What is a "good" educator?

Right now in Ontario there is a huge waiting list for educators before they get a teaching job. After this year all BEd students have to do two years of the degree rather than one which most believe is due to the government trying to slow down the process. I think the two year style is a better one. It doesn't seem to be deterring too many people though. Especially since in my year, people who chose concurrent ed only do 1 year (after this year they must do 2).

I am in my first year of university with plans to go into education. I want to teach high school for a while but then I want to do something higher, possibly in the school board or even the government. Education itself is my greatest passion. I want to actually teach but I also have a desire to learn about education philosophy, study and perhaps test education methods and to learn how learning takes place psychologically and test that as well.

But not all educators have to have my passion for education.

My whole point with this "blah blah blah" intro is too many people are going into teaching because they don't know what else to do, they were told to, it is in the family, they have a pointless degree otherwise, etc. I'm sure there are many educators furious at me because they fit into one of these, which of course you can, but you should be a good educator and you can be.

So what is a "good" educator?

In grade 11 I did a research essay/presentation on the student-teacher relationship and the most important aspect of that said relationship.

One of the most important discoveries of mine was that there needs to be a relationship, period. So many teachers distance themselves from their students. Share your lives (obviously not too much), ask about the students. Don't develop just a relationship with the whole class, develop individual relationships with each student. Instead of scaring the students with grade reviews individually in the hall or after class, first, scare them with that because they'll think that is what is happening but then get to know them.

Getting to know each other establishes trust. Trust is another element I found important in the s-t relationship as well as in the classroom environment. Learning cannot occur until trust has. The student should feel comfortable in their learning environment. Comfortable with the teacher, with their classmates, etc. Then they will be able to forget their worries and focus on the lesson.

Caring was an important aspect that many students in the class I was giving the presentation to identified as important. A caring relationship also establishes trust and enables the student to feel truly... well cared for. You never know the students' home lives. You might be the closest thing they have to a stable life.

My teacher in that classroom identified communication to be important. Obviously all of these things have to occur with communication. But from perspective as a teacher it was more from the idea of she can't guess what is going on if the students do not tell her. I would also argue trust has to be here for the students to tell the teacher what is going on.

I think many teachers also act as guidance and support, both educationally but also emotionally/psychologically. I have had teachers (in high school) assist me with emotional problems. Not all of my teachers were like this. I don't think it should be expected. But there is a deal of compassion that I think should be a sub-requirement of the teacher. Even one of my "stricter" (in a way) teachers still showed compassion towards me at one point.

I also think humour is an important element of the teacher. Make your class laugh. Make them happy. If they are laughing and happy they are enjoying their time in your class and making the quality of their education better.

Of course, education is of course the conveying of ideas so the teacher should obviously not only know their subject but be passionate about it. I was very excited about one of my subjects of study in high school just because of the amount of passion my teacher conveyed in all of her lessons. Knowing your subject and then showing passion for that subject just helps students' learning.

I am sure (completely positive, in fact) that there are many more elements of a "good" educator but for now this is where this list ends.

My passion for education will hopefully take me places, despite the job wait for teachers. I will have to complete a 2-year BEd and of course I am still only in my first year of my undergrad, but it will be worth it. I am going to double major in psychology & philosophy and minor in english studies. The way my credits are structured I actually have room for a second minor so I can attain 4 teachables by the end of my 4 years. I am considering fine arts, classical studies and history. I wish I was in concurrent ed just so I can be learning about education (my true love) but not being in con-ed has allowed me to get 4 teachables rather than two.

What do you think is the most important element of a "good" educator?

There is not Enough Freedom in School

One time when I was in grade 12 we had to do a presentation on a theme based off of our two independent novels so I chose the generic theme of freedom. I began my presentation by asking people to place a dash on a scale of 0-10 (0 not free and 10 is very free)I drew on the chalkboard of how free they feel. It was a really good visual to see how free people felt. Most of the dashes were around the 6 mark.

I asked the class some leading questions and the one leading question was "Where do you feel the least free?" the class almost immediately responded with saying "school". I astounded my english teacher.

As a teacher I would think it would seem quite frightening to hear this. At first it does not seem like a big deal but in the terms of liberal education it becomes an enormous deal that students feel the least free in school.

Liberal education means questioning everything. Putting everything up for question and allowing freethinking to happen. If people do not feel free in a classroom, liberal education is not going to flow easily.

If there is a place for voicing your opinion and bouncing ideas off of other people, school should be this place. Especially high school. High school is when people are figuring out the world and who they are and who they will be in the world and if they are spending 8 hours a day in a building that doesn't have an atmosphere that encourages freedom of ideas or freedom in general we are just going to mass-produce chunks of people and not individuals.

Although, is this not what we are doing with the world? Creating stereotypes for people to fall into in order to better classify the earth, especially in the terms of consumerism and culture.

Anyways, I have a theory on why students feel the least amount of freedom in school.

1) Too many rules. High school is filled with a bunch of useless rules that intimidates students. For example: not wearing hats in the halls. This rule is so useless and I am pretty sure the only reason it is still around is because it gives authority figures a reason to assert their authority. This leads me to my 2nd point.

2) Too much authority. Obviously for safety reasons teachers and principals need to have a degree of authority over students but when a student walks into a classroom where they are instructed lessons and not encouraged to join in conversation equally with their teacher and classmates, they are not going to be successful in thinking freely. I had an amazing teacher once who was able to do both assert her authority over the class while also encouraging class participation. How? She didn't take bullshit and had a tough exterior but was also understanding and showed a great deal of compassion. She was also passionate about her subject she was teaching. She encouraged conversation by refusing to continue until people replied to her questions. She used group-work more than once a week to encourage classroom relationships. She wouldn't force you to work but would encourage it. It was the perfect amount of authority.

Anyways. This is just what I think. We need freedom in classrooms to be able to actually learn without bias. This is the gold nugget all teachers should strive to capture in each and all of their lessons, classes, days, and in their career. It is very important that students both get the factual material but also are given the chance to speculate it freely.

What do you think? Do you agree with my theory? What do you think about freedom in schools/classrooms?

I'd love to hear in the comment section!