The Effective Teacher

Rules

A. Students do a good deal of homework for Ms. Martin's  class, about 45 minutes of homework four times a week on average. She expects her students to complete and submit the homework on time. That's a rule in her class.                                                                                                                  

How should Ms. Martin treat assignments turned in after their due date? Should she:

     1. Accept only on-time submissions and give an “F” or a zero to any assignment that isn’t on time?

     2. Subtract 20% (or more?) from the score on each late homework?

     3. Accept late homework without penalty?
                                                                                                                                                                                         
B. Too often, rigid rules are established for the purpose of simplifying the life of the teacher. Many teachers will tell you that their rigid rules exist for the students’ own good, but the one-size-fits-all aspect signals otherwise.

                                                                                                                                                                 

It’s true that everyone must sooner or later come to terms with life’s rigid rules. (Pay your taxes by a certain date. Drive on the right. Thou shalt not kill.) But the primary responsibility of the instructor of Chemistry, Spanish or Psychology is to ensure that students learn those disciplines and their associated skills (writing, calculation, critical thinking, etc.), a challenge that requires agility, flexibility, sensitivity, consistency and improvisation if one is to serve a variety of student learning styles and backgrounds.

                                                                                                                                                                 

There is a surfeit of authority figures in any student’s life constantly attempting to ensure that he/she doesn’t underestimate the need to behave obediently. The student is reminded many times a day that deadlines must be met, responsibilities not neglected, standards of conduct followed and authorities deferred to. Each of these adults acts as if he thinks the others were shirking their responsibility to do their share in the creation of a population of responsible pupils. If adults devoted even half as much energy and ingenuity to the promotion of creativity and thoughtfulness as they to do the promotion of obedience, the result would be more academically prepared students capable of original ideas.

                                                                                                                                                                 

C. Let’s imagine two students in Mrs. Martin's class: We’ll call them X and Y so that their gender is not an issue in our analysis.

                                                                                                                                                                 Student X’s typical week includes:

accompanying a sibling to school on the city bus,

picking sibling up after school via city bus,

staying home when sybling is sick,

babysitting each day after school,

cooking dinner for syblings,

twelve hours of paid work on the weekends,

three other classes besides Ms. Fair’s

and homework.
In addition, Student X lives in a single-parent household. The parent is rarely

home during daylight hours and usually comes home from work at around 10 pm after Student X has finished homework.

                                                                                                                                                                Student Y’s typical week includes

driving to school

three other classes

and homework.

In addition, Student Y lives in a two-parent household. One of the parents is usually available to help with homework.  

                                                                                                                                                                 

D. Is it appropriate for Ms. Martin to take into consideration the difference between the two students’ home lives? 

                                                                                                                                                                 

Let’s first respond to the question in the negative: The difference is not to be considered. 

                                                                                                                                                                 

If we are not to consider socio-economic circumstances, then the corollary question must be asked: To which of these two students is Ms. Martin to address her instruction? In other words, is the instructor to choose a given socio-economic set point and target instruction to those whose life correlates thereto? Obviously, this is problematic. How is one to choose? If those with the less support at home are the chosen ones, then the others are penalized. If the less supported are chosen, others are not sufficiently challenged. If a middle ground is chosen, then neither extreme is well served. 

                                                                                                                                                                 

E. Now let’s respond to question in D above in the affirmative: 

                                                                                                                                                                 

The difference between the home life of the students will be taken into consideration. (Or, to formulate the idea more generally, the existence of a range of student circumstances in any given class is hereby acknowledged.)

                                                                                                                                                                 

The best teachers wish to create the most favorable conditions for learning.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Ms. Martin should not abandon her rule, but she should abandon its rigidity. She can do this in the following way. In acknowledgement that some students’ lives get in the way of their efforts more than one would wish, she will establish a maximum number of times when a student may hand in homework late without penalty. Perhaps that number is 3. Or 5. “We all have days when things happen beyond our control.” she will tell her class on the first day of the semester, “It happens to you and it happens to me too!” Beyond that number of tardy assignments, Ms. Martin’s penalty can be justifiably harsh. Short of that number, Ms. Martin wants to do what she can to support her students’ efforts.


Teachers confuse rules with standards of excellence. The point of a rule is to define  minimally acceptable behavior. 'Thou shalt not kill' is a minimum requirement, not a standard that the best and the brightest aspire to. Driving on the right does not make you a good driver. It makes you a minimally acceptable one. And if you pay your taxes on time, you may still be a tax cheat; you're just cheating on time. Most people look down toward the standard established by rules, not up. Teachers often forget this and treat rules as if they defined excellent behavior. As a result, they enforce their rules rigidly and, in the process, impede and discourage the performance of those who are excelling where it counts: in learning.