it written down then I wouldn’t really explore it like I wanted. Every school has a combination of these teachers, but we need more Magnificent Artists to see real change. We can’t keep doing the same thing but expecting a new, fantastic result. I don’t believe there is a magic formula to getting student achievement to increase. It comes down to one thing: hard work on the part of everyone. Some kids are getting it, some teachers are doing it, and some parents are partnering with us to make it happen for their child. Lately, I’ve been pondering all the things educators put in place to help students with their behavior and I realized that these methods aren’t really for the kids. They’re for us. Many of us are not kind to children, we’re not accepting of them, we are irritated by their neediness. So we take what one group is doing that really comes down to this: we’re nice to children. Be kind. Have compassion. We’re all of us weary, but there is magnificence among us. That has to be enough. Superman is not coming.
Part of my dissertation is the exploration of effective teaching and the qualities of an effective teacher. This is interesting as it mirrors on some level my own list of categories. Most of my work is with pre-service teachers and helping them develop the skills to be what you call the Magnificent Artist.
I too can’t wait to see Waiting for Superman and I totally love Geoffrey Canada.
I’m so glad you said what you did about unions protecting teachers that need to be let go. I went to a high school filled with those teachers. Many of them had been there from the day the school opened and you could see it in their eyes that they were simply counting the days until they could retire. They fussed over the color ink we used but didn’t seem to care that we kept raising our hands saying. “I just don’t get it.”
As they started to retire, younger, more energetic teachers came in to take their places. Some of them were artists, but most were the Almost There teachers. Compared to the teachers that needed to be put out to pasture, they were awesome!!
Ok, that trailer made me cry. I was raised poor/dysfunctional/blah blah blah, and by shear luck I lived on the edge of the better school district. I walked 2 miles to the better high school (even though I lived across from one). I don’t where I would be if it wasn’t for the teachers I had. I hate the idea of a lottery, a chance, to get an education.
I don’t teach in a school… but education is a large part of my job – and because of that, I end up working with a lot of teachers. Right now I’m mentally catagorizing the ones that are teaching my children …
Thankfully, most of them are in the magnificent or almost there categories.
I can’t wait to see that film…
As a parent, I can immediately picture specific teachers I’ve come across in each of your descriptions: you put into words the nebulous feelings I have about some of them. Sadly, my son had “The Star who faded too fast” for his Kindergarten year. Thankfully, “The Magnificent Artist” teaches him this year.
As a general comment–I so enjoy reading your blog. Your perspective, coupled with your writing, is so appealing, not to mention informative. My thanks to you for sharing a piece of yourself with all of us.
Thanks for this, i am a new reader to your blog… and you give me hope that there are actually teachers who *gasp* enjoy teaching! and children! The really sad part is it is so rare. My own education is littered with the ‘summer teacher’ and those that just hate kids… never understood that…
I appreciate you standing your ground for what you believe in, specifically regarding the unions. I agree there is a need in some aspects, salaries are low and resources minimal, in many cases. However, I feel that a union should not be used to save the job of teachers who negatively influence generations of children.
I hope more Magnificent Artists find their way into the classrooms! As my son enters school next year… i will be on the look out!
This is thought-provoking and a little sad. It’s easy to see the Faded Stars and Summer Schoolers in our schools. I am headed back to school myself and hope to meet more Magnificents than not…
Let me know when you go see “Waiting for Superman”. I will go with you!
I’ve seen many teachers over the years who should have left the profession, but that darn union protected them. Why? When is it that we do what’s best for kids…not adults?
1. I’m super happy you’re taking dance classes! I approve. (Not that that matters, but still. I do.)
2. I think I’m some combination of the first three you mentioned, which is great (that I’m somewhat of a Magnificent Artist) and awful (that I’m somewhat of a Faded Star). I need to change that…
I googled for difference between an educator and a teacher when I stumbled on your blog. I think my search ends here. Nice blog.
You KNOW I get equally riled up over all this – and since I don’t drink, there’s no wine to keep me from feeling like my head’s gonna explode in 3…2…1.
Anyway, I’m very excited to see the movie again but I’m worried that all people will get out of it is that unions are bad and need to be disbanded. It makes Randi Weingarten look like the devil for real – the interesting thing is that in some of the Southern states that don’t allow teacher’s unions, they don’t get rid of teachers at any higher rate. They still let ineffective teachers keep on wreaking havoc in the classroom!
I hope people will start thinking about how they can develop every teacher into that magnificent artist because, malleable intelligence believer that I am, I think we can get folks there or almost there if we support & train them right.
And dang, I want to take dance lessons now!
I remember the The Summer Schoolers and The Magnificent Artist from my school years. I don’t know what my son’s kindergarten teacher was, just old & cranky & biding her time. I don’t know if they have a union at his Catholic school. I think this movie will make me cry.
This is the first time have been offended by one of your posts. I can’t say why it hit me wrong, but it kind of does.
