Conscience, Word, and Deed
A few years back a high school English teacher and two of her children participated in our community. Out of curiosity I had asked her what she thought of our writing programs. This mom had one child in our 4-6th grade Essentials program and the other child in our 7-9th grade Lost Tools of Writing curriculum. After a short hesitation, coinciding with a subtle dark cloud obscuring her countenance, she lamented on how she used to teach. She expressed disappointment that she had expected her public high school students to write a persuasive essay without actually telling or showing them how to do it. She went on to relate a conversation with a graduating female senior who had earned exemplary grades through out her educational career. This student had pulled her previous teacher aside and said, “I know how to write a good essay but I don’t know what I am doing when I am doing it. I also don’t know how to improve.” This high school English teacher expressed regret over not previously being trained and hence being unable to coach her students in the important elements of an introductory paragraph like an exordium, narratio, agreement, disagreement, thesis, and proofs not to mention proof paragraph construction, refutation, and conclusion. Her student made it through the system and outwardly seemed successful but inwardly both the teacher and student knew she was ill-prepared to pursue continued growth and excellence not to mention a nagging inability to articulate to herself or others how writing works.
Is this not the experience of a majority of parents who want to help their children but have come from a similar background? How does one go about growing not only for one’s own benefit but more importantly for the benefit of children?
One of the more enjoyable parts of my position is observing classrooms in our different locations. Recently, I was observing in our elementary program. The teacher was adept at reinforcing the content, interacting with students, and adding both humor and enthusiasm into the environment as they practiced geography, English grammar, math, Latin, science, history, and timeline. Later I talked with this teacher and expressed my admiration for her deep familiarity with the material and playfulness while reinforcing good habits. I told her that it was delightful to be a part of her classroom. She was also a first time afternoon 4th - 6th grade Essentials writing teacher and though confident in the morning was the complete opposite in the afternoon. She expressed her motivation in wanting to be prepared to move up with her children in the junior and high school curriculum and thought this would be good preparation. I applauded her willingness to be uncomfortable and to learn in front of others. As she taught her students to diagram sentences, memorize the parts of speech content, practice making key word outlines and then rewriting that content in their own words with dress ups and stylistic techniques, she was being transformed by naming and attending to the intricacies of the English language, memorizing the arrangement, and expressing eloquence through writing. Unfortunately or thankfully, there aren’t any short cuts to learning.
Good habits, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom require a recognition of scarcity and a coinciding desire for remedy by consistently pursuing restoration and renewal not only for ourselves but for the next generation. I can think of no greater motivation than in wanting to leave our children better off in conscience, word, and deed than we have found ourselves in as adults.