It is NOT "all about relationships"
Ok, quick little lesson on the difference between "necessary" and "sufficient." It's a birthday party so what do you need? How about candles?! You can't have a birthday party without candles! They're necessary. But are they sufficient? Can you serve only candles? Sure, if you want to have nobody show up to your next birthday party, just serve....candles. Candles: necessary but not sufficient.
You decide that the cake will be chocolate. Is it necessary that the cake be chocolate? No. It could be strawberry. Or if you're particularly boring it could be vanilla (don't @ me). Is the chocolate sufficient? Yes. If that's what is served, nobody is looking around for anything else. But there are reasonable substitutes so chocolate is not necessary.
Few things are both necessary and sufficient. For a birthday party maybe friends would be both necessary and sufficient. Neither necessary nor sufficient at a birthday party? Asparagus. Got it?
So where are "relationships" in this Punnet square of education? On Twitter, you hear many edu-heroes and other well meaning people express, to me, this tired bumper-sticker cliche: "It's all about relationships." The word "all" implies that relationships are both necessary and sufficient, the "friends" at the birthday party. I disagree. I disagree 50%. Relationships are candles: necessary but not sufficient.
Now, when I say "necessary" I mean to the best teaching. (The other two ingredients besides relationships to the best teaching are content knowledge and "encoding" but that's for a different blog post...or maybe a book, we'll see!) Let's examine.
Why aren't relationships sufficient? Why are they merely the chocolate cake of birthday parties? Ok, let's imagine that you have a best friend. We'll call him Phil. You can trust Phil with anything and he believes in you. Phil is a dentist whose lived in the city his whole life. Across the street you have a neighbor, Mitch who owns chickens. You don't know Mitch. You've waved at each other a few times and you're pretty sure he isn't responsible for your broken mailbox. His dog barks too loud at night, but I digress. Your family decides that you want to raise chickens, too. But you don't know anything about it but you're willing to learn. Who are you going to ask: the person who you trust and have a great relationship with but knows absolutely nothing about chickens? Or the guy across the street who clearly knows a ton about chickens? Mitch wins, hands down. A relationship with Mitch is not necessary, nor is your relationship with Phil sufficient for you to learn about chickens.
In direct opposition to the popular Ted-talk, we've all learned from someone we didn't like, or at least didn't love. Be honest. You might not remember a class fondly, but to say that you didn't learn anything? I'm not buying it and I don't think you are either. I had a really nice 7th-8th grade math teacher, Mrs. Tebbs-Gates. I remember a couple of my high school math teachers. I clearly learned a ton from them because I teach math now. But I don't recall having a great relationship with them. My best relationship was with my choir teacher. I still sing from time to time as well as act. But it's not what I do for a living.
So can we be honest the next time someone says "it's all about relationships?" It's not. There's no dispute from me that relationships are necessary for the best teaching. But they are not sufficient. It is not ALL about relationships.
ok, @ me.
You decide that the cake will be chocolate. Is it necessary that the cake be chocolate? No. It could be strawberry. Or if you're particularly boring it could be vanilla (don't @ me). Is the chocolate sufficient? Yes. If that's what is served, nobody is looking around for anything else. But there are reasonable substitutes so chocolate is not necessary.
Few things are both necessary and sufficient. For a birthday party maybe friends would be both necessary and sufficient. Neither necessary nor sufficient at a birthday party? Asparagus. Got it?
So where are "relationships" in this Punnet square of education? On Twitter, you hear many edu-heroes and other well meaning people express, to me, this tired bumper-sticker cliche: "It's all about relationships." The word "all" implies that relationships are both necessary and sufficient, the "friends" at the birthday party. I disagree. I disagree 50%. Relationships are candles: necessary but not sufficient.
Now, when I say "necessary" I mean to the best teaching. (The other two ingredients besides relationships to the best teaching are content knowledge and "encoding" but that's for a different blog post...or maybe a book, we'll see!) Let's examine.
Why aren't relationships sufficient? Why are they merely the chocolate cake of birthday parties? Ok, let's imagine that you have a best friend. We'll call him Phil. You can trust Phil with anything and he believes in you. Phil is a dentist whose lived in the city his whole life. Across the street you have a neighbor, Mitch who owns chickens. You don't know Mitch. You've waved at each other a few times and you're pretty sure he isn't responsible for your broken mailbox. His dog barks too loud at night, but I digress. Your family decides that you want to raise chickens, too. But you don't know anything about it but you're willing to learn. Who are you going to ask: the person who you trust and have a great relationship with but knows absolutely nothing about chickens? Or the guy across the street who clearly knows a ton about chickens? Mitch wins, hands down. A relationship with Mitch is not necessary, nor is your relationship with Phil sufficient for you to learn about chickens.
In direct opposition to the popular Ted-talk, we've all learned from someone we didn't like, or at least didn't love. Be honest. You might not remember a class fondly, but to say that you didn't learn anything? I'm not buying it and I don't think you are either. I had a really nice 7th-8th grade math teacher, Mrs. Tebbs-Gates. I remember a couple of my high school math teachers. I clearly learned a ton from them because I teach math now. But I don't recall having a great relationship with them. My best relationship was with my choir teacher. I still sing from time to time as well as act. But it's not what I do for a living.
So can we be honest the next time someone says "it's all about relationships?" It's not. There's no dispute from me that relationships are necessary for the best teaching. But they are not sufficient. It is not ALL about relationships.
ok, @ me.
Comments
Post a Comment