KP, I can only imagine that it would seem as if I’m bashing teachers. But honestly, if we’re not offended in the United States about the education system right now then we’re just not paying attention to the atrocities happening every day in schools. Every one of these teachers have taught me. I have been hurt by them and so have other students. I hope people are offended that bad teachers have access to their children. I hope, quite frankly, that it pisses people off to the point of a real revolution so that kids don’t have to wish for a good education.
Mostly, though, I hope that people who are passionate and grounded in real reform will be able to do something. Because our system is broken and that is unacceptable.
So, you’ve been taking dance lessons, eh? You will have to join us some crazy night in Champaign to dance the night away until they kick us out at 2am
. It’s really sad there aren’t any good places to REALLY dance in Springfield. At least none where you won’t get beer spilled on you and a fight won’t break out.
I’m not sure how anyone could be offended by this post, unless they are a “Summer Schooler” themselves. I work in a profession that could be considered “on the outskirts” of the education system, and I agree with you completely. The problem with schools today isn’t the kids at all. It’s the adults and the government bodies that rule the schools. The policies and curriculum are utterly outdated.
My 8th grader (last year) had a summer schooler for two classes. One time he had to redo an assignment for writing it in the wrong color. Nevermind he’s a straight A student that was terribly bored. When she started to give him lunch detention for not doing homework (that was not graded) that he didn’t need to do in order to master the content of the class I transferred him out of her classroom.
That was supposed to say *student* instead of stupid. Oops.
Sam, I fixed your comment. It was bothering me to see that even though I giggled a bit.
I’m going to write about this on my own site but I will say that Randi Weingarten couldn’t be further from “the Devil”. She’s a passionate union leader and educator who gets a bad rap from movies like this and union bashing.
I say this as someone who knows her personally. In fact I’ve known her for years. I even work with her. She’…gosh..she’s just so not and this movie is nothing but well placed propaganda done under the guise of wanting to show how screwed up education is in this country. Education here is totally fucked up but people who are aware don’t need a movie to show them that.
i know a Magnificent Artist. the problem is that her administration constantly dumps more and more duties and responsibilities onto her. she already goes above and beyond what many of her fellow teachers do. instead of trying to take some of her methods and incorporate them into other areas (because she gets results!), they tend to expect inhumane efforts from her. how can that not possibly lead to burnout, when others do so little in comparison?
This is a really interesting typology, and in my careers as a student, a teacher, and an education policy person I have known and have seen all of these types of teachers. Where I was initially thinking this was going, however, and something I’d be interested in exploring more, is the different categories of successful teachers. Because there are some who rollerskate down the hall, and others who just stand up and deliver a lecture but that lecture is so good, and they have such command of their subject and respect for their students that somehow that works, too. I guess what I’m mulling over is this: are there several different models of magnificent artists?
The thing that makes me really afraid is it seems like we don’t know very much about HOW to make/recruit/keep the magnificent artists. If the answer to “how to make schools better” is “have more magnificent artists,” and I fully believe it is, but the magnificent artists are those who, by definition, have some impossible-to-quantify gift, it makes the problem seem discouragingly intractable.
That last comment – the how….it doesn’t seem like it is something that is taught in teacher school, does it. There are many ways to do the job right, but there are also so many ways to do it wrong. Are great teachers born, not made? Like the artist, they have to have an innate gift for teaching and caring and having a rapport with students that makes kids want to learn for them?
I’m a little behind in my reading…what can I say, this years group is kicking me in the butt and I am exhausted at night.
I can see myself in your categories and so many other teachers, I can put names to each of them. Funny how that is…we teach and 2 different/but similar countries and not much is different at all.
“I see a need for unions, but I also see how well they’ve protected bad teachers and how much that affects student achievement or lack thereof.” Amen! Sadly, this one I see too often. Along with the summer schooler. That said, I’m seeing a change this year…and it’s a nice change to see!!
I totally agree with most of what you are saying (I see myself in several of those descriptors).
Are there similar categories for administrators? Having worked under several incompetent principals and assistant principals, I know how much they impact the climate of the school. Funny how we hear so little about administrators in the news- does the public not understand how critical an effective principal is for teacher and student success?
Hi,
I’m Sam…I’ve been reading for a while always delurking and then relurking I guess. I guess instead of paying for therapy I’m using your comments to get my feelings out there and bounce this off of someone in the profession.
I went to college wanting to be a high school history teacher. I got to the last semester before student teaching and I had a professor (who was also the person in charge of placements for the secondary ed students) who felt that it was his duty to “weed out the bad teachers”. Nothing I did was ever good enough for him there were people in my class that he liked more and he bent over backwards for them. We had to do this 2 week “pre-student teaching” at one of the local schools and the supervising teacher I was assigned to was a summer schooler. I wanted to try new things and his response was “you can but nothing works.” The prof. ripped apart every one of my lesson plans and said that maybe I wasn’t made out for teaching. When he came to observe me he said “oh well you did better than I thought you would.”
I was so afraid to be a bad teacher that I decided that I’d rather not student teach until I was ready. I was afraid that I would mess up these kids. I thought that I would keep them from doing the things they wanted to do. Now I realize that I was kept from what I wanted to do.
