What's the Point?
Your routines and practices communicate to your students what matters most to you.
This is the question that lurks in the minds of most students, and God usually gives you one bold enough to ask.
This intense desire to know why is the reason Sayers advocated teaching logic in the middle-grade years. Yet in a very real sense, all students desperately want to know the why behind the what—how it all fits together. They are looking for the whole—how the parts fit together—what Mason calls “the science of relations.”
Why this and not that?
But, don’t teachers also want to know the why behind the what? Isn’t your curiosity and love of learning the reason you became a teacher? Don’t you want to know why Curriculum chose this book over that one or why Administration passed that policy? Teachers are often more like those bold students in the back of the classroom than they realize.
So, it shouldn’t be hard for us to think through why we do what we do in the classroom, right? Wrong.
When I talk to teachers about classroom culture, this is the question that has the most impact: how do you communicate to your students what the point is of your time together?
This vitally important question probes teachers to contemplate the atmosphere of their classrooms, examine their routines, and evaluate their attitudes toward their curricula.
Because we often fall into patterns and habits, the origin of which may be a mystery to us, we don’t really know the answer to that question. We often aren’t intentional about the practices in our classroom. And until someone or some event forces us to carefully examine them, we just don’t. Because in our minds, they work. And who has time to fix what’s working?
But my challenge here is honest self-reflection. Maybe your classroom isn’t working. Maybe it only works for you.
If you are not making the most of the time that you have with your students, intentionally living out before them wisdom and virtue, then your classroom is not working. And it’s not very classical.
What Message are you Sending?
Maybe you’ve never thought about how you greet your students, which assignments you grade and which you don’t, or how much time you spend lecturing versus asking questions. It takes time and effort to ask the why behind the what. But even if you have never taken the time to ask those questions, you have already communicated to your students what you think the point is—but what you’ve communicated is most likely not what you want. You have most likely sent an unintended message. Your students know what’s important to you and what you value, whether you’ve made any effort to create classroom culture.
“Students do not learn what the teacher tests on, they learn what he lavishes his minutes and hours on. If a teacher will not spend his own time on something, he should not expect his students to do so. The teacher is always modeling the use of time to his students.”
Something They Will Not Forget, Joshua Gibbs
Your classroom is a microcosm of the world. You demonstrate to your students what you believe to be true, and how they are to live by the way you spend your time, by the things you value, by the virtues you embody.
You are what you love. What you love, your students will love. What they love, they become.
So even if you haven’t been proactive and strategic, you’ve still sent a message. And make no mistake, they have received that message.
If you aren’t sure about the culture of your classroom, begin by paying attention to where you spend your time, what policies you are willing to enforce, and what forms of assessment you prefer. Or, be honest with yourself about what parents say about you when new families join the school. You are known for something, but is it what you want to be known for?
Where Mrs. Gerth is speaking:
CiRCE Regional Conference at the University of Dallas, October 10-12
Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature at the University of Dallas, November 15-16
What Mrs. Gerth is teaching:
Classroom Culture from Repairing the Ruins
ACCS members can log in to the Member Resource Center and listen to my Foundations Track presentation, “Building Classroom Culture.”
Thales College Certificate in Classical Education Philosophy
Next month, I will be teaching two classes in the Thales College Certificate in Classical Education Philosophy Program (CCEP). The program consists of eight courses taken in any order culminating in a certificate. Each course carries a $300 course fee, and each class is held through Google Meet once every other week. I will be teaching Classical Pedagogy and History of Education. Looking forward to helping teachers understand how and why classical schools teach classically.