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In this blog post, David Ginsburg relates two anecdotes about adults who had experienced an incident of ridicule by a teacher as a child, and how those experiences affected these two into adulthood. The big difference between the two stories, though, is that in one of the incidences the teacher admitted wrongdoing and apologized for the ridicule, while the other teacher never mentioned the occurrence again. The adult who had received the apology from the teacher as a child viewed the incident in a positive light, while the adult who received no apology still stings from the memory of the humiliation that he had experienced as a child. Ginsburg's point is that we, as mentors to our students, need to be willing to admit our imperfections and wrongdoings and be prepared to humble ourselves by offering an apology when the situation warrants it. I think all too often teachers in the classroom refuse to admit that they are human, and that they, too, make mistakes, but by refusing to admit our own imperfections, we distance ourselves from the realites of our students' lives. As Ginsburg says in his blog, "The point, then, isn't that we should hold ourselves to a standard of perfection in our interactions with students. But we should hold ourselves to perfection when it comes to owning our imperfections and their impact on students."
The complete blog post, "Great Teachers: Perfectly Imperfect" posted by David Ginsburg on July 16, 2011, can be viewed at : http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2011/07/great_teachers_perfectly_imperfect.html
I am reading part 3 of a 4 part series of stories written by Christopher Smith entitled, Bullied, Revenge, and Witch (the 4th part has not been released yet). The story is a fictional account of a high school senior who has been bullied his entire life. It looks closely at how cruel kids really can be. The story is written in an "extreme" view, but with all of the school shooting and suicides each year students must be encountering this kind of treatment from their peers. The narrator talks about teachers being the worst bullies, either in their own actions or by witnessing the actions of the other students and do nothing about it. I contacted the author of these stories and they will be released in paperback in August or September. They are currently only available in e-book format. I will be having my at-risk students read these stories this fall.
ReplyDeleteI agree, as a teacher we need to admit when we're wrong or when we don't know something. Students look at us as know-it-alls, and expect us to be able to answer anything and everything. There's been numerous times when we're talking about a subject and I'll get a random question regarding a spin-off of the topic. I have no problem telling them I'll look into it for them. Either instance shows we're human and its ok to make mistakes. Students need to see this!
ReplyDeleteKushionJen- I'm going to look into those stories! I would also love to pass them on to my at-risk students, or to the counseling office.
It is important for us to remember we are only humans and its important for us to admitt that, not only for our own insanity but to be genuine with our students. I think sometimes parents and students forget that we interact with so many students in a day, that it's bound to happen that we will inadverently hurt someone's feelings. I know I see about 150 students a day in my class alone. Its hard to make a 150 people happy day after day without messing up! I know there have been times that I have apologized to a student and I think it really made a positive impact on the student and our rapport.
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