“I don’t want to be my heart surgeon’s first patient,” is a way of saying “experts only wanted here.” Perhaps in the circumstance of heart failure in the high plains of Nevada on a road known as “America’s loneliest highway” a rookie heart surgeon would be a first choice. Other than that event, give me expertise every day.
“I don’t want my five year old to be her teacher’s first student,” is a way of saying the same thing about expertise in teaching. And, the lack of expertise in early childhood education may be as deathly for a child as a lack of cardiac expertise for an adult. Consider the dim reality of decades of living with a poorly ignited curiosity or misshapened reading and writing skills or a disinterest in competence. “Cut out my heart and feed it to the dogs.” (Shakespeare In Love, 1998).
Happily, there are expert teachers just as there are expert heart surgeons. Two examples of real people.
Ms. Lucas is the liveliest, most engaging, most informed and the most professionally introspective of teachers. How else could higher level mathematics be the most popular and most productive series of courses in a college preparatory high school? “I teach; therefore, I am,” is her credo. Using her finely tuned Hunteresque (Madeline Hunter) instructional strategies, she frames a lesson both in what students already know and what they are about to learn, presents and models instruction, and works the board using old fashioned chalk with reasoning and logic that turns on student lights of understanding. Then, she flips the responsibility for learning with demanding problems for student resolution. Finally, she grasps a student by his intellectual nose and won’t let go until he properly makes a coherent mathematical statement. Then, another student’s “nose” and another until all students have mastered the lesson. Interestingly, her strongest skill is her listening. For all of her excitement and energy, she can be very quiet as she listens to how a student’s mental processing has led to that student’s resolutions. Then, surgically, she assists the student to strengthen or break down, rebuild and strengthen his mathematical thinking.
Ms. Lucas is an expert because she knows that education is about learning, she knows how to treat students as individual learners needing personalized instruction, and she knows how to make higher mathematics curious and once she has tweaked her students’ curiosity they are committed to learning.
Ms. Thomas caused her Kindergarten children to be excited. Who in their right mind wants to make five year olds more excited than they naturally are? An expert teacher does. Tradition-bound colleagues become tightlipped in Ms. Thomas’ classroom. It appears chaotic. Learning centers on rounds of carpeting overlap one another. There are bins of crayons and pencils and scissors and tape everywhere. Children do not have to search for instruments of creativity. Although she has 14 students there are more than 35 chairs and airbags for children to sit on in different places around the room. Learning is not about sitting in one place doing one thing in unison with others.
She sings when children enter the room each morning. Children sign many of their lessons regarding letter sounds and sight words and early numeracy concepts. Children solo all the time and the class applauds the soloist. “Adam, tell us about the picture you have drawn. Use these four words somewhere in the story you tell us.” Applause. “Katie, pronounce these words. Tell us why the vowel at the end of the word is silent.” Applause.
Ms. Thomas sits on the floor with a cluster of children while other children work at tables or on the floor behind a book case. Without appearing to look, she knows what and how those outside her cluster are doing. In a few minutes, the cluster finishes, she moves to a small chair at a table and a new cluster forms around her. She listens, asks questions, praises, comments and directs and moves on. Hugging is prominently displayed in Ms. Thomas’ classroom. Usually it is a small child running to her, wrapping small arms around her knee, getting a pat on the shoulder or back and then moving toward a learning center that has drawn the child’s curiosity.
First, second and third grade teachers know which of their children were in Ms. Thomas’ Kindergarten. They fidget more than other students, volunteer more, are more verbal and typically demonstrate better reading, writing and arithmetic performances. They still hug, but not as often. And, they sing to themselves.
Ms. Thomas is an expert because her classroom is a display of early childhood development. She incorporates learning inside movement and song and experiences of the moment. She expects and promotes diverse learning needs from her children and acts in ways that celebrate the unusual response. She is the oldest Kindergartener in the classroom.
The quality of teaching in school’s faculty exhibit quite a range of skill sets. At a minimum, there are teachers who are about the work of teaching. But, they do not cause significant learning. They lack the skills of diversification and personalization, a constant focus on significant outcomes, and the pedagogical skills to refine academic understanding and skills until all children are able to perform the targeted outcomes. School leaders know the different capacities of their faculty members. They know who is just teaching and who is causing learning. They also know that a ten year veteran may have no more skills than a first year teacher because there has been no discernible growth in expertise – the tenth year looked just like the first year, good enough for initial employment.
Is there room any longer on the faculty roster for a teacher who cannot cause learning? Given a choice, should a patient in need of heart surgery be provided an expert or a name preceded by Dr.? And, should a child…