The Power of Teachers
By Dr. Lorraine Mccune

This fall, after a twenty-year hiatus, I find myself again teaching students who aspire to the teaching profession. I began my work with these young people with some trepidation. The field of education is faced with many challenges at present. Equity of instruction across levels of poverty and wealth, minority and majority children has not been achieved. Children with disabilities are now entitled to education in the ordinary environment of their peers, but it is the unusual school that manages this task sensibly, with optimum outcomes for all children in the classroom. Children who are English language learners, having a non-English native language, and their families can hardly know what to expect, with bilingual education now embraced, now rendered illegal, and all along variously defined. Schools are more racially segregated than they were 20 years ago.

My personal experience with Whole School Reform, mandated for districts of poverty in New Jersey, my home state, does not suggest a hopeful outcome from these efforts. Rather than building on the strengths of talented teachers, formulas from outside are considered the route to success. Reports from my students, out doing fieldwork, suggest that “reform” often takes the form of rigidity, lack of freedom in learning, and “teaching to the test”. It sometimes seems that in our era, test performance is more important than the daily performance of interesting and challenging activities in the classroom.

Despite all of this, teachers retain their power.

Administratively, I have told my students, teachers have little power. Each school is governed by a principal. Each district has a curriculum. Supervisors monitor implementation of the curriculum. Lesson plans must be created and followed. Where teachers are represented by a professional organization, an additional set of rules is in place. Teachers are limited in their after school initiatives by contractual agreements. It is too easy to see how “voluntary” extra hours could be coerced, or could undermine the rights of the group.

So where is the power that teachers retain?

Working with young people preparing to teach, reminds me that it is the teacher alone who meets and engages the mind of the student. The teacher in the “privacy” of his or her classroom becomes the arbiter of knowledge and values. The very way that students are addressed…The attention they are paid… The manner in which the teacher expresses enthusiastic knowledge has the power to transform and engage the students. What matters most is what teachers and students do together. Teachers can create a microcosm of learning through their own talents. A school day is about 6 hours long. Multiply that over the years and the enormous power of teachers is evident. Just by being there they have opportunities to change the world.#

Dr. Lorraine McCune is a professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education and serves as advisor to educational toy company, General Creation. She can be reached at www.generalcreation.com in the “Ask Dr. McCune” section.

Name:- E-mail: City: State: Comments:

Education Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2002.