Last week - I shared that I learned how to be a leader in my high school band because my band director was absent. A lot. This week I want to tell you what I learned from my math teacher - who wasn't absent - but might as well have been.
In my sophomore year of high school, my math teacher didn't teach us math. He was there, but he was the head of the teacher's union and they were in a dispute over some aspect of the contract which I never really understood. The union didn't strike, they instead - slowed down.
What I remember of this teacher is that he wore a turtle pin every day. To represent - the slow down. Over the course of the year - he graded and returned exactly 4 tests. We students did more work than that - but we didn't get any feedback from him - aside from 4 times.
He didn't assign work to us. He didn't lecture us. He didn't really do much - of anything. It was quite frustrating. You don't realize how much you rely on teacher feedback to learn until you don't get that feedback.
Everyone was frustrated. We were in a level one class - so we were academically good students. We all wanted to learn geometry. The class decided that my friend Alex G and I should teach the class so that we could get through the material. And yes - it's absurd to think that 2 high school sophomores could teach a geometry class that they themselves were in and were in the process of learning about too. But - that's what we did because if we didn't - we would not have learned geometry at all.
Alex and I split up the lessons, taught ourselves by reading the book and then, taught our lesson to the class. And we did this - pretty much the entire year. We did pretty well actually.
What I learned is that - I can learn on my own and that I can also teach and that you don't have to be an expert to do this - you just have to be willing to put in the time to do the learning. It's empowering. It was also nice to know that my classmates trusted me and Alex to teach them.
I don't have any fond memories of that teacher. As an adult, I realize I should have cared more about our teacher's salaries or whatever it was they were fighting for. But I don't think this teacher, the head of the teacher's union, had the support of the other teachers - because seriously - the rest of them - taught their classes and did not engage in a slow down. It was just him.
The really truly absurd part of this entire math thing is that - despite being good enough at math - to learn and teach math to my peers, I was not capable of being on the math team. My friends were on the math team - but I never made the team. Word problems trip me up.
Anyway - what did I learn from this? Mostly that you can't let cranky people who refuse to do their job - stop you from learning the things you want to learn and becoming the person you want to be. If you want it bad enough - you will teach yourself. And that it works best if you do this to help, not only yourself, but others as well.
I also learned that if you are in a union, recruit people to your cause, don't just be an ass. The fact I literally have no idea what the demands were this man had - is insane. I don't remember him ever telling us what the demands were. All I remember is when we would ask for help - he would point to his turtle pin. I'm sure us students would have been supportive if he had given us a reason to support him. He didn't. If you are a leader, don't assume people know what the problems are. Tell people and ask them to help you solve the problem. That's what we kids did. We had a problem, we discussed it among ourselves and we solved our problem - ourselves - as high school sophomores.
In my sophomore year of high school, my math teacher didn't teach us math. He was there, but he was the head of the teacher's union and they were in a dispute over some aspect of the contract which I never really understood. The union didn't strike, they instead - slowed down.
What I remember of this teacher is that he wore a turtle pin every day. To represent - the slow down. Over the course of the year - he graded and returned exactly 4 tests. We students did more work than that - but we didn't get any feedback from him - aside from 4 times.
He didn't assign work to us. He didn't lecture us. He didn't really do much - of anything. It was quite frustrating. You don't realize how much you rely on teacher feedback to learn until you don't get that feedback.
Everyone was frustrated. We were in a level one class - so we were academically good students. We all wanted to learn geometry. The class decided that my friend Alex G and I should teach the class so that we could get through the material. And yes - it's absurd to think that 2 high school sophomores could teach a geometry class that they themselves were in and were in the process of learning about too. But - that's what we did because if we didn't - we would not have learned geometry at all.
Alex and I split up the lessons, taught ourselves by reading the book and then, taught our lesson to the class. And we did this - pretty much the entire year. We did pretty well actually.
What I learned is that - I can learn on my own and that I can also teach and that you don't have to be an expert to do this - you just have to be willing to put in the time to do the learning. It's empowering. It was also nice to know that my classmates trusted me and Alex to teach them.
I don't have any fond memories of that teacher. As an adult, I realize I should have cared more about our teacher's salaries or whatever it was they were fighting for. But I don't think this teacher, the head of the teacher's union, had the support of the other teachers - because seriously - the rest of them - taught their classes and did not engage in a slow down. It was just him.
The really truly absurd part of this entire math thing is that - despite being good enough at math - to learn and teach math to my peers, I was not capable of being on the math team. My friends were on the math team - but I never made the team. Word problems trip me up.
Anyway - what did I learn from this? Mostly that you can't let cranky people who refuse to do their job - stop you from learning the things you want to learn and becoming the person you want to be. If you want it bad enough - you will teach yourself. And that it works best if you do this to help, not only yourself, but others as well.
I also learned that if you are in a union, recruit people to your cause, don't just be an ass. The fact I literally have no idea what the demands were this man had - is insane. I don't remember him ever telling us what the demands were. All I remember is when we would ask for help - he would point to his turtle pin. I'm sure us students would have been supportive if he had given us a reason to support him. He didn't. If you are a leader, don't assume people know what the problems are. Tell people and ask them to help you solve the problem. That's what we kids did. We had a problem, we discussed it among ourselves and we solved our problem - ourselves - as high school sophomores.
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