Another Student Teacher Story

I went to see a student teacher in those days, and he was teaching a 5th grade art class. He was totally prepared; he gave me a copy of his lesson plan, and he had one for the helping teacher. He was nervous but in control.

He asked the class the question, “What’s the day like outside today?”

The kids jumped up and down in their seats and “ooh’d” and “ahhhh’d” and held up their hands. He called on the first child who answered, “It’s snowing!”

“No”, he said, “that wasn’t it”.

But it was snowing and I was lost. The child was hurt, because that was an answer.

He called on the next child who answered, “Its cold!” “No” he said, “that wasn’t it either”.

But it was cold, and it was snowing.

I was totally confused. He wanted a specific answer, unfortunately, and the kids had given the best answers that knew, it just wasn’t his right answer.

In the end, no child came up with the “right” answer, which in his little world was grey! The answer he wanted was grey!

After class, which somehow was something about color or absence of color, we had a discussion. The teacher and I both understood the problem.

He had excited kids, the snow being part of the excitement, and he had the opportunity to work off that excitement when approaching the class

Instead, he managed to frustrate himself and a bunch of children trying to get a specific answer that was lost on me as well.

I am sure there was no permanent damage done to any children in that class.

I am sure the young man grew up to be a fine teacher.

However, the lesson learned that day is one of great importance. When we have a specific expectation from any group, it would be best to let the group know what that expectation is. To have them guess at it, and not accept correct answers as correct, is the ultimate job of bad teaching.

The lesson learned by the kids that day was is that the teacher was an idiot!