“I am a teacher. I am a licensed social studies teacher. My teaching assignment is middle school social studies; 7th and 8th grade, to be exact. These are statements about my profession, my licensure, and my teaching assignment. They are facts.
This is the question I answer every day. Do I teach social studies to children, or do I teach children to understand the social studies? How I answer the question makes a world of difference to me and to the outcomes of my teaching. The answer is not a fact but a disposition about the purpose of teaching.
When you construct these statements about yourself, substituting your teaching license and your teaching assignment, how do you answer the question regarding the teaching of curriculum or the teaching of children? The direct object of your statement indicates the focus of your teaching.”
I pose the above to adults who want to enroll in our post-baccalaureate teacher licensing program. The completion of the program produces a teaching license. However, from the get-go, I want each person to pre-consider the kind of teacher they will become. Will they teach curriculum to children or teach children to understand curriculum? I tell each person “The children you teach will know the difference on the first day they sit before you”.
Usually, these enrollees ask me for more information. “How are these two things different – teaching subjects to children or children to understand subjects?”. My response is “I will ask you this question again mid-way through your program. I also will ask you to explain your response in a manner that exemplifies your role as a professional educator. If you don’t understand the difference between teaching subjects to children or children to understand subjects by that time, we will discuss your future as a teacher”.
There are some questions that need to be answered. The disposition of teachers toward the subjects and the children they teach lives out every day in their classrooms. Teachers must know why they teach.
Personally, and professionally, choose this answer. I teach children to understand the social studies.