True or False: I Am My Students' Friend
“Now, friends, is that how we want to act?” I cringed when I heard a teacher say this to her misbehaving students recently in the local public library. A current trend in education has relaxed the respectful line between teachers and students, placing them on the same level. By calling her students “friends,” the teacher put herself in the same position as her students. They did not listen to her–and, yes, that is how they wanted to act!
Daniel Estes’s book Hear My Son: Teaching and Learning in Proverbs 1-9 speaks to both the educator and learner about the role of a teacher. What can the modern teacher glean?
Estes says that a teacher can have three roles and then shows how Proverbs portrays those roles.
1. The teacher is an expert authority. According to Proverbs 1:20-21, the expert-authority teacher should call for attention. Because this type of educator possesses much knowledge, he is obligated to pass it on. The student must listen and take responsibility to learn by obeying what the teacher says. This is how educators were viewed in past centuries. The teacher was the ultimate authority, sometimes using this authority harshly and ignoring the students’ needs.
2. The teacher is a facilitator. Proverbs 3:13-18 shows the teacher offering incentives and leaving choices to the learners. The facilitator teacher gives an invitation to the students, as seen in Proverbs 9:1-6 and 13-18. This invitation includes both sides of an issue, and as an active recipient, the learner chooses. Many modern educators have taken this type of teacher to an extreme, giving all choice to the student.
3. The teacher is a guide. Because the teacher is more experienced in life, she can guide the students and encourage them to investigate for themselves. The learner starts as a novice, but grows, and then the teacher can back off. The goal of a guiding teacher is to bring the leader to maturity and independence, according to Proverbs 4:11. This type of teacher functions well in a Christian school; as Daniel Estes says, “In Proverbs 1-9 the goal of the wise teacher is to guide the learner to live in Yahweh’s world.”
So practically speaking, how can the modern teacher be all of these–expert authority, facilitator, guide–and keep the students’ respect? One important strategy is consistency in requiring the same behavior from the students each day, even when the teacher is tired of repeating herself. Another strategy is listening to the students and building connections with them yet not giving them leeway to act inappropriately. Both of these will grow student respect: the key is the students can like the teacher and still obey her.
Sources:
Estes, Daniel J., Hear My Son: Teaching and Learning in Proverbs 1-9. Intervarsity Press, 1997.
