Back in the late 1980’s I wrote an article for “Training” magazine in which I detailed my search for a training instructor. So, much like Marty McFly, who, by the way, should be visiting us this very month, if you really believe in time travel, I am returning to my past to recount something the younger me wrote so very many years ago. Let’s jump on our hover-board and along with me, journey back to the future where I will tell you all about the best teacher I ever knew and the man who helped mold both my life and career. That remarkable man was my tenth grade world history teacher and I will never forget and cannot possibly repay the gift he gave to me, a gift I am certain he never knew was even given.
He was the best teacher I ever had and the major reason I am a professor today. That article I authored for “Training” magazine, outlined the traits I believed made for a great teacher and I stated in that article that what I learned and knew about training and teaching had its origins from that marvelous little whisp of a man who propelled me on a career path I never could have imagined, much less lived. For over 40 years I have wound my way through the corporate world, as a trainer, instructional designer, director of training, internal and external consultant, owner of my very own training and consulting business and now, today, having exited the corporate world, I now find myself looking back at students, so eager and so young. Those students make me ponder where the years have gone that have taken me from student to teacher and to wonder how it all unfolded. To complete that trip back to my future, and with some of the very same dangers and perils that Marty McFly faced when he, too, jumped back to the present day, I offer for you, precisely what I managed to learn from that brilliant little man who unwittingly shaped my life. Let us together jump in our very own time machine, rev up the engines and journey back in time to a classroom in suburban Buffalo, New York and a teacher, small in stature, but larger than life. Here is what we will learn:
- Have a plan. Call it whatever you want, a lesson plan, a agenda, a road map, you must always let your students know what they will be learning. That great teacher of mine always wrote on the blackboard, (remember them?) exactly what we were going to cover in that class. Everyone wants to know what will be covered that day or semester and they will learn best when they can see that plan unfold, exactly as planned. Much like today’s GPS, it is comforting to know that you are never really lost and that there is indeed a final destination that can and must be reached. I can still remember the smell of that chalk dust and the residue it always left on the hands of that remarkable teacher I was fortunate enough to know.
- Keep it simple. It has been said that if you cannot explain the concept you are trying to teach in in just a few words, then you never really understood it at all. How I have both loved and hated that simple truth over these past fifty years. It is most definitely true, and trying to keep things simple has challenged, pushed and prodded me on an every-day basis. That wonderful man and teacher completely understood simplicity and was indeed its master. I can still visualize the smile on his face when he had somehow managed to explain to us why Roman civilization rose and then fell and he detailed it to us in very few, yet well-chosen words. He seemed proud of himself because he knew that we had that “ahh- ha moment” and that fact brought him immense joy and satisfaction. It does for me, too on those all too rare moments when I see learning flash over the faces of my students. I just wish my role model had told me how exceptionally difficult it was to accomplish this feat on a regular basis. He always did. I am still trying and learning what was so natural for him. For me, it takes a lot of hard work. And it must be accomplished.
- Be positive. I have witnessed the power of this skill over and over again, both in and out of the classroom. As a coach, I quickly learned to always accentuate the good in each of my young baseball players. Yelling screaming, belittling, and anything negative never worked and should be thrown into the scrap heap. If you strike out, you already know that is not good. Why stress that negative all over again? Received a poor grade, well, we all know why and totally understand the potential consequences, why punish your students even more? Find the positives, reward successes, praise even the smallest of victories, celebrate championships. My history teacher knew this and even the tiniest smile from him, when I finally understood why it was that ancient Greece was so vital to our own United States of America, was motivation for me to learn even more. I soon came to realize that I was sharing the classroom with someone truly special and that I may never pass that way again. I cherished those moments of understanding and to this very day, try to make those moments happen for my students. It really does work when you accentuate the positive, students learn better when they are encouraged and applauded.
- Be authentic. Always be yourself. Never stray from your core concepts and remain forever true to yourself. Students like to know that their teacher will never let them down, that the principles of outstanding training will consistently be followed, both in and out of the classroom. Students expect and deserve a teacher who is authentic, at all times and it is comforting to know that what their professor says in the classroom is also modeled off- campus. There is a great deal of comfort that comes from knowing that the person you see in front of the classroom is exactly the same person you will encounter out on the street. My wonderful teacher always practiced this important truth, I know that because he lived on my street. I will never forget the day that I found him talking to a group of five kids who had apparently just broken his front window with a baseball. He had them formed in a circle in his front yard, teaching them something about thinking and planning ahead before acting. They were paying rapt attention to him and I remember thinking to myself that here is someone who was facing the prospect and costs of replacing a very large window and he had instead seized upon that fleeting “teachable moment,” to impart wisdom on those young minds. I also learned something very valuable that summer’s day. I learned that no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the distraction, my teacher remained true to his teaching roots. He was authentic.
- Be enthusiastic. I felt so very proud just yesterday when one of my students wrote that he enjoyed my class because I was so enthusiastic about my subject and that enthusiasm helped him to learn better. I was proud not just because my student was praising me for something I try to exhibit every day, but because I had also witnessed that same zest for a subject that my remarkable world history teacher displayed every day in our long-ago.classroom. I have tried to emulate his zest in my own classrooms over the years. I can still recall that teaching guru leaping up on his desk to illustrate a concept, (no, I have never performed that leap, even once.) He would rush from one end of his classroom to the next on his wheeled chair, seeking to compliment a student, and sometimes he would quietly siddle up next to a student during an exam to either praise her for a good answer or to quietly suggest to her that “She just might want to reconsider that choice.” (We always change it and it was always the right move.” I discovered that I learned much better when the teacher found his subject so interesting and exciting that he could not contain his enthusiasm for the subject matter. I have always sought to show my students, through my enthusiasm for the subject matter, that great things can indeed happen when you simply throw yourself into your work, completely, totally and with 100 percent of your energy and efforts. To hear from a student that it just might be working, well, that is why I am in this wonderful profession.
This is certainly not a complete list of what I learned from that remarkable teacher and person from so very long ago,; but they are a few of the most important. As I now round the final turn and race toward the finish line of my career, I am beginning to realize that there has been a certain symmetry to that path that has become my life and chosen profession. I realized from the very first day that walked into his classroom that Mr. Mooshie had launched me on the road to what would define my career. “Education is my life,” is what I replied to one of the people interviewing me for my position when he asked me why I wanted to teach. Reflecting on those fifty-plus years of teaching and training and traveling down lonely roads and busy airports, I am just now beginning to realize how much of an impact that man had on my life. I have been striving to become more like him and that learning curve has driven me hundreds of thousand miles into and out of countless classes and thousands of students, and yet one thing has remained forever constant…I would not be where I am today had I not have had the good fortune to have entered that tiny classroom so very long ago. For it was in that classroom that I first unearthed what would become my life’s work. I was inspired, motivated, just a little bit awe-struck and more than a little impressed by what I experienced, learned and lived for one remarkable sophomore year. That teacher was one of a kind, a “once in a lifetime” role model and a truly unique human being. He never knew what a lasting impact he had on the life of one student, sitting in the back of that old classroom in western New York. It seems we always leave an impression, either good or bad, on those people we encounter every day and we will never know or even fully realize if that impression has remained or is, in fact, ever more than a forgotten experience. That is what I now realize was the most important lesson I learned from Mr. Mooshie. Be careful what you preach, there just may be someone listening and watching and you may never know what they are truly learning from you and your actions. Mr. Mooshie, you were the very best teacher I ever had and you are the reason I am a teacher today It all began with you and I only wish that I had told you what an impact you had on my life. So now, finally, and way, way too late, I just have.