Reforming Teachers

I imagine we all feel the world would be a better place if everyone put us in charge and did what we command. But the mantra “That ain’t gonna happen” rings out loud and true. We can’t single-handedly change the toxic practices of an entire school, school system, parenting practices, cultural practices, rulings.  We can’t single-handedly hold tech companies responsible for the children’s well-being or change laws that forbid certain information and pass on other lies. Since we are powerless to single-handedly change all the rules, laws, policies, beliefs, attitudes that might make for happier teachers teaching happier children in happier schools, we have to come to terms with the irrefutable truth that the only thing we have the power to change is ourselves. That’s where the real work begins. 

 

The teachers that come to the Orff trainings my colleagues and I teach are there precisely for that purpose. And it works. Testimonies abound about how the training helped them understand the details of their craft— how to create coherent curriculums, make each lesson more musical with a clear shape and design, how to guide student composition and improvisation, etc. It helped them consider how to be more patient with their students, more compassionate, more relaxed and more capable of having fun with their students while holding them to high standards of accomplishment. It helped re-ignite their passion and love for teaching so that even with its hard parts, the pleasure was always present. 

 

But they often report that what they experience with fellow teachers in an idyllic magical retreat setting is hard to carry into their classes when the school year begins, because of the other factors listed above. They leave the Orff training feeling fully embraced by the closing circle of 100 beautiful souls singing while weeping and step back into the first back-to-school meeting watching a Powerpoint on national standards and legal requirements. What to do?

 

My advice is to pay Caesar whatever coins you must to survive, but when you shut the door to your room and begin class, God is in the house. Do everything you can to be the change you wish to see in the world. Don’t dwell on the challenges of toxic school practices or culturally-induced kid traumas. Start from wherever you are and moment by moment, adjust your teaching to bring maximum fun, challenge and healing into each and every activity. 

 

Let me be clear. Reforming teachers as I described above is the opposite of pouring them into a mindless mold to make them all alike, compliant and goosestepping to the mandated script and perfect lesson procedure. It means giving teachers permission to grow into their own natural shape and teach from the center of their passion, to follow their unique and particular way of unleashing each child’s genius. In this way, to re-form is to discard the imposed herd-mentality die and cast and claim yourself wholly as a teacher ready to lead children to their own natural forms. When you do so, regardless of what happens outside your classroom door, you have the power to make life beautiful inside your door. Enjoy!