The important role of the teacher

by Silvia Diez

There is a lot of talk about the influence of the family, but young people spend more hours at schoolin high school and at university that in the company of his parentsa time of which its impact on the soul of the child or adolescent is completely unknown.

Purification Gato Garcíaprofessor at the Faculty of Education of the University of Extremadura, wanted to address this question and, between 1995 and 2004, collected countless letters from students to teachersfrom which he selected 180 in his book Teachers who leave their mark.

The work reveals how complex and diverse the relationship between student and teacher can be, and the significance that a simple detail can acquire or gesture of the teacher without him being aware of it.

Purification Cat points three ways to leave a positive mark: educate for who you are and for the values ​​that are transmitted, give affection and attention, and motivate students.

While when a teacher is usually remembered negatively it is because their incompetence, their distance and impersonality, or because of fear that it provoked.

The secrets of the good teacher

• Be genuine. There is no worse teacher than the one who leaves no mark, something common in the current education system. A good teacher must be demanding and transmit the joy of learning.
• Combine facets. To teach well it is said that you have to be part actor, part clown, part sergeant, part friend and part father.
• Treat each student. The needs of a good student are different from those of one with learning problems. The first needs demand; the second, understanding and assessment.
• Encourage autonomy. Teachers’ imprints are important in the child’s evolutionary process, because school is the first way to leave home and enter the world.
• positive reinforcement. Better results are obtained reinforcing achievements and effort than by punishing or criticizing negative behaviors. Words of encouragement motivate more than an exemplary punishment.
• A space for reflection. When faced with an undisciplined or low-performing student, it is advisable to consider the possible reasons. «Sometimes children do what they can, not what they want. Indiscipline and lack of concentration can be related to family tensions. There is no need to judge hastily.«says Anna Forés.
• A more systemic pedagogy. Marianne Franke-Gricksch explains how systemic pedagogy helps solve many problems thanks to its approach that goes beyond the individual. One of his students was disrupting the class and his classmates confronted him. Then the boy came crying asking his teacher for help. «I just told him: ‘You are one of us!‘ And I asked the other children to do the same. From that moment on everything changed,» says Marianne.
• Maintain consistency. When a problem arises, parents must continue to show respect for the work of the teacher. Criticizing it means losing coherence with the child, since the family has been the one who has chosen the school for him. And it hinders resolution.
• Strengthen the bond. When the student is small, the signs of affection They will help strengthen the bond, which will motivate them to learn. During adolescence, one should seek complicity. Use humor and leave the classroom It allows establishing relationships where discipline is left aside.

Types of teachers who leave a positive mark

1. The passionate teacher

Who does not remember with tenderness that professor who He devoted himself enthusiastically to teaching of his subject, often spreading his love for it?

It is easy to confuse the subject with the teacher who teaches it and these teachers awaken the pleasure of learning and even more than a vocation.

«Sincerity and authenticity are paramount«The student has a special radar to detect when a role is being played and when one is speaking from a feeling,» he points out. Anna Foresdoctor in Philosophy and Educational Sciences.

2. The teacher admired for his personality and values

The teacher can be a reference or a model that the child or young person would like to resemble in certain facets.

This admiration facilitates the integration of positive values such as honesty, humility, commitment and sense of humor, as well as ways of behaving and facing life.

«In addition to mastering his subject, the teacher must be aware that he is dealing with people at an important stage in their life. It is advisable to be humble and reflect on what each student needs. If there is good ‘chemistry’, each teacher is for the child a way to expand the universe shown by the parents and to glimpse other ways of being in the world,» he says. Neus Figueraschild psychologist.

3. The teacher who believes in his students

How a teacher values ​​a child influences its performance.

A study was carried out with a group of children similar intelligence level which was divided into two.

The first subgroup was assigned to a teacher who was told that His students were gifted.. The second subgroup was placed in the hands of a teacher who was told that children were slow to learn.

