Teaching in the Middle

Middle Ground

Rick Wormeli

The Courage It Takes

There's a great story about General Westmoreland that reminds us what can happen if we are brave with each other. The general was reviewing a line of paratroopers and decided to talk to three of them.

"Son," he said to the first one, "Do you like to jump out of airplanes?"

The paratrooper grinned before responding enthusiastically, "Yes, sir! It's an adrenaline rush, sir!"

The general nodded approval and moved to the next soldier. "Son, do you also like to jump out of airplanes?" he asked.

Yes, sir," the soldier said. "I've dreamed of doing it all my life, sir. If you get the opportunity, you should try it some time. It's like nothing else in this world!"

The general smiled and moved to the final soldier. "And how about you, son?" he asked. "Do you like to jump out of airplanes?"

The soldier saluted and responded so quickly and confidently that it took the general by surprise. "No, sir!"

The general paused, then stepped closer to the soldier and looked him in the eye. "Then why are you a member of this paratrooping division?" he asked.

Again, the soldier didn't hesitate. "Because I like to hang with guys who do like to jump out of airplanes, sir!"

Courage is contagious. When those around us demonstrate courage, it's easier for the rest of us to be brave. And if we are brave together, imagine what we can accomplish!

I first recognized the potential of this possibility when I was talking with a student of mine who was a member of a violent gang. We were talking about the increasing number of gangs in our community. During the conversation, he turned to me and said, "You know, Mr. W., gangs are only as strong as the town lets them be."

I was stunned. He was correct, but I had never considered the idea. Instead, I had been wallowing in troubled desperation over the growing violence among students. His comment spurred months of personal reflection, however. I wondered: What's not working for these children who join gangs, and what leads them down such a horrific road? In what kind of community do I want to raise my own children, and what am I going to do to create and maintain it?

I attended several inservice trainings and conferences on gangs and youth violence and found kindred spirits in the participants. With each conversation with these similar-minded people, dealing with the issues that drive students to gang affiliation, solutions on how to dissolve gangs in our town, and returning neighborhoods to healthy places to raise children seemed more and more possible. Today, things have improved, but we are not finished, and there's no room to waver in our diligence.

Deciding What's Important

The mindset needed to take on gangs and other issues in our schools is expressed compellingly by rock band manager James Hollingworth, a.k.a. Ambrose Redmoon, a paraplegic: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the belief that something else is more important than that fear." Reflecting on our everyday classroom practices with students and interactions with colleagues, what might we consider so important that it trumps our fears of rejection, embarrassment, breaking rules (hidden or not), or ruffling others' feathers?

How about choosing a different novel if the one mandated by the English department isn't working with a particular student?

How about risking embarrassment by confronting (in a constructive manner) a colleague who is doing something with students that takes a lot of class time and a lot of school resources but usually results in little or no student learning?

How about suggesting the school re-dedicate itself to teacher-advisory programs, including offering training for teachers and re-adjusting the master schedule to provide opportunities to conduct the advisories, even if a faction of faculty members doesn't support it?

How about being a seasoned teacher who admits to colleagues that he doesn't know how to teach a particular student and would like some assistance?

How about giving up the classroom we've had for years and taking the roving, classroom-teacher-with-a-cart position so that a new teacher can have your room and one less thing to worry about during her first years in the profession?

No one said courage was easy. Yet colleagues and mentors throughout our careers have bravely taken such risks. The least we can do, then, is dedicate ourselves to courageous acts of teaching and collegiality, even when we don't feel like we're up to the task.

Let's admit to students that we aren't really sure what the author meant symbolically, what really happened during a particular moment in history, whether or not a politician is misleading us, what an object is made of, or if our teaching strategy is the best way to teach.

Let's get out of our students' way and not limit them to our imagination. If we're doing it right, every subsequent generation will be superior to the current one. If students only learned what we teachers know, society would grind to a halt. The goal is always that students will write a better paragraph, conduct a scientific experiment more wisely, compose more efficient computer code, and sing more beautifully than we can. Are we committed enough to let them? Let's ask questions of students to which we don't already know the answer.

Let's circle in our lesson plans the places we see our expertise in the nature of young adolescents expressed, and if we don't see it there, let's re-design those lessons so we can.

Let's prove to students every day that they have roles in our classrooms and that they make good company.

Let's decide, as author and educator Annette Breaux suggests, that in some situations with students and colleagues, it's better to be kind than to be right. We can be right tomorrow.

Let's give more than mere lip service to the idea that what is fair isn't always equal, even if pushing for fairness leads to unpopular decisions.

Let's teach in ways students best learn, not in the ways we best learn.

Let's invite parents to the classroom to observe us and give us feedback.

Let's make sure students ask at least one more question each day than we do. Whoever asks the most questions does the most learning.

When disciplining students, let's follow discipline expert Jim Fay's advice and ask short questions like, "What did you do?" "How did that work for you?" and, "How will you rebuild our trust in you?" instead of providing long admonishments. Let's not suggest solutions for discipline problems to students, but instead guide them through questioning to their own discoveries. Students should work harder than we do when it comes to their discipline.

Let's teach in whatever way we would teach if students weren't required to come to school and we had to persuade them every day that our subjects are worth their personal investment.

Let's remain open to correction from others.

Let's not automatically turn to the next page in the textbook because it's the next page of the textbook, but because that page best serves the students we are teaching. And if the next page isn't as good as the one 57 pages later, let's go to the page 57 pages away without guilt.

