Emotional Understanding... Nature vs Nurture

I chose a new quote of the week today, and found exactly what I was needing. “I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”Dr. Haim Ginott

In the lengthy (yes, that was a shot) article by Andy Gargreaves written in 1998 he discusses the most important emotional relationships that teachers have, and that affect their teaching; the emotional relationship between the teacher and the students (Hargreaves p 838). He discusses the aspects of emotional expression in times of dramatic social change, although the time that he is discussing is ten years ago. We are in, I believe, another time of dramatic social change.. either that or for each decade there are those who believe that society is changing dramatically. That may be true, or if it is not perhaps it should be. If we are not changing dramatically than we must believe that we have achieved our best work as a society, and for me that means that we are feeding, inoculating, teaching and caring for our most fragile citizens.

Ahh, enough far-left socialist rhetoric. (that should add blog traffic) There is an old adage "if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Many families experience this adage by tip-toeing around the most volatile person, but it also adds to the conversation the emotional state of the family leader, be that matriarch or patriarch. Does it necessarily follow that if the teacher ain't happy ain't nobody happy? I don't think that Hargreaves is saying that the teacher must be happy, per se, but that the teacher's emotions are of great importance in the classroom.

Hargreaves seems to be saying that as teaching is an emotional practice that involves emotional understanding; one that "helps us recognize that what we see is fear, pride, embarrassment or disgust, it helps us to understand that the emotions in question are either justified or misplaced in this context; and it helps us to respond accordingly, as we see fit" (Hargreaves 839). My take away from that portion of this article was the huge trust that we place in our teachers, as parents, to see past our children's actions and the teacher's past and to emotionally interpret each child in the room as their needs are known. A Herculean task, make no mistake.

Last night my fourth grader and his new-ish friend were sitting at the kitchen table doing homework before going downstairs to watch James Bond. And no, the guns, the babes, I'm not a fan... there is another parent in the house that is, and after re-watching a couple there is little blood, the sex scenes are fade to black and the boys love the gadgets and saving the world. One boy was much slower in his work; not struggling but definitely angling for someone to come do some of the work for him. The other shot through the math packet and was ready to put away. One was doing each problem twice; double checking as the teacher expected, although things were so messy good luck reading the long division answers. (Why aren't they given more space on these packets? Are some kids so well written that this is deemed an appropriate space for doing the problem AND double checking?) The other boy did not want help. He did not want anyone looking at his work and insisted no cursory glance by an adult was necessary. He said something interesting "Ms. Kelley talks so much in class that I just stop listening. I can get half of it done before she even stops. It's so annoying, I'm bored all the time." The other boy agreed, and added his examples of too much talking by the teacher.

Are they taken for the quiet studious type? A hard worker when really it is boredom that pushes them through the assignments... what will happen when their innate ability to do math peters out and they needs instruction? Hargreaves speaks of inaccuracies of emotional understanding and how "(t)eachers frequently misconstrue their students' exuberance for hostility, bored compliance for studious commitment, embarrassment for stubbornness and silent respect for sullen resistance. These misunderstandings seriously interfere with teachers' ability to help their students learn." (Hargreaves, 839)

These misunderstanding, or mis-readings of students' emotions can spell danger to the classroom, and to the student. The boys speaking in my home are seen as respectful, a good listener in the classroom, but out of class they do not seem terribly respectful of the process or the teacher (although she does tend to go on and on... as a Master teacher she had more than her share of kids that need instructions multiple times, and her expectations are VERY high for the whole class.) I felt honored to be able to hear the boys complaints, and grateful that they were not shots at her looks, personality, taste.... but real complaints about what they perceived as an inundation of speaking. Now these boys will be the first to start their tasks while instructions are being given, then come to a point where they can't go on until the instructions are repeated; from where they deigned to disregard the teacher.

Hargreaves is concerned that so little time, energy and though seem to go into replicating and building upon classrooms where emotional and cognitive understanding is successfully occurring. He seems to believe that teachers who may not innately hold these skills can learn from those who do; it is an age-old discussion about teachers. Great teachers are born teachers, it is not a process of collecting skills; society seems to say. Teaching is an emotional practice, as stated by Hargreaves, and we have much to learn from those who are not only emotional, but understand emotions as well. Perhaps it is a bit of both nature AND nurture that makes a teacher successful at emotional understanding.