A year later the subgroup classified as «gifted» got higher scores than in the first evaluation, while the «slow» students obtained scores much lower than those in the first exam.

That a person as relevant as the teacher trusts in the child’s abilities can modify the way in which the child evaluated himself until that moment.

A positive comment made in a timely manner can delete tags that weigh like slabs in the present or in the future.

Trust and support are the best springboard to progress, especially if the student is going through a difficult period.

«Phrases like: ‘you will be miserable, like your brother’, ‘you will never do anything right’… they remain etched in fire, just like the punishmentsdistance and impersonality. In these situations, we should intervene through teamwork,» says the educational psychologist. Monica de la Calva.

Types of teachers who leave a negative mark

1. The teacher who demands and demands

The child needs as many doses of affection as of demand. Without this there is no motivation or performance.

«The art of the teacher requires knowing calibrate where the limit is in each case, because we fail both when we demand more and when we demand less. It tends to tend to minimal effort; stimulating the student implies, therefore, get the best out of him and convince him of his potential. But if we cross the line we can plunge him into anguish,» says Anna Forés.

What to do if the child calls his teacher demanding and unfair?

«Overprotection prevents the development of autonomy. Parents who study and do homework with their children feel evaluated by the grades and can get carried away with anger if they are not what they expected. Before reacting, it is best to let the child vent without taking sides or acting. Often the child seeks confrontation to gain comfort.»

«The student’s complaint against the teacher is frequent, but rarely justified. For example, they often complain about homework. But 75% can handle them perfectly and only 25% have a real problem. Parents and teachers must support each other and dialogue constantly,» advises Mónica de la Calva.

2. The distant and indifferent teacher

Among the undesirable influences are the teachers who just blurt out their nonsense and leave.

How are problems addressed? that arise in class and in the lives of students, which may include the separation of parents or the death of a family member, without strengthening human ties?

The role of the teacher is decisive to channel experiences which can be traumatic.

Teachers who could be classified as «absent», fearing doing it wrong, choose not to intervene.

But, the first rule to educate a child is teach him to love himself. When you distance yourself, the message that is emitted is: «You’re not important to me.»

Good students usually adapt, but those who have difficulties are the most affected.

3. The teacher who instills fear

Even more damaging is the mark left by a teacher who instills fear for his threats, punishments or their way of being.

It is usually about authoritarian teachers and undemocratic, more concerned about discipline or for sacralizing the subject that for the well-being of the people.

Fear hinders communication and alertness blocks the learning process and kills the pleasure of learning.

A hostile environment decreases performancealthough it is true that having control of the classroom is essential in the task of teaching.

«It can’t be done confuse authority with authoritarianism and a teacher must always measure his words. The worst thing you can do is ridicule or bring up before the class a confidence that the student has made at a certain time. They are actions that mark for life«he points out Neus Figueras.

Toshiro Kanamori’s open class

Respect is not imposed, it is earned hard.. This is what Toshiro Kanamori does, a Japanese teacher whose way of teaching has gone around the world through the moving and award-winning documentary Children full of life.

«What is the most important thing about this course?» Toshiro asks on the first day of class. «Be happy,» the students respond.

«Yes, because we only have one life and it is preferable to live it with joy. The key: think about others authentically«.

In class every day three students express in a letter what they feel and think.

One day a child narrates the death of his grandmother; the letter serves to open the feelings of the rest of his colleagues in the face of the loss of a beloved family member. Another day, teasing against a colleague is addressed.

Kanamori teaches schoolchildren to delve into your emotions and those of otherstransmits to them the value of empathy, compassion, friendship, teamwork… the value of life.

We would all like to have more teachers like him. Or be.

To know more

• Teachers who leave their mark; Cat Purification, Univ. of Extremadura
• Children full of live; documentary available on YouTube
• You are one of us; M. Franke-Gricksch, Ed. Alma Lepik