“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care” – President Theodore Roosevelt
I came across these words of Teddy Roosevelt a few years ago and I immediately wished I had come up with them myself. The profound truth of these words has to lie at the very heart of any educational establishment.
When you think back on your experiences at school, and specifically in the classroom, I rather imagine your memories are less to do with what you learnt and more to do with the people who were delivering your classes.
I remember some of my teachers because they were frightfully tedious and dull and, in some cases, because they governed the classroom setting with no small amount of terror. However, I have even stronger memories of those teachers who were just out of this world. I didn’t find some of my subjects at all easy and yet the willingness of some teachers to work with me to overcome the difficulties I was facing, gave me the belief that I could rise to the challenge and tackle them with at least some degree of ability. It was these teachers who showed me that the love of their subject was more than just academic and was something that they passionately felt would enrich their pupils’ lives. Their enthusiasm would often take them off on wild tangents but in so doing, they opened our eyes to a world that went far beyond the confines and constraints of the curriculum and broadened our minds and experiences.
Sadly, I still encounter far too many teachers who stick religiously to the curriculum and teach almost exclusively through the text books. If this is evident in a school when you are looking around, start looking elsewhere. These teachers have not responded to a vocational calling and even if that had been the case once upon a time, their passion for their subject has long gone and teaching has become just a job. Education should always be exciting and that excitement has to emanate from the teachers.
For those who come into teaching with anything less than a profound desire to have a positive impact on young people and passion to share their own knowledge because they truly believe in its ability to transform the lives of those they teach, schools are difficult places to be and I struggle to understand why they have chosen to become teachers. Perhaps the thought of long holidays is sufficient to lure them in but it is a false promise. If you are going to be a successful teacher, education has to be a calling, and when you respond to a calling, the holidays are your opportunity to further your own knowledge of your subject to further enrich the education of your pupils upon returning to the classroom.
This is where Teddy Roosevelt’s words come to life. The teachers that love what they do are in the classroom because they see in front of them, a group of young minds with the capacity to learn and go on to have bright futures. That is the greatest motivation for any good teacher and it stirs within them a passion not just for their subject, but for others to share in that passion. That desire and enthusiasm will always resonate with young people – it is what draws them to their music idols and to film stars and it is what draws them to particular teachers. When you can see how much a person cares about something it creates empathy with that person and a desire to enjoy what they are enjoying, to share and participate in their passion.
The truth is that we learn our teachers, not the subject itself. It is their passion that provides the inspiration and enjoyment for pupils’ learning and when you have such teachers in a school you know you have struck gold because it is these teachers who will instil a love of learning for no other reason than because it becomes fun to learn.
When you know how much your teachers care about what they are teaching, and that the reason they are in the classroom is because they want their pupils to share in what they consider to be something truly special, then the pupils respond and the learning just happens. As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” You should be able to see the evidence of that all around the classroom. If there are just posters stuck up to fill space, however informative they may be, it is an immediate sign of a teacher who has sadly slipped into a state of complacency and for whom the excitement of teaching has lost its spark. However if there are projects that have been done with the pupils that take them beyond the teaching curriculum and convey the interest and engagement of the pupils with their teacher, then you can feel the passion for that subject coming alive; if you have the chance to actually speak to the pupils as part of a tour, they will have stories to tell about what they have learnt and an understanding and appreciation of the subject that takes them away from their text books to convey an enthusiasm for their next lesson and the interest with which they speak about their learning will draw you in and hopefully enable you to reminisce about your own best experiences at school.
Your meeting with the Head Teacher is also crucial when you are deciding on a school for your son or daughter. If they say that a school is not about the buildings but about the teachers and the pupils, and if it is said with sincerity, then it is worth looking at what else is on offer because you can be confident that the foundations of that school are strong and the purpose of that school is to bring out the best in your son or daughter.
The world of education is evolving. It can’t continue to be what you and I have been familiar with during our own schooling. The world is a different place for our children to the one we have grown up in and we have to open our minds to what we now need and want our children to get from their education. If the Head Teacher is progressive and forward looking and exploring ways to better prepare your son or daughter for the world of tomorrow, you have a school being led by someone who is thinking beyond what is comfortable and wants the best for your child. It is a great starting point.
