On Teaching: "Glory in the Classroom"

Rather than being a complicated and delicate process, learning how to be a really good teacher might be as simple as learning to see the glory and radiance in the classroom. After all, it’s not hard to see the brightness in a room when it is lit up with new florescent lights, so why should it be difficult or complicated to see the glory of my students when I’m standing before them? On a brilliantly sunny say, I wouldn’t think of saying, “Gosh, I’m going to have to work hard to notice the bright sunlight today.” The brightness of the sunshine would be impossible to miss, just as the radiance of my students should be hard to avoid seeing. The sad truth, however, is that I do fail to notice the glory of my students – their astonishing greatness as thinkers, dreamers, and inventors. I’m often like a person in a room with the shades pulled down on a perfectly sunny day. Because he didn’t know it was there, the person wouldn’t be aware, wouldn’t notice, wouldn’t appreciate the brilliance of the day, just as I don’t often appreciate the wondrous qualities of my students. In a sense, I might as well be wearing a blindfold while I’m teaching. Forty-two intense lights are shining in my classroom, but I am sometimes as oblivious of them as if I were blind. The truth is that I don’t have to devise intricate lessons or employ complex tactics in order to be a good teacher. All I have to do is open my eyes and see the astounding reality that’s in front of me – forty-two bright, brand new, just-switched-on lights. If I can do that, awe will be the teacher, and the learning will take care of itself.