Classroom and School Culture
As a stage actor, I’m accustomed to rehearsing my lines, my actions, and my manners with my co-actors, and even my trail of thoughts before each performance. And here’s the fact – actors who don’t rehearse and cram with their tasks always show less authenticity on stage and audience can usually tell. Consistent rehearsal is necessary for an actor so that when he steps onstage, the portrayal of the character would seem effortless, natural. He doesn’t have to make the audience believe. They just do because he has become. On a different standpoint, classrooms are pretty much the stage with the students as actors and teachers as their director. However, this time as teachers, we don’t give them other characters to study because they have their own to explore. This rehearsal is the students’ preparation for when they go out of the school walls. The teacher is the moving factor that motivates a student to learn inside the classroom and outside it. The challenge becomes tougher when a student is let out of the classroom and mingles with other students with other teachers. That’s why it is also imperative that the school culture is integrated to reinforce the students’ learning. In addition, a school in itself can live out a culture separate from that of outside its walls. The faculty and staff also carry out and observe this culture so that when new students are taken in, their old unconstructive habits don’t prevail over the culture. The culture starts to shape them, encourage them, affirm them until eventually their spirits are revived. Then again and unfortunately, not all schools live out this culture of support. I’ve seen students who change to their own disadvantage and I can’t blame them. They come from schools whose culture didn’t allow them to grow. These students come from schools that branded them; put labels on them as either intelligent or dumb, high IQ or low IQ, all based merely on their capability of the three R’s (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic). I’ve heard teachers blurt out to their students, “You are so lazy!” When I was in 3rd grade and I asked my language teacher a question, she just said, “Weren’t you listening? I’ve just told you!” Another science teacher I’ve heard said to her students, “Ano ba kayo? Kanina pa ako paulit-ulit dito! Para kayong mga tanga sa tanong ninyo!” (“What’s the matter with you people? I’m starting to sound like a broken record here! You’re starting to sound like a bunch of idiots with your questions!”). All these scenarios are just some of the few and I can assure you that there are more. Another reality is this – it’s hard to blame these schools. These practices were passed onto them by their previous generation. Not to mention that the teachers probably experienced the same thing when they were growing up. In effect, they didn’t have people if not they lacked people that they can model proper practices from.
I’m sharing this not to get back at the schools I know or the teachers that taught me or have worked with. I’m sharing this because as an educator, the best way I know how to reach those fellow teachers is thru this writing. I’d love to sit with my fellow educators and talk about this but I’m afraid that won’t happen anytime soon. This writing however can be done in an hour or so and I could just easily tag them with the power of technology with the hope that the agreements presented here could bring them insights and practices that they can apply to their classrooms. In education school, we were taught these principles repeatedly. The big question is if we know them, then why are most of us not applying them? The answer is surprisingly simple – the school culture; when most of us are thrown fresh from our respective colleges to the schools, our ideals are somewhat distorted because we don’t see them in practice. I have had the first hand experience of this and I was struggling because inside I was torn to following whether what I was taught by the education school or the school culture that I am in. It shouldn’t be so hard for a teacher like me to stand up for myself and tell the other teachers that we shouldn’t be treating the students like a bunch of juvenile but it is. The concern of being called idealistic and being misinterpreted to be somebody trying to make an impression are also common experiences of my classmates when they are doing their practicum. In their practicum, they are thrown to observe different public schools and work with other teachers. Unfortunately, most teachers they have worked with are so filled with a cynical perception of the students. Some common labels these teachers attach to the students are lazy, pasaway or stubborn, problem student or problem section, poor student or poor section among others. This is where agreement #1 comes in as an essential standpoint in classroom management and school culture. Thoughts are magnets, which attract most what it thinks of mostly. Words usually represent thoughts. Words are thoughts in action. When you say it, you’ve said it. You’ve enacted it. But when at the process of thinking and you filter your thoughts, and in this same process you change your words, you strengthen that ability of yours to make good judgment; you practice discernment. Much more, you don’t enact bad thoughts and you teach yourself to look in a different perspective. When a teacher sees his students and forms his thoughts about them, his thoughts attract the very object he’s thinking about. So if you think “lazy”, you attract “lazy”. If you think pasaway (stubborn), you attract pasaway. But when you think “good student”, you attract “good student.” When you think “improving student”, you attract “improving student.” But the tricky part about this agreement is this – sincerity, the genuine reflection of your thoughts and actions. The most important part in agreement #1 is your paradigm shift. We are not talking about flattering and praising our students. We are talking about our sincere perception of them that says they are important and capable of growth. We are talking about viewing them and looking at them through a different lens. We are impeccable with our words because our thoughts have become clearer. We have unconditionally accepted and loved our students, thus, we see them in a different light. (To be continued.)
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