It can be a scary thing to reflect upon, but every move made in the classroom by the teacher can either heighten or hamper the humanity growing in each student. In every decision, I make I can uplift a student, perhaps just one little step towards actualizing the potential inside, or I can leave a student static in their development. Or even worse, the unjust decision can rob students of their dignity.

 

The power and authority in the classroom resides in the teacher by default. Students are conditioned from day one of school to respect their elders, their teacher. We are addressed as Mr. or Ms. I suppose all of that is fine. Respect is a beautiful foundation upon which to build the classroom environment. What troubles me is when that respect is then used to instill authoritarian compliance and not as a way to build communal classroom rapport.

 

The question I am pondering upon presently is this: Is it respect that teachers call upon in asking student to comply with classroom expectations, or is it rather from a position of power? Take your seat. Open up your binder. Put away that. We ask for compliance. We demand it. Are we demanding obedience? If so, we are hampering the humanity growing in each student?

 

The teacher must wear many hats throughout every school day. Must one of the hats be the boss? The factory manager supervising working students? Students, then like employees, who have no democratic protection to question task or process? Or, must teachers wear a badge like law enforcement? A potentially even more vulgar display of power.

 

The teacher might choose to wield power in order to advance through learning activities and objectives. In thus using power as an instrument for control, the student cannot grow upward and outward, letting the beautiful individual within reach out like blossoms upon a thousand branches. Instead, the student grows tethered and tied, straight, bound to the position of yielding through the teacher-student power struggle.

 

The teacher must reconcile this. In what ways can we create social and behavioral accountability in the classroom, in a way that flows from and feeds into mutual respect, without resorting to wielding power as a hammer for compliance.

 

My students call me Mr. But I would prefer they call me Brother before ever calling me Sir.