Larry D. Lauer

Teaching is why I got into higher education in the first place. Even with the many administrative positions I held over the years, I continued to teach and lead professional development programs along the way. If there is any lesson I learned about teaching, it is that you cannot “teach to a test.” It creates an ever-expanding negative atmosphere, and eventually learning  is no longer satisfying and fun.

Teaching is about finding the talent potential within each student and working hard to develop it. Some do best with abstract thinking, or artistic expression. And they are likely to demonstrate it better by writing essays, or expressing themselves artistically, or presenting material orally. Some subjects lend themselves to memorizing facts, but many others require seeing big picture trends, thinking critically, or solving problems that have more than one right answer. This type person has the same potential for long-term career success as anyone else. He or she, however, is likely to become unmotivated in a quantitative testing environment that features threats of punishment for everyone involved–students, teachers, and administrators. 

Students with learning difficulties, no matter their cultural background, generally lack basic self-confidence and will not respond well to calculated discipline and pressure.  But an ideal teacher will find their special abilities and interests, use intellectual freedom to nurture them, and locate other mentors and influencers to reinforce them. In schools like this, pure magic can happen.

And what’s more, the teachers become energized.  This is when teaching becomes an art, and teachers get hooked on a way of life.  They sacrifice to stay in their profession rather than burn out and bail out as so many are doing today.  Most new teachers in a “teach to the test” environment last only a few years because threats out balance emotional and professional rewards.

My story as a student is a case example. A professor in junior college helped me discover that if I would pick the courses where I could write essays and term papers I could excel. Armed with this self understanding, the further along I progressed in school the better I performed. And when I eventually learned that being a teacher was really a wonderful life of “living a subject matter I could master,” I was hooked on the very profession that earlier was turning me off.

The key, therefore, to improving K-12 education is to find young people early who want to make a difference, and then help them see they can really do this as teachers. Encourage them in developing their own best talents, and make  sure they are in a learning environment that supports their quest. Simply put, teaching excellence requires the flexibility to deal with each student and situation individually, and getting to do it in a system that rewards doing it well.