11 rules of teaching

While trying to reduce the clutter in my laptop, I came across an old file from 15 years ago. I had printed it out and kept it tacked on my cubicle in my early years of teaching.

To those considering a career in the academe, or are actually already teaching, I hope these make as much sense as they still do to me.

Always remember:

1 Teaching is a vocation, not a job. As such, there are no strict job parameters, like work hours or what particular subject you are supposed to teach—unless it is life itself.

As a former student once put it, teachers are never off duty. Read that in as many ways as you want. Give time to listen to students and give generously. This is what many of them want from you, more than anything else.

2 Teach from the heart as much as, or even more so than, from the head. Your students will know from Day 1 whether or not you believe in what you are teaching, or if you are just mouthing ideas or quotations you picked up somewhere and just want to go home as soon as possible.

3 Always remember who your audience is. Gauge the intelligence level and exposure range of your students. Some are not going to be as smart as you. A number will actually be smarter than you. Don’t be intimidated when you run into this latter group, or discouraged with the former group.

4 You aren’t infallible. Don’t be so hard on yourself if you screw up. Always admit your mistakes and be willing to say “I don’t know” to your students’ questions. Always rethink your own paradigms; don’t think that there’s always just one way to do things or one way to think. And you can learn as much from your students as they do from you, if not more.

5 Remember that every student is an individual, a person. He or she isn’t just a “student,” much less a “number,” in your classroom.

Each student has his or her quirks, capabilities and background milieu. Get to know them as much as possible. And don’t just hear them. Listen—not just to what they say, but also to what they don’t say. Body language often says a lot more than words.

Say “thank you” especially for little acts of gratitude they show, even after the semester is over, when they realize that you did make sense, after all.

6 Show your students how the subject is relevant to them and why it is not just another academic discipline that must be endured. This goes for any subject.

Ask yourself, how is the subject you are about to teach useful, or about them, and not just another way to raise the QPI (quality point index or grade average), or worse, a waste of their time.

7 Don’t assume that the reason a student is performing badly is low intelligence; conversely, don’t assume that because a student is doing very well, he or she is actually learning something.

8 Learn how to relax, inside and outside the classroom. You aren’t much use to people, or to yourself, if you’re so burned out and can’t function or think efficiently or coherently.

9 You can’t save everyone. You are not your students. No matter how hard you try to knock some sense into their heads and hearts, you will always fail with some, so don’t blame yourself.

Respect their decisions, even if they are wrong. It’s the only way for them to learn, assuming they do at all. Some lessons must be learned the hard way.

10

Share your story with them, if only to prove to them how human you are, too, and to let them know you are journeying with them on this road called life.

11

Love your work, and your work will love you back.

(The author teaches history at Ateneo de Manila University.)