I Look For Mom in Every Teacher

I called my mom Mrs. Bowen.  In her classroom, it just felt natural and necessary.  Sally Bowen was my fifth and sixth grade teacher in the mid 1950's in Laconia, New Hampshire.

Long before I knew I would become a teacher, and eventually one who would recruit them, it was an unforgettable experience as an adolescent to live simultaneously in the two connected worlds of home and school.  

The junior high principal at the time was my dad.   I know that he and my mom discussed at some length whether it was a good idea to put me in her classroom.  Ultimately, they decided it would work not only because they knew I was mature enough to handle it, but because other teachers might travel one route to a destination while my mother found five different ones and took them all.

     

I was truly fortunate to learn from her that great teachers could be like great moms to a whole slew of children at the same time.   At home I was a favorite son, but in school my mom went out of her way to avoid showing any favoritism.  Years afterward, she sheepishly admitted only one dilemma.  I had won a secret ballot to be class president, one vote ahead of a classmate.  She gave him the nod because she thought it would otherwise look wrong.

 Mom went out of her way to treat all her students evenhandedly.  Nonetheless, each came to believe they had special talents and potential.  It was no surprise her former students kept returning for visits and psychological boosts year after year.

In retrospect, my mother taught me why and how the most successful and memorable teachers, both then and now, nurture the whole child and even make you want to become a teacher yourself.   I found the best ones, whether they are male or female, do most of the following things:

Ø think like the children they teach and are childlike in their enthusiasm, imagination, and at times even their naivete.

Ø think the best of their charges, letting every child start with a clean slate and often re-earn it.

Ø trust the children as much as the children trust them.

Ø laugh easily and see the lighter side of life and learning.

Ø love what they do and communicate that love in ways that make kids want to please them.

Ø like to discover, create, and trigger excitement as they do things with their students, not for them, but together with them.

Ø continuously assess their children's learning without excessively testing them in ways we now call high stakes or standardized

Ø hold strong clear expectations about what their children need to learn, never hesitating to tell you what those expectations are and why you need to get busy and focus on them.

Ø teach and help kids practice winning and losing not so arrogance is spawned or self-esteem becomes the price a child pays.

Ø  make curiosity spontaneous and infectious.

Ø treat and set up the classroom as a home away from home where both teacher and students want to be because they feel they are all belong together and live in a safe place where risks can be taken without unwarranted punishment.

Ø encourage mistakes as one of the best ways to learn.

Ø often give their kids different roles and responsibilities that somehow fit together to make each child part of a team, something bigger than themselves.  

Ø  consider each child individually by figuring out the child's interests and encouraging them to learn about it via an abundance of reading and writing.

I recall getting intensely interested in dogs when Lassie and Rin Tin Tin were dominant television personalities.  With my teacher’s encouragement, I devoured every one of Alfred Payson Terhune’s books about “Lad: The Dog” that could be found in our local library. I cut out every picture of dogs I could find in magazines.  To this day I can pinpoint any breed from a single snapshot.  Today’s equivalent would be found in the world of Harry Potter.

 All this is to say unabashedly that my mom was the best teacher ever.  She made the world of learning an enthusiastic and inviting adventure.  She simultaneously engaged the academic, social, and emotional intelligence of the children.  But she never strained while doing it because she thought out things from a child’s point of view.   Some of this naturally reflected her personality, which you could see just as much at home as in school.  Yet she had also learned to perform, to dramatize the behaviors that would hook the kids on learning for life.   

My mother as my teacher was her students' nurturing cheerleader.  Of course she was mine.  What a combination of inspiration and aspiration!   I still hear the echoes of my mom in every great teacher.

JMB -- 4/22/14