The Wisdom Within - A Matter of Trust

The Teaching Boys Initiative (TBI) is a cornerstone of Saint David’s School’s strategic vision, aimed at developing a robust framework of evidence-based best practices in boys’ education. The initiative’s primary goal is to empower educators with the knowledge, skills, habits, and dispositions of reflective practitioners, enhancing their professional growth and the overall quality of teaching and learning for boys. 

In TBI's new quarterly blog series, "The Wisdom Within," our faculty share stories that inform, inspire, and encourage reflective practice using evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning for boys. 

The following inaugural entry, "A Matter of Trust," was written by reflective practitioner and Master Teacher Tom Ryan, who has been inspiring generations of Saint David's boys for more than 53 years.

A MATTER OF TRUST

…but, I digress. I cannot possibly begin any writing piece, and/or class, without some digression that, as I have said to my students too many times, will serve as edification for the coming lesson. Here goes. When I began this journey back in ’71, that’s 1971 for the wise guys out there, I was still living at home in the Bronx with my parents. My father’s career was working for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, the A&P for those who even remember that! He knew this one supplier. This guy was the distributor of the brand spankin’ new Funk and Wagnalls World Encyclopedia, and he told my father that he would be bringing in a new volume each week for my father to display in the front of the store on White Plains Road. My father, never one to miss a potential deal, told this guy he would guarantee a spot in front of aisle three – the exact middle of the store, if he would give him a copy each week – on the arm. When he also reassured him that it would be displayed with no other product, the deal was struck! Funk and Wagnalls would be in the prime position of the A&P, without any other product, including Major Grey’s Chutney or Nabisco’s Mallomars! (If only world politics were that easy!) 

Let’s fast forward a few years and get to Saint David’s. I am standing in front of my sixth grade class in Room 35 in 1971. That’s all of 21 years old, less than a decade older than this, my first class. And, wow! Could they ask questions! In those days, I taught English, history, geography, math, and religion. We were reading books and short stories they didn’t prepare me for in Fordham’s School of Education. Thank God, we were covering American history from the colonial times, and math is, well, math – especially in sixth grade. Armed with my still relatively new set of 29 volumes of Funk and Wagnalls, I was all set – and was not. Every day, I was challenged by those voracious learners in the form of sixth graders – by those insatiable young men who thought I had the answer to everything. I bobbed and weaved, ran home to Van Nest Avenue and ensconced myself in the F&W. 

In the ensuing years, I have learned several things behind/alongside my desk. One of the best things I have learned is not to be afraid to tell your students that, actually, you do not know the answer to the third kind of currency used in Kuala Lumpur, how far it is from Breed’s Hill to Bunker Hill, or who played third base for the ’92 Blue Jays.(1) Your students will not look at you as a person who is not “all knowing,” but rather as a person who is honest, approachable, and willing to “find out stuff” for them. In the overall scheme of teacher/student dynamics, this trust, this willingness to expose yourself as, well, human, and this willingness to bond to work together is far more intrinsic than a silly factoid you can instantly conjure up.(2) (3)  Often, when my class and I are discussing a novel, play, or short story, I remind the boys that we are the “omniscient” readers. We generally know more than the characters on the page. We are privy to details that only become “figured out” as the story unfolds. 

That’s the beauty and the curse of reading literature. As the person in the front of the room, however, we are hardly omniscient, and we should not be afraid to let the students know it, thus forming a necessary union with the student. And, it does not have to be as scary as that sounds. Get off your pedestal, and get down with your charges. You cannot know everything, with or without Google or Funk and Wagnalls. I have also found it fun to go to the “Google-ation” with the boy and find out the answer! What is that expression – “shared knowledge is retained knowledge”?(4) (5) After said trip down that “knowledge rabbit hole,” you and your student will have that moment in common, and the bond is formed. Now that we are using terms like “toolbox” when it comes to what the teacher can bring to the classroom, we should add the simple phrase – “Gee, I don’t really know, but let’s look it up tonight – both of us – and tomorrow, the first one who says it, wins!” I can almost guarantee that the idea of “winning” will appeal to almost any boy. Mission accomplished! 

Finally, this is not an easy mindset for many of us. However, “to keep your eye on the prize” and to fully engage with your boys, drop the mantle of omniscience and admit to the students that even if you do not know everything, you’re more than willing to go on the search with them. Time and demeanor - well spent. In all, sometimes the digression can overtake the message, but even the digression has merit: it reinforces your commitment to your students to share and journey together.(6)

You lose the angst, you gain their trust, and everyone goes home happy. Excuse me, but I’m up to Volume 16 tonight – can’t wait.

Notes:

1. I Don't Know: In Praise of Admitting Ignorance (Except When You Shouldn't) by Cohen, Leah Hager ( Author ) Sep-2013 

2. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psychology-teacher-network/introductory-psychology/student-trust

3. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351841860_Trust_Between_Teacher_and_Student_in_Academic_Education_at_School

4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361115715_Knowledge_Sharing_for_Knowledge_Retention_and_Growth#fullTextFileContent

5. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sharing-boosts-knowledge-retention-leana-theunissen/

6. https://www.teachhub.com/professional-development/2017/11/professional-commitment-in-the-teaching-profession/