Back in my school days my teachers considered me a bright student. I wasn’t, but they thought I was because I was pretty verbal. The sad fact is, when it came to some subjects, I was a total dummy – long before all those dummy books came along (where were they when I needed them).

Two of my biggest learning challenges were math (just about any kind would do) and sports of every stripe. Apparently I had more strategies for not learning than my teachers had for teaching.

Today, guest writer Russ Hamel shares with us how he learned to teach. His ending up a teacher is a bit ironic, considering that he was one of those “slow” students who simply didn’t get it, no matter how many times the teacher explained it. His challenge, like mine, was math, and his plaintive question was…

What is ‘X’?
By Russ Hamel

One of the biggest reasons I am a great observer of my students’ body language and especially facial expression and eye movement is from my own experience in math class. As you may well guess, math was definitely not my forte. In fact, that would be a GROSS understatement.

God bless Mr. McGowan, my math teacher 3 out of 4 years in high school. The guy really tried to get me to understand. To give you an example of just how bad I was, here is an algebra example: X + 7 = 10. I was the kid in the back of the class, wildly waving my hand, “What is X?”

Mr. McGowan would answer, “Great question, Russ. That’s the problem you have to solve… WHAT is X? So what do you say, Russ? Do you know?”

Oh, man, I was SO lost. In my mind I was thinking, “How the hell can you add letters and numbers together?” I seriously did NOT get it. I was convinced, math and I would never be friends.

Mr. McGowan disagreed. He offered extra help after school. Reluctantly I went. For me, it was as bad confronting the class bully outside after the closing bell. I KNEW I was going to get my ass kicked… hard!

Oh, Mr. McGowan was calm and patient enough. He would write things on the board and asked me if I got it? I would pretend I did and say the obligatory, “Uh-huh…” Now, had Mr. McGowan had been a student of body language, facial expression and eye movement, he would have easily and clearly seen that there was nobody home upstairs in Russy’s world.

After about 30 minutes of Mr. McGowan chatting and chalking up the board, and me staring blankly and throwing in the occasional, “Uh-huh” just so he knew I was still alive, I would be sent home with some extra pages to practice.

Inevitably, the next day in class I would be the first one chosen to go to the board and demonstrate the homework example. I could feel my face getting hotter and redder as the class snickered and sneered. This was the ‘comic relief’ part of the day; way better than cartoons, and my classmates reveled in seeing ‘Russy the Dunce’ go through his routine.

“But you got it last night!”, Mr. McGowan would say, trying not to show any frustration.

My familiar dull “Uh-huh…”, is all I proffered.

Mr. McGowan then would walk me through the problem, virtually doing it for me as I worked through each painful step of the problem. I returned to my seat to a mock standing ovation.

Had he ONLY looked into my eyes!

And that’s why, to this day, I watch and listen to every one of my music students whenever I introduce a new concept. Having mastered the art of “Uh-huh…” I KNOW that sound means, “I don’t get it yet.” Instead, I will continue to engage my student in conversation and various illustrations until I see and hear, “Oh, you mean it’s like THIS?”

YES!

I should make a video of this story. I have fun doing all the voice characterizations from my dull “Uh-huh…”, to Mr. McGowan’s right-on-the-edge-of-losing-it frustration, to my classmates taunting. My students tell me it is one of their favorites because it tells them that I UNDERSTAND what it’s like to try to wrap your head around difficult, if not impossible to grasp concepts.

Oh, by the way, I finally did overcome my math deficiencies, having picked up some self-study math tutors on my computer. At least I know what X is! You know I Love That Feeling!

All the best from Toronto,
Russ and Maggie

The world can seem like a crazy place sometimes…
OK, a LOT of the time! However, no matter what is going on in your life, magic happens when you learn how to choose better feelings now!
You’re Gonna Love That Feeling

Back to Charles:
So here’s poor Russy asking what is X, meaning what the hell does that MEAN? And here’s his teacher asking the same question, but meaning “what is the value of X?”

They were both saying the same words, but neither realized that their identical questions had totally different meanings.

Often a person goes into teaching because they’re naturally gifted at their subject. Now, that may qualify them to perform in their chosen field, but does it qualify them to teach it to others? Many times, the answer is no.

Because teaching math (for example) isn’t really all about math. It’s more about the people trying to learn it. And while the student may be distressingly ungifted in the subject, the teacher may be just as big a dummy about teaching. Or at least terribly unaware of “people matters” like body language, as Russ mentions. Or the nuances of teaching with stories, allegories and metaphors, which are powerful tools to bridge differences in thinking styles.

So if you are a teacher, and you have a couple of students (or many) who just aren’t getting it, don’t blame them. It may be a matter of your own weak communication skills.

You’re the teacher. It’s your responsibility to learn more and more effective ways to bridge that gap and light the fires of understanding in your students. That’s assuming you care enough to make the effort. But I’m betting you do care that much, and more. After all, isn’t that why you became a teacher in the first place? To give something special to others – to help them become as excited about your subject as you are?

Cheers from warm and smiling Thailand,
Charles