Isn't+It+All+About+the+Students?



//'Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself//.' Chinese Proverb

//'A teacher-centered approach? Wait a minute. I thought that schools should be student centered. It's "all about the kids." Isn't that what we're are supposed to say? A safe guess is that schools should be about both, but with an important corollary: All of the learning and all of the support we want students to experience depends in large measures on the support that teachers receive//.' (Sergiovanni, 2005, p.101).

It's quite a daring remark, to state that teachers are important, and perhaps as important as the students. The bottom line is: without teachers surviving, or indeed thriving, there is very little scope for students to thrive. Working conditions are a hugely important factor in healthy teachers - both the actual conditions and environment as well as the support offered and accepted by teachers. So too, is the opportunity to collaborate, share ideas and value each others' wealth of knowledge and experience.

//'This support not only includes the nitty-gritty working conditions of teachers ... but the opportunities that teachers have to work together with colleagues, to learn more about their craft, to make important decisions about teaching, learning and other professional matters. All of these conditions and opportunities count. They count so much that unless we look after them, schools will not work as effectively as they can for students. An important truism is that as the principal goes, so goes the school. But the corollary to that statement is also true. As the teacher goes, so goes the student.'// (Sergiovanni, 2005, p.101).

Teaching and learning goes hand in hand, and as the teacher teaches and learns, the student also teaches and learns. It would be a fair guess that teachers have a passion for learning, enough for many of them to make it their life's work to struggle against sometimes very reluctant apprentices to make their lives better. Who cares for the carers? Who cares for the teachers who spend countless amounts of energy and put themselves wholeheartedly into teaching and passing on knowledge? The answer must be us. Fellow teachers, colleagues, leaders and society as a whole.

//'To be teacher centered first// [before being student centered] //is to place a high priority on helping teachers learn, helping them to be more successful in the classroom, helping them to be more committed to school standards and values, to find their jobs intellectually stimulating, to be able to collaborate with colleagues, to find sense and meaning in their work, to be more committed to self-supervision and self-evaluation, to be more receptive to other forms of accountability and to help teachers be more effective instructional leaders//.' (Sergioanni, 2005, p.107).

It's exactly because it's about the students that teacher wellbeing needs to be addressed. If the teacher is not functioning at full capacity, with all engines firing so to speak, the students are disadvantaged. Teaching is a profession which takes dedication, strength, organisation, energy, resilience and strong efficacy, both individual and collective.

Consider Frank McCourt's message - airline safety procedures are always to put your own oxygen mask on first. Until you are safe and taken care of, there is very little you can do for others.