Thoughts on Teaching: AGENCY

AGENCY

I was VERY comforted as missionary to have Preach My Gospel tell me that it wasn't my responsibility to change people. That I didn't have to answer all their questions, resolve all of their concerns. I was to invite them to act and create an environment in which the Spirit could testify to them. Creating an environment. That's what a teacher does and in my opinion it is more art than science. One girl at Sunset Ridge Middle School quoted something to me. She said, "A good teacher is someone who knows 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink,' but leads the horse their anyway. Khalil Gibran wrote that a teacher, "if he is indeed wise, does not bid you enter the house of wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind." That's why when Nephi wanted to know the meaning of the dream his father saw, the Spirit/angel doesn't just tell him but takes him into the dream and just says 'Look!" He asks if Nephi understands what he sees and Nephi feels the Spirit talk to his spirit and realizes he knows what the tree, the virgin, the rod, are. If he doesn't know then the Spirit tells him. In Japanese the word for "teach" is the same as the word for "tell" and thus you can "teach" someone your phone number. I think they've got it wrong or only partially right. Teaching is not just telling.

I find that the best thing I can do in my classroom is assure my students they have the use of their agency. I mean, they always do have their agency, but it's good to ask them to use it, to act. Speaking of creating a climate, I would throw the 40 desks crammed into my tiny classrooms out the window, if I could. Or at least move them to the side. I was temporarily brilliant and asked my students what they wanted to do next semester. Many of my students said they like group work and role playing where they get to write the dialogue in English and perform it. They are creative and funny (Interesting side note: American students act like you've decided to give them a root canal if you tell them they have to work in groups. Even then they divide the work up so that they have to interact and cooperate as little as possible,) My textbooks said that one of the main factors in motivation for learning is having choices. Go figure.

I've also seen some horrible discipline cases handled masterfully by my cooperating teacher who gave a little terrorist a leadership responsibility. Suddenly, the student was amazingly responsive and diligent in helping their classmates--as long as they were the boss. Also, rather than lecturing or telling a student what they must do., it is far more effective to tell someone, calmly and with no resentment, the natural consequences and give them options as in "Bella, if you guys can't get this done, I'm going to have to move you. I've told you twice. If it's three times you are going over there." This way, it's not personal (Most misbehaving in high school isn't meant to be personal to the teacher and when the teacher takes it that way, it can be really puzzling and weird for a student) and it tells them they are agents but operating under consequences. That's why God, didn't just tell us the things we needed to know, but created a planet, a climate for us to figure it out on. Agency can be a terrible burden though. Sometimes it's easier to be told what to do. And as the teacher, you have to take the leap of faith that every person can learn. They are pre-equipped to figure things out. It's not your job to fix them, only to "lead them to the threshold of their own mind."