The Teacher, or the Entertainer?

Calvin's juvenile hilarity aside, the question he raises is a good one: Is it the teacher's responsibility to make class "enthralling"? Now, before you start arguing about personal accountability, consider the following:

• How many times has a terrible teacher "ruined" a subject that you might otherwise have enjoyed?
• How effective is it to assume that high school students will take complete responsibility for their own learning?
• Is it possible for a great teacher to make any lesson enjoyable, no matter the required content?
• Is there danger in ignoring our students' interests and desires?

As teachers, we are given a set of core curriculum standards that we are expected to meet. We may even be told by our administrators which texts and assessments we must use during instruction. However, for better or worse, a great deal of the actual teaching is still up to the teacher. You have to teach The Scarlet Letter, the principal says, and he wants you to have the students write a research paper. Fine. It is still your responsibility (and yours alone) to decide how you will teach that content.

That's a lot of power. And - as an avid Spider-Man fan - I firmly believe that with great power comes great responsibility. If you have the choice (and I'm suggesting you do) shouldn't you be actively seeking to make learning enjoyable, rather than miserable, in your class?

Hopefully, this is where you can draw upon your teacher education for inspiration. At BYU, I've had the opportunity to take full-semester classes on Multicultural Education, Adolescent Development, and Technology in Teaching, along with the regular courses in Teaching Reading, Teaching Grammar, and Teaching Composition. I've been exposed to a wide range of philosophies, theories, and practices that I can refer to when planning my own lessons. That way, I don't have to do exactly what my own high school teachers did; I have the tools and the resources to differentiate instruction according to the needs of my students.

And according to the desires of my students. Because I understand (as a college student) that it's easier to become engaged in classes that discuss things I'm interested in, I intend to make the effort to incorporate my students' interests whenever possible. If I need a quote that shows argumentative structure, why can't I pull a quote from Psych instead of taking one from Moby Dick? It's not that much work for me, and it pays excellent dividends: not only will my students' be more engaged, but they have the opportunity to act from a place of expertise, rather than constantly feeling unqualified. (In education, we call this utilizing our students' Funds of Knowledge.)

No one need assume that I'm suggesting teachers should sacrifice good learning for "enthrallment." A lesson designed solely for entertainment is often meaningless, and students will pick up on that. We cannot be so concerned with trying to seem cool or with becoming our students' favorite that we forget to actually teach them. That doesn't serve anyone - you only end up cheating students out of the education this country is supposed to guarantee them.

The key in this - as in many other teaching dilemmas - is in how you approach it. Don't try to teach "fun" lessons; try to teach important lessons in a fun way. If you start with the educational goal in mind, and then incorporate students' interests and desires, you'll be able to create school experiences that are both enjoyable and meaningful. These are the kinds of lessons that stick with kids forever. Even kids like Calvin.