Let's prove every day that academic struggle is virtuous—a compelling road to future success—not weakness, and that failure can teach us in ways consistent success cannot. In many situations, therefore, failure is not only an option, it's preferred. We can't chase it away or sweep it under the rug.

Let's videotape ourselves and ask a group of colleagues to sit with us as we watch it and analyze our teaching against standards of excellence.

Let's contribute to already-in-progress conversations on our favorite online listserves without worrying about repeating what others have said or asking dumb questions—we've all been there, and those of us who read your postings would like the chance to extend the forgiveness we've received from others.

Let's ask the larger questions of teaching every year: What do we know about young adolescent minds that we didn't know 10 years ago and how is that knowledge used in our work with today's students? How are our current structures limiting us? Whose voices are unheard in our discussions? What is the purpose of schools? What should we be teaching? Are we teaching in ways that students learn? Are we closing the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it?

These and other acts of courage provide the momentum about which Robert F. Kennedy spoke years ago:

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Acts of Courage

Courage in middle schools can't be left to chance. If we are not at a point in our careers where we can be courageous, let's do whatever we can to help others be courageous. Our current and future students depend on at least some of us swapping fear for potential right now.

Consider doing a common, yet wonderful staff development activity: Write your personal list of what you would do if you were truly brave. As you record your thoughts, remember that you don't have to do the tasks alone, and in fact, you'll be more successful by sharing the journey, if for nothing else than bravery's contagious nature.

Here is one act of courage on my part—to put forth for educators' scrutiny, my own personal list of what I would do if I were brave. It's dangerous for me to share this list because you may disagree with me, judge me, or refuse to read anything else I write. If you respond to me about any of these items, it may force me to re-think that idea, and change can be scary.

Nevertheless, I shall not take the timid route when so much is at stake. After reading the list, I hope you'll create your own list to rally your energy in the new school year. Here are my top 20 brave acts to take:

Adjust the school's master schedule to support best practices, not sacrifice best practices to support the master schedule.
Make it easier to let ineffective and toxic teachers and principals go. Some folks have misidentified their strengths or misjudged the date of their retirement.
Ask principals who demand that next week's lesson plans from all teachers be submitted for review each Friday to present their own plans for next week for teachers' review each Friday. Before I'm misquoted, however, know that I fully support struggling teachers submitting their plans for review, professional learning communities exchanging plans for collegial review and coaching, and proven veterans submitting plans at least once a year so the principal knows what's going on in his or her school.
Help change teacher evaluation systems so that those principals with little or no teaching experience in a teacher's subject or grade level do not do the majority of teacher evaluations for that teacher. To critique and evaluate teachers, we must be up to date on the subject being taught.
Choose to teach the students no one else wants. They are the ones who bring out our true teaching colors, who most inspire our creativity and efforts. In our democracy, we teach all students, not just those easiest to teach. It's a feather in our cap to be considered the answer to a problem.
Revamp most of our country's grading systems. They do not accurately portray what happens in standards-based, differentiated classrooms.
Open teacher practices to public scrutiny. Brave educators must have frequent opportunities to publicly defend their thinking on educational issues, formally and informally, rather than living in self-imposed kingdoms, safely behind the closed classroom door. When we must articulate what we do, it becomes real and actionable, something we constantly reference, not an abstraction.
Question No Child Left Behind and every other federal education mandate from any political party in power from now until we retire if we have concerns about it.
Mandate all students and their teachers get residential, outdoor education experiences of a week or more every year, including ropes initiatives courses. Adults and students come back changed for the better, closer to who we really are, critical thinkers, and appreciative of learning and each other.
Promote a law that we cannot take students out of P.E. or the fine or performing arts to double-up on their math or reading remediation for state exams. For many of our students, it is these other subjects that give them hope and a way to succeed, and for all of us, it is these subjects that give meaning and dimension to much of what we learn in other subjects.
As a white Caucasian born in America with little about which to complain, I will remain attentive to racism in schools and even go around the country sensitizing colleagues and communities, both white and of color, citizens and non-citizens, about racism and how to end it.
Openly and compassionately discuss with colleagues controversial subjects such as intelligent design vs. evolution, recording zeroes or 50s, and tenure.
Speak up about what's going on in schools at local events and in the local paper.
Publicly question shows like Survivor, American Idol, and Weakest Link, which go against every fiber of nurturing teachers. We battle every day against sentiments like, "You are not worthy to be with us" and "We want you off the island because you are incompetent." These are the antithesis of what middle schools are about. Peter Yarrow got me going on this one.
Decrease the number of standards we have to teach. We cannot physically, emotionally, and intellectually teach all that we are supposed to teach in the time allotted. Removing standards isn't watering down; it's actually increasing what students learn.
Accept the reality and research about young adolescent sleep patterns and attentiveness and start all middle schools at 9:30 in the morning or later.
Require reading be taught as a separate and intense course to all students at least up through their sophomore year of high school.
Be dedicated to working in impoverished and low-performing schools.
Be dedicated to working in affluent and high-performing schools.
Every year, take specific steps to battle the greatest threat to student achievement: poverty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer." For our students' and communities' sake, let's take the opportunities in the school year ahead to dare greatly and be brave five minutes longer.

Rick Wormeli is a middle school educator, author, and presenter based in Herndon, Virginia.