It is the back
to school season! Last week I wrote an article
in our archdiocesan Catholic magazine, The
Angelus, on the value of Catholic school educators. I was first going to
write about initiatives and plans that we have for the year but it was
suggested that I focus more on the human element of education and I am happy
with how it turned out. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Education
is a profession that will elevate you to extreme heights in one moment and
bring you down to extreme lows in the next. I addressed our first year teachers
last week and talked about how much education has changed over the past 10
years, and how that pace of change seems to be accelerating. I remember telling
parents at the school where I was principal about 15 years ago that handwriting
would be obsolete someday. At the time it was pretty radical, and I caught some
heat for suggesting it. After all, Catholic schools are known for discipline and
nice handwriting – thank you Sisters! But I think today no one would bat an eye
at such a suggestion. In fact, we are closer to the moment where the only
writing instrument people use in meetings is a stylus on their tablet.
I think
the ‘radical’ concept educators are wrestling with today is the diminishing
importance of teaching content. When I started teaching the essence of my job
was to convey the knowledge from the textbook to the students in my class. If I
am being honest it was passive (on the students’ part) transference of content.
That aim has change dramatically in the past two decades. Today content is
everywhere and students can get answers to any questions in seconds from a
phone or device. Thus, the teaching of content isn’t as important so the role
of the teacher has to change. The focus needs to shift to teaching skills,
problem solving, creativity, communication and collaboration. The other skill
that students need to learn is how to process and analyze all the data they are
consuming. With so many different sources for data, and some that are not so
reputable or reliable, students need to be educated about how to be savvy
consumers of what they read on the internet.
At the same
time we can never forget the human person – education is nothing without
relationships to each other. With the growth of social media and technology we
have become more connected and more distant at the same time. I know people who
email questions to the person who is sitting 15 feet away from them. With
students especially they need to be intentionally taught about how to
collaborate and interact with others. The skill that is not going away is the importance
of working in teams and collaborating to accomplish goals. Some of that will be
done through technology networks but the majority will be done interacting on a
one on one basis.
Finally,
back to the start and the importance of the educator in the classroom. The
impact of a teacher is tremendous and that impact lasts a lifetime. When I read
the poem, Cloths of Heaven, by William
Butler Yeats I think of the dreams of the students in our schools. He says it
more eloquently than anything I could write:
Had I the heavens' embroidered
cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
