The Road Not Taken

My favorite poem is Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." It seems pertinent to me at this time, as I prepare to leave the school where I began my teaching career and began my administrative career and served for twenty-five years, and as I set out to meet my first great challenge as principal of another school.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I am not one of those who gets hung up on the last two lines. Taken out of context, these two lines cause people to stare off into space, striking a pose of nobility and victory, feeling quite satisfied that their lives have been different and better because they did not follow the crowd. This is not what the poem is about at all. Read the title. The speaker is filled with doubt and perhaps regret.

As I move on, I have no way of knowing if I have chosen the right path. But, unlike Frost's speaker, I am not going to dwell on what might have been, where the other path may have taken me. I know that the road ahead will diverge again and again and again, and I have to be ready to make the decisions regarding which path to choose, even when both equally lay with leaves no step has trodden black. And this, too, is in the poem.

Smoke on the Water and Pseudo-learning

My son plays guitar. (I do as well but not nearly as well as he. Indulging in father-pride, I've provided a Youtube video of my son playing "My One and Only Love." Enjoy it.)

He also gives guitar lessons. Teaching is teaching is teaching is teaching, and the frustrations that my son has as a guitar instructor are the same experienced by the classroom teacher: a lack of commitment, a reluctance to practice, and a tendency to be impressed with having done only a part of the lesson. These points are well illustrated by my son's having taught a student "Smoke on the Water."

When my son comes home from a day of teaching guitar, his mother and I always ask him how the lessons went. On this day my son told us how he had taught a student "Smoke on the Water" and how that was the end of the lesson, because that was all the student wanted to play. The half hour slipped by with my son listening to the kid play. I thought to ask my son if he had taught the kid the chorus. My son said he had never taught any student that part of the song because they never asked to learn it.

I now have this vision of perhaps thousands of kids with guitars (not because my son has taught thousands but because I surmise that the experience repeats itself all across the nation) with kids playing memorable licks from songs, grinning, then playing others and never playing a full song. We have all been to a party and seen this happen. The guitar guy plays the opening of "Stairway to Heaven" and people are amazed. Then he plays the opening of "Sweet Home Alabama" and everyone goes wild. Then he plays the opening of "Stranglehold" to show his diversity and people are so impressed that they are shaking their heads. But the guy never plays a complete song.

It sometimes seems that everyone plays guitar--or says that they play guitar. But my son and I will both tell you that there is a difference between playing guitar and being a guitar player. A guitar player practices scales, works to learn new chord progressions and to understand how they work, and learns to play songs in their entirety, if not for public performance then for self-satisfaction and awareness. Real learning requires commitment, requires risking monotony, and rewards deferred gratification. But kids learning guitar don't want that. They want to impress their friends now.

And that is part of what is wrong with education. Okay, I've identified a problem. Let me suggest a solution: teach not only subject but also values. We can pass on through our teaching those things that we value as a society. Through doing so, we will not only improve the minds of our students, but also improve our society.

School Climate

Creating and maintaining a positive school climate is at the heart of having a great school. A school with a positive climate is one in which students feel safe, not only from the physical or mental harm or abuse, but also to take risks in learning. As such, a key to promoting a positive school environment where people are allowed to be people and are treated with the respect that everyone wants and deserves. In other words, follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I used to phrase it this way when I was in the classroom: Was I the kind of teacher today that I would want my own children to have every day? What did I want for my own children?

• I wanted them to be encouraged to take risks and to pursue their natural curiosity.
• I wanted them to be held to high standards and to be challenged to meet high expectations.
• I wanted them to be supported in their efforts to meet those high standards and expectations.
• I wanted them to be encouraged to ask questions and to find the answers, as opposed to leaving questioning to the teacher and waiting to parrot what they had been told.
  
• I expected that if their behavior was inappropriate that they would be reprimanded in a respectful and professional manner. (I believe one can be stern without being mean.)
• I expected their teachers to demonstrate high morals, strong ethics, and admirable character.

I expected a lot from their teachers. And I expected as much from me as a teacher. And I expect as much from every teacher in my building because that is what will make for a positive school climate.

I've got much to say on this and will edit this blog over the next couple of days. But I wanted to get a start. I'd certainly appreciate any thoughts you, the reader, might share.