Frank Thoms, Teacher in the Rye

…unless directed toward us we become passive to the information flying by. We glimpse, we don’t read. We are entertained.

And teachers feel it. A student in class who pays attention to her phone, whether in her hand or in her pocket, is not there. Whatever is happening is not happening to her. Teachers can’t compete with the phone’s addictive attention-seeking algorithms. Hence, the growing movement to ban phones from classrooms, from schools. Evidence for banning is increasing. Los Angeles was an early district to do so. Action is happening at the state level as well.

A classroom is not an entertainment center. Some teachers, of course, bring stories, humor, antics to get attention. But attention is not the profession. Teachers are responsible to educate, in Latin, ‘to lead out.’ In doing so, they are taking students somewhere, bringing them to new horizons. To be entertainers would not cut it.

In writing my memoir of my classroom teaching, which I’m calling Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way, I discovered a memo I wrote to my eighth-grade parents in the mid-80s. In it, I wrote:

“Teaching as conversation, where each person––teacher and student––is heard, respected, and cared for. Teachers exercise the privilege of being equal, at one, with students. To be this way opens The Way, the Tao, and lets everyone know their words are loved.”

These sentences speak to how I saw myself as a teacher throughout my career. My classroom was about conversation where I was learning from my students as I hoped they were learning from me. It was not always obvious, but that principle was always there. Recalling about my invoking the Tao in my classroom was a pleasant surprise. Teachers don’t talk much about love, but perhaps we think about it more than we know.

Being a ‘conversation-based’ teacher puts entertainment in the back seat. By letting students know that they count in your class is a gift––to them and to you. Since leaving the classroom, I have published six books, all of them reflect the conversation paradigm.

When teachers choose this mode, they become educators. Given the increasing plethora of misinformation and disinformation, a two-way classroom is essential. One way is receiving input from students, to hear what they know. The other is for them to hear from you. If we are to stay a democracy, we must first find the facts before we go any further. I was fortunate in my forty years not to have untruths coming through the door. My students and I discussed our points of view of the facts before us.

Today, teachers have to take a further step. When discussing about the outside world, they have to assure that truth and facts are in the room. Teachers (and schools) need to devote time to this issue if they have any chance to produce an informed citizenry. With the arrival of AI this challenge is greater than ever. Teachers and schools have much work to do. They need our support in any way we can provide it.