I’ve been a teacher for 19 years. From the moment I held my first class (with three 7-year-old Polish girls who were due to learn English from me with my thick Australian accent) I knew I was in my element. I have since then taught in high schools, primary schools, weekend schools, private and public universities/colleges, tertiary institutes, and privately at home. Throughout my career I have met some amazing pedagogues who opened my eyes to the wonder of teaching.
Teaching is a great skill that takes a lifetime to master. I never understood this until I saw a genius educator at work in a classroom. The class dynamics, the time management, the attention to each individual soul under your care, and so much more. To balance all that is beautiful art. So, even after 19 years, I’m still constantly learning to perfect my classroom/lecture theatre competence.
It was with great pleasure, then, that I reached a point in an autobiography that I’m currently reading which devoted a chapter to teaching. The autobiography was written by the great Fulton Sheen who was an archbishop and famous television and radio personality in the USA in the middle of the last century. Fulton Sheen lists some tips and recommendations of his own that he picked up over the years that he felt the need to share with others. In this post I would like to quote some of his insights and then provide my own commentary to them where I deem fit.
Teaching as a Noble Vocation
I’ll start with his opinion on teaching itself:
I loved teaching… Teaching is one of the noblest vocations on earth, for, … the purpose of all education is the knowledge and love of truth.
Treasure in Clay by Fulton Sheen, Doubleday, USA 2008, p. 57-58.
Indeed, the conveying of the truth is a noble endeavour. It goes without saying that a teacher who does not love the truth will not bring life into his classroom. Currently, I’m a lecturer of IT. I teach things like programming and database management. The truths there are not as splendid (let’s say) as those of theology and philosophy, which is what Fulton Sheen taught throughout his life – but they’re truths nonetheless. And truths much needed with which people can make a living and support their loved ones. Hence, even with my particular subjects I can have an attitude towards teaching as one of love of truth. I never really thought of things this way. It’s beautiful.
Conversation with Cardinal Mercier
One time Abp Sheen met with Cardinal Mercier and asked him: “Your Eminence, you were always a brilliant teacher; would you kindly give me some suggestions about teaching?”.
His response follows:
I will give you two: always keep current: know what the modern world is thinking about; read its poetry, its history, its literature; observe its architecture and its art; hear its music and its theater; and then plunge deeply into St. Thomas and the wisdom of the ancients and you will be able to refute its errors.
p. 56.
There’s nothing worse than hearing a Thomist trying to minister to secular people with zero understanding of the modern world. It’s like watching somebody trying to use a screwdriver on a nail. It’s painful to watch and it ultimately gives us a bad name because it makes religion seem out of place with modernity.
That aside, knowing the modern world is important to any teacher because it’s getting to know your audience. You don’t necessarily have to refute errors in your classroom but you should always know who you are teaching to. Teachers are usually one or two generations older than the people they’re educating. You need to learn how to talk to your younger generation!
Cardinal Mercier then continues:
The second suggestion: tear up your notes at the end of each year. There is nothing that so much destroys the intellectual growth of a teacher as the keeping of notes and the repetition of the same course the following year.
p. 56.
This suggestion is amazing. I never thought about a teacher becoming stale after repeating the same courses year after year. Fulton Sheen took this suggestion to heart and always taught something different in his philosophy and theology classes each year. There was always a new and clean angle he took. It kept him on his toes and I’m sure the freshness that he would have exuded rubbed off on his students. This is something I will be considering in my future endeavours, for sure. Like I said, even after 19 years on the job, ideas like this make me see how so many of my past classes could have been improved (for myself and my students) by a suggestion such as this one.
Teaching as a Moral Duty
Further along in his autobiography, Fulton Sheen says the following:
Teaching often becomes a communication from the notebook of the teacher to the notebook of the student without passing through the minds of either. I felt a deep moral obligation to students; that is why I spent so many hours in preparation for each class. In an age of social justice one phase that seems neglected is the moral duty of professors to give their students a just return for their tuition. This applies not only to the method of teaching but to the content as well.
p. 57-58 [emphasis mine]
Sheen’s autobiography was written in 1980. How much more is what he said then true today? Moreover, these days schools and universities are run like companies. “Love of truth” dies in an environment like that. Moreover, students are perceived as numbers and not as individuals who each have their own story and (sometimes unbeknownst to them) desire for educational adventure. No way are they getting a just return for their tuition in places run like corporations. Professors are suffering as well in environments like that.
(I’m not even going to bother commenting on the state of “Catholic” schools these days. Let’s move on.)
A Teacher is also a Student
A teacher who himself does not learn is no teacher.
p. 58
A learned professor brings freshness to a class. There’s always a relevant example or an anecdote that you can throw at your students. This is so true in the world of IT which is unique in that it changes and updates perhaps faster than any other field of study. Students can always pick up on a teacher who is learned or who has dried up. The former will always get more respect.
Never Sit
Some practices I observed in teaching were the following: my first rule was never sit. Fires cannot be started seated. If the students would have to “stand” for my lectures, I ought to stand for them.
p. 58 [emphasis in original]
I read this the day I was due to teach 6 hours straight of programming to my students. I attempted to stand for the entire 6 hours. And it’s true! The difference was palpable. I was more alive. I was able to capture the attention of my students easier. They fed off my body language and then I in turn fed off theirs – we mutually benefited from this arrangement.
However, my legs were DEAD by the end of the day.
Other Quotes
I’ll list here the rest of Abp Sheen’s insights that I thought are worth including in this post without commentary. Enjoy!
I have given thousands of lectures but very few have ever been written out-either for the classroom or for general audiences. I always felt justified for not reading in the classroom or the pulpit by remembering a remark I once heard…: “Glory be to God, if he can’t remember it, how does he expect us to?“
p. 58 [emphasis mine]
I never used notes for a lecture or a sermon… As a mother cannot forget the child of her womb, so a speaker cannot forget the child of his brain. Why should a living mind bow down in subjection to research notes?
p. 58-59 [emphasis mine]
Experience has taught me that when there is a disturbance in a hall or a theater, it is good for the speaker never to raise his voice in order to make himself heard over it. The best trick is to lower the voice and to begin talking in a whisper. The audience reaction will be: “Oh, I’m missing something,” and they will give back the attention which momentarily was taken away.
p. 60.
I have found by experience that it is good never to plunge directly into the subject [of the class]. The audience likes to have a chance to look you over. A touch of humor at the beginning is a good approach and the best humor is that which is directed against self.
p. 60
An audience, I also learned, does not like to be made to feel inferior to the speaker. That is why a story in which the speaker is humbled gives them a feeling of equality. As I would use humor at the introduction of a lecture, so also was there humor at one or two points in the course of the lecture in order to change the mood, relieