4 Hypothetical Teacher Statements: Better Answers to Educating Students

Before I started teaching overseas, I was asked to consider the following teacher’s statements and answer them.

I believe theses hypothetical questions apply as much to the future education of children as they do to anyone working in a business or playing on a team.

If you have children, I hope this motivates to become more active in your child’s education process.

Hypothetical Statement 1:

I have a routine in the classroom and I do not change it because the students need to know exactly what to expect.

I disagree with this statement. Daily routines are important for the students in establishing some type of base and comfort in the classroom. However, environments outside of the classroom may not be routine in day to day progressions. As teachers, we must prepare students to think quickly and improvise in certain situations. This type of educating will be beneficial to their survival outside of the classroom. Teachers should mix up their routines randomly and break from the current trend to encourage and train students to think outside of the box. Expecting our student to perform the same day in and day out will not help them grow but rather stagnate them in repetition.

Hypothetical Statement 2:

 Never give them options. This might disturb the class and it is almost impossible to correct at the end.

Democracy can be very beneficial to a classroom. As teachers, I believe we should allow our students to help in the decision making process. Further, it is our goal as effective teachers to consider the happiness of our students. By allowing students to help and cooperate in the education process will help them feel included and involved. With options students may feel excited and energetic to participate instead of forced to choke down a reading or assignment. More importantly, by allowing our students to choose or decide, we are forcing them to establish one of life’s important habits called decision making. These types of habits will help our students find out more about themselves in the long run and reinforce an important part of daily life.

Hypothetical Statement 3:

I always give them small tasks that can be corrected immediately. In this way I have full control of what they learn. They are too young to be given “larger tasks.”

Using a method such as this one is very harmful to students. Teachers should not only challenge students with small task, but include larger tasks as well. Without the use of larger tasks or assignments, we can never challenge our students sufficiently. Types of longer assignments will help challenge our student’s critical thinking and long term planning in ways that short and quick assignments cannot. It will teach them to not procrastinate.  Larger tasks also reinforce the importance of responsibility and in the long term student’s efforts may commit more to memory than assignments with immediate results.

Hypothetical Statement 4:

Be optimistic. Even the weaker students can learn something.

I love this statement and agree wholeheartedly. Optimism can be very useful in the classroom. By showing and demonstrating the importance of being positive, we can teach our students something that is more important than any grammar lesson or vocabulary assignment. It is a way of life. By showing them a different perspective we can broaden their point of view and widen their horizons. I have personally seen and experienced the power of optimism in my own life and I will definitely teach this to my students.

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A great resource for students at any level is Cal Newport’s Study Hacks. I highly recommend this site.