I don’t think I’ll ever go into teaching but I do use what I’ve learned about education with my daughter and we have another on the way. I’ve never really felt sad about it until now. I do wish I would have just gone through student teaching and flipped off that prof when I had my own classroom after graduation but thats not the path I took. Thanks for listening.
I do agree with your categories. I feel mostly the same about the education system. I wish I could have stuck it out to change something. Its hard when your ed. profs also fall into these categories. You’ve gone through all that schooling and everything is taken away. Its the whole system thats broken.
Good post. I’m not a teacher, though I use a homeschool curriculum with my under-five dayhome crew. I’m not American, either – though the government of my province (Alberta) in Canada, likes how superficially inexpensive the American education system is. I love your statement about the necessity of kindness. We need that. All of us who work with children. We need that reminder to be emotionally present for the kids in our care. Thank you for posting this.
I respect your passion and your committment for education. But I kind of agree with the commenter who said this post hit her the wrong way. It feels like much of the public debate about education is focused on bad teachers, as is this post. To what end? We all know bad teachers are bad and they should go.
And frankly, I don’t find it shocking or amazing that bad teachers get to stay in their jobs. Its not like there’s a tidal wave of people beating down the doors to become teachers — because, IMHO, its a job that is in many ways thankless.
I would love to see your thoughts and discussion on ways to recruit, support and retain GREAT teachers and administrators. Do you think that shifting focus and discussion to that topic and creating supportive structures would have the side-effect of weeding out the less-performing teachers?
And here’s my disclaimer, because I’m definitely coming from a particular perspective: my husband taught middle school for 6 years. He was a Magnificent Artist. But man — the burden, the unbelievable pushing-a-boulder-uphill energy-suck of a system full of disenfranchised and burnt-out teachers, entrenched administrators, and the labyrynthine bureaucracy that is the Bd of Ed — you really would have to be a saint or frankly out of your mind to stay in that system.
Very well said, Marie!
I have a math degree and love tutoring privately. For years I’ve debated whether I should get a credential to teach. The problems Marie pointed out above are part of what keep me from doing so. Plus, in California it is expensive to get a credential. For a year and a half I will be paying to work for the school district. I was expressly told that I wouldn’t have time for even a part-time job while completing the credential! My plan for now is to save up money and volunteer at schools on my days off. With all of this turmoil and the economic recession, entering the education field is kind of terrifying now-a-days.
These types exist in every profession, not just teaching.
I have waited to comment. I wanted to mull over everything you wrote because it affected me so personally. I used to teach special education, Deaf kids and anyone else who qualified for Spec Ed…just for 4 years. I left because I was completely overwhelmed my last year. I always knew I was a great advocate and a caring counselor for my kids. Most were dealing with things I never even contemplated before I began to teach. When my kids would enter my class after dealing with the court system, or cops at their homes, I always shut the door and made them feel like they were loved. I knew, however, a good teacher would do that, but also work on whatever lesson plan/goals were to be implemented that day. I always let the curriculum slide and cared more about the emotional side of my students. So I left (over 10 years ago). I didn’t miss the red tape, fighting with admin to get services my students needed, or any of that. I missed my kids, though. Reading your post makes me think I made a big mistake. I fully believe kids deserve respect and all learn a little differently. I taught from Howard Gardner’s Nine Multiple Intelligences Theory the 4 years I taught, and was consistently amazed at how a non-reader could put a complicated machine together, or a student with behavior disorders would work calmly when music was played for him. I loved, loved, knowing how intelligent my students were, even though test scores proved otherwise. They showed it in so many other areas.
So, I am supposed to go back to school in the spring to begin work on a second degree in nursing, but your post has made me rethink that, a little. I am going to sub in our school system while working on my BSN. I know it’s not the same as teaching, I think it will let me know if teaching may be what I need to go back to–time will tell.
Thank you for this post.
You inspire me with your courage and wisdom. People like you give me any hope at all that the educational system can be reformed. Right now you might be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, but it didn’t take many of them to change the world, did it?
I’m coming back to this post after reading about Oprah (!!!) and your illness. Hope you are feeling better soon, sounds very scary!
Anyway, here’s what I think about the teacher categories. I teach college, so I should out myself first. We have a Magnificent Artist in our department, but I did not choose him as my teaching mentor. I think you’re right – he is magic in the classroom, but he probably can’t explain what he does and even if he could, I couldn’t do it.
The person I did pick as my teaching mentor is not an Almost-There Teacher. He really is there, but his technique and approach are not as mysterious as the Magnificent Artist. He had to learn how to do what he does so he is more able to teach me how to do it. He might be a slightly less good teacher than the Magnificent Artist, he probably is, but he’s still a very fine teacher, much better than Almost-There.
I guess I’d like an additional category. The Very-Fine-Teacher-Who-Was-Not-Necessarily-Born-To-It-But-Learned-How-To-Do-It-Through-Hard-Work. You think of a better title because you’ll be good at that. I also think, incidentally, that this new type of teacher will be easier to recruit, create, and retain. Great post.
You should also try to see Race to Nowhere, which offers a more complete look at what’s wrong with education (not just teachers).