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“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
Here we present excerpts from our discussions. Q: How do teachers communicate high expectations to their students?
Dalida: Some kids slack off in class, but a good teacher sees a student do something well and says, “See, you're smart and you can succeed at this.” That makes you want to do better all the time. Humberto: Or the teacher sees you do something wrong, and says, “You'll do better next time. It's alright, I know that you'll do better.” Dalida: Sometimes the best teachers are the toughest, the ones that are pushing you more. They know what you have to offer and they won't settle for something that's not your best. I admire that in my teachers. Chantra: I want to be a teacher, so I look at my teachers as role models for how I want to be as a professional. The teachers that talk to you as a teacher but a friend too, you never skip a class with a teacher like that. They don't just care about teaching their subject, but help you learn about your life outside school also. Teachers like that make you come to school smiling. Dalida: I have this one teacher who grabs your attention with the way she teaches. She'll make whatever she's teaching make sense in our lives. She motivates you, saying stuff like, “Come on, don't you know about that?” She puts so much energy into her work. Shane: When you see a teacher caring so much about teaching and about the students that she's learning herself, learning from her teaching, that inspires the students to care just as much. Q: What's discouraging to students? And what would make a difference? Dalida: What's discouraging is when we are not encouraged to do better, when you get the feeling that teachers and administrators care more about the school's reputation than what's good for students—which aren't always the same thing. It doesn't help when adults come at us with an attitude because they think we're going to have an attitude. Come at me in a way that respects me first, then see what I have to say. You may be surprised how much I'll respect you back. Alberto: It doesn't help when they talk to us using power and fear—like if you get in trouble once you're going to be suspended, like you're not going to see the inside of this school ever again. Instead of putting fear into us to control us, spend more time controlling how we gain knowledge. Dalida: For me the bottom line is respect. Alberto: And showing us that you care. Dalida: And caring as much about the students as the reputation of the school. Because we make up the school, we're the ones that it's here for. People spend too much time caring about the outside—what's on the outside, what people see and say about Central. What about what the students think, what happens for us inside? That's the most important thing for us. Alberto: What's also discouraging is when people never mention the good things. Instead of saying, “Our geometry grades are up, we're sending kids to good colleges and stuff,” you hear, “We only have 90% attendance, which means that 200 of you are absent...” You know, encouragement creates encouragement. What helps is having a powerful and honest leader that we support and who supports us. Q: Is there anything else that you think is key to setting a positive tone? Shane: I think that any adult in a leadership position needs to have a certain amount of knowledge, not necessarily that they would learn in college, that prepares them for their professional lives. A principal needs to know about the circumstances that affect students' lives, what they may be going through given the families and neighborhoods they come from, how certain circumstances affect students, why some days they can't help but be late or absent. Communication is key, because the route to addressing most problems is having a good relationship. You can't look down on someone as if they have a lesser intelligence—you've got to give them the opportunity to prove themselves, and give them the benefit of the doubt that they can improve themselves. You have to make them feel like you're one of them, like you really care—not like you're just trying to control the situation, or doing a job just because you get paid for it. There's got to be some kind of emotion in it, that it's more than just a job. That means constant communication about expectations and about how people are doing-and encouragement. Dalida: And compassion. Shane: So when a teacher or administrator communicates that they actually understand our struggles, what we're going through, then that makes us want to work together.
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Shane: One way of communicating high expectations is believing in us, showing us you think we're capable of completing the task and fulfilling your beliefs. That means giving us more responsibility than you ordinarily might—what some call challenging us. And it means giving us more say in our education, trusting us to make the right decisions about our learning, about our daily experiences at school. This would be a huge benefit to the entire student body, rather than a liability for teachers and the administration.