They Didn't Have a Clue

These two exceptional teachers could not have been more generous in their efforts to help me understand their teaching methods. Unfortunately, they did not help very much.

They both said, "You have to mean business."

I said, "Right! What does that mean?"

They said, "Well, on the first day of school, the classroom will either belong to you or it will belong to them."

I said, "Right! What do you do?"

They said, "Frankly, a lot of it has to do with expectations. If you do not expect them to learn, they won"t."

I said, "Right! How do you get them to do that?"

They said, "Well, a lot of it has to do with the value of learning that you impart to the students."

I said, "Wait! Give me credit for good values and good expectations. I want to know what to do. Imagine that I am a substitute teacher taking over your class tomorrow morning. You obviously have the students in a groove. I don't want to lose it. What do I do?"

"Oh, yes," they said. "I see. Hmmmm. Well, I can tell you this much. You had better mean business."

On that day I learned something remarkable about these natural teachers. They could not tell me what they were doing if their lives depended on it. They had no technology of management. They had good instincts.

Common Sense

My best explanation for the inability of these natural teachers to explain their management skills is that they learned them from their parents. Before they even went to kindergarten, these teachers had been on the receiving end of effective management thousands of times as their parents got them to come to the dinner table, pick up their toys, share, and take turns.

But, early childhood learning is not accompanied by a descriptive language. Rather, natural teachers describe it as "common sense." In later life we will call this learning instinct.

The down side of instinct is that natural teachers have no way of passing their expertise on to the next generation of teachers. There is no terminology, no scope and sequence of skills, no task analysis.

The lesson to be learned from this is clear. Choose your parents very carefully. They are your primary "methods course."