Teachers Inspiring Students

Who is your Rivka Rosenstein

Sachin Jain posted his 6th grade journey with his science teacher of the time – Mrs Rivka Rosenstein, or more accurately how Mrs Rosenstein saw fault in her student who was not doing his best

None of my other teachers found fault with my approach or cared enough to say anything to me about it—but Mrs. Rosenstein let me know that she was sorely disappointed. She told me that she knew that I was a good student, but that I was lazy. She expected better from me and suggested that I work harder

His journey and story resonated with me as I hope it does with others. I look back often at my school years and the inspiration and support I received from teachers that changed my trajectory in similar ways. There were many teachers who saw potential in me. Some nudged and cajoled, others took a stricter approach calling out my failures for what they were. I don’t remember any instances of unconditional praise in my school – failure was exactly that and it was always about course correction and mitigation to help you be the best you could be.

All this was even fresher in my mind as I Marie Kondo’d my life with a move and the need to trim out all the excess things I had collected that basically sat in cupboards and stashed away corners of a house never seeing the light of day since they were placed there. In amongst the accumulated detritus of my life living around the world were my school reports dating back to my earliest French pre-school in Africa and in other countries. The set was completed by all my reports from my boarding schools that would arrive home by mail after each term and were part of a whole formal family process where each teachers report was read out by dad to everyone in the family, seated in the family room intently listening. Yes this included my brothers when they were home as well. They were at pains to tell me that my parents had eased up a lot since they went through the same rite of passage and I should consider myself lucky it was so easy….. only in their minds I felt!  In fact of the boxes and boxes of things that did not survive the cull, these reports did survive – at least until I find some resource to get them scanned and stored in my new digital junk drawer.

I can probably pick my Rivka Rosenstein, who had the same seminal impact on me and my future – Dr Michael L.A Robinson. And if I am honest I did not like him in the early days, not helped by the punishments he dished out to me for throwing a snow ball inside the science building! But I realized quickly he was both fair and seeking the best from those around him. That point came home to me when my parents came to the school for parents day (think teacher conferences). For our family this was something of a crap shoot since they lived in other countries and even when on the same continent hundreds of miles away. For my mother and father (lets be clear they were also seminal teachers in my life) this was one of their highlights to get to meet all the teachers that they felt connected with through the reports sent home after each term (see the example below).

My father was gleeful after his day of conferences and meetings filled with information about his son, meeting these inspiring teachers who were helping nurture and guide me. He especially liked Dr Mike Robinson because as dad put it – “he told it like it is, no fluff or padding just straight talking“. Dad’s kinda guy! The highlights for dad from Mike:

he has talent and potential but it requires hard work and unless he knuckles down to work the outcome was at risk

Compliments but still calling out the ‘slapdash stuff’ and and setting his expectations clearly!

Hearing the details of the exchange was important – I finally realized how much this teacher was on my side and fighting my corner. He had argued for me to blaze a different trail and be allowed to study four subjects at higher level where the standard was only three. It was also something of a turning point in my work as his straight talking, non nonsense style started to influence me. In fact the report card from him that term captured everything about this teacher that inspired me and I am grateful for

There were many others who all built on this foundation and added color to my canvas that I look back with fondness and gratitude wishing the same for others. My passion and interest fired by science and maths and those teachers having an easier time getting through to me but the classics did as well and each and every one had positive influence and with one exception I always felt had my best interests at heart. Not all managed to get through to me – Richard Knowles my early french teacher, tried hard and realized very quickly I was coasting on my early childhood French fluency that made the current grade work ‘easy’ but my skills were running out and everyone around me was catching up. As my children are tired of hearing

Hard work beats talent, when talent stops working hard

Report Card and Parent Days

Fast forward to my experiences here in the US when teacher day came around and I took the same enthusiasm I had learnt from my parents into the school to meet the teachers at parent/teacher conferences, only to be disappointed. Each visit was met with the same bemused look and question – why are you here?

Why are you here

We were disappointed to say the least and our foray into the school system here and engagement in the school and the process came to a slow halt.

Apparently you only attended these conferences when there were problems. Our children, we were told, were doing fine. We were consuming limited available time with the teachers that other parents with students not doing as well needed. We were of course ‘welcome’ to attend but there was little point we were told. I found my version of Mike Robinson for my children but with limited interactions and report cards that compressed everything into one page with check boxes and data points and very little text or insight.

Is this just our experience or have things changed that the focus and inspiration and engagement is missing from schools in general? Is this a cultural difference and different attitudes and if so what can we learn from these experiences?

All this sat uncomfortably for us as we continued to hear and read that as parents we should be engaged, it was not just the job of the school to teachers to teach our children?

We Are All Teachers

We are all teachers inspiring students in some way throughout life. For some it is a full on profession the comes with the title of teacher, but for most of us it sits in the background offering opportunity to influence and inspire others. As parents we teach our children. As workers we teach our colleagues through our interactions and engagement. In the restaurant we teach our family and the staff by how we behave and interact.

Every interaction is an opportunity to teach, and not just others but ourselves. Take small incremental steps if you feel uncomfortable with this concept. Find an opportunity to help guide or nurture someone around you, at home, at work, out and about.

Teaching is the way we persist into the future