Why do you do this!

For him but not for me?

In a recent program a teacher, C – who has reached the enlightened stage – described a recent experience of walking into a year 7 class for his next lesson just as the previous teacher was finishing up.  He recounted that as soon as he walked into the classroom students who were in the wrong seats jumped up and moved to their correct places, others adjusted their uniforms to the prescribed standard, all readied themselves for his lesson.

The outgoing teacher suddenly burst out angrily “why do you do this (be orderly, be respectful) for him and not for me?” and walked out of the class.

Of course, this teacher is asking the right question.  C went on to say that he had never been able to explain what he was doing that caused students to respond in this way to him but now, with the benefit of the work we had done together, he could explain it and saw how he could continue to get better.

There is no longer any mystery as to how one teacher can have high levels of teacherly authority when others may not.  This capability is learnable and thus teachable and once the very best teachers can articulate what it is that they are doing then they will likely make the best teachers of that capability as well.

The world is going through an epochal shift from regulating relationships through reward and punishment (Behaviourism) to regulating relationships through aligning values (Teacherly Authority).  This shift is happening because Behaviourism has visibly failed to meet the needs of the twenty-first century.

Let’s be on the right side of history and accelerate this shift as much as we can.

There are two new dates for the one-day program (Re)Building Teacherly Authority on 27th October (Melbourne) and 10th November (Sydney).  For more information and to register for either event, go here.

To get a fuller overview of Teacherly Authority, go here.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation.  At the core of this work is the concept and practice of teacherly authority.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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