"I Can Barely Read"

       "I can barely read."  

       You never hear anyone ever say this with pride.

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       Last week I attended a Professional Learning session about Blended Learning.  Three English teachers were presenting.  One of them said, "...and we're all English teachers, so when we put grades into the grade book, we are all bad at math so we look for shortcuts."

       I am a mathematics supervisor and everyone in the room knows who I am.  When the teacher made this statement about being bad at math, another teacher looked at me and sort of made a face that said, "I think you just insulted the math supervisor who is sitting over there."  The speaker saw this face and looked at me; and then other people in the room began to realize what was going on.  Slowly people started to laugh at the slightly embarrassing situation that this teacher put herself in.

       I didn't want this presenter to feel bad so--with everyone looking at me and wondering how I was going to react--I said, "It's OK."  And then I said (with great pride), "I can barely read."  And the whole room broke out in a loud laugh.

       Why is it perfectly acceptable in our society for grown, educated people to say (out loud and in front of other grown, educated people), "I can't do math."?  But it is completely unacceptable and cause for embarrassment to say (in front of other people; and with great pride), "I can't read."  Why aren't people embarrassed that they can't do math in the same way they would be embarrassed to not being able to read?

       Teachers, parents, coaches, and all leaders need to speak up when they hear children (and adults) proudly saying that they can't do math.  It reinforces to students that it is OK to be bad at math.  This leads to students who refuse to put in the effort to learn mathematics.  Students begin to believe that they really can't do math AND they believe that this is perfectly OK and it's not OK.

       Math is important.  Math is reasoning.  Math is thinking.  Math is problem solving.  Math is perseverance in the presence of difficult situations.  And everyone can do math.

       What you say is important.  People are listening.  If you would never say, "I can't read.", then don't ever say, "I can't do math."

We Do Something Important Every Day

       Education is important business.

       Once in a while, a student needs to be somewhere else in the school during the time that she should be in my classroom.  Club meetings, picture day, sporting events, ... lots of activity going on in a typical high school.  So this mature and responsible student comes to me a day or two before and asks, "Are we doing anything important tomorrow?"

       My answer is always the same:  We do something important Every Day.  Bell-to-bell learning; every minute, every day; valuable instructional time....  Call it what you will, the stuff that goes on in the classroom--in every classroom--is valuable and important.

       Sometimes it is hard to see the importance of something we do everyday.  It becomes commonplace; and without an engaging teacher it can become boring.  The best learning occurs when the teacher understands the importance of every minute and communicates this to the students via thoughtful, engaging lessons.

       Education is important; everyday, every minute.

Every Day is Important

       Occasionally I would have a student who needed to miss my class because of some other event taking place during the school day; a guest speaker, a pep rally, an AP test, extra help in another class, ... all sorts of reasons.  Being the good student that she is, she would come to me a day or two before the event to find out what she is missing and to be aware of lesson and/or assignment for that day.  This never bothered me.  I never considered my class to be the center of universe; and I knew that school offered my students a range of experiences and I wanted them to have these experiences.

       What DID bother me is when the student would ask, "Are we doing anything important on that day?"

       Of course I always responded, "We always do something important."  But this question (also) always made me think of my students' perceptions of my class.  Unfortunately, I think they viewed a "test day" as an important day.  Students would sometimes try to reschedule their other event if they were going to miss a test (sometimes not).  But, I think, that students also perceived the basic lesson day as a less important day; perhaps as just a typical day.  These days are viewed as the days that can be missed without any penalty--you can make up the work; you won't fall behind in any way.

       It is this perception of less-important days that leads some students to skip school for a day.  It leads parents and families to take their children out of school for a day or more for a family vacation or for baseball tryouts or for a scouting trip.

       How do we convince students that every school day is important?  As teachers, we know that the time we have with students in class is valuable time.  Often, we struggle to complete everything that needs to be completed in a school year (or in a course).  But how do we help students to understand that what goes on in class cannot be easily replicated or made-up outside of class?

       It is for this reason that I would always begin teaching on the very first day of school.  I didn't want my students to go home on the first day of school and say, "We didn't do anything in school today.  All we did in every class was introduce ourselves (six times)."  It is for this reason that every time we had an early-closing day or a late-openning day, I would always make the best use of the time I had with my students.  Why come to school if every teacher were to say, "We only have short periods today due to ________ so we are just going to do nothing in class."?

       Every day of school is an important day.  Every class, every minute in class.  Teachers should not ever give their students any reason to believe that any class is a waste of time or is unnecessary.  School is important.  Learning is important.  Every day counts.  We have to show our students that this is true by our actions in class.  We want students who want to go to school every day, because every day of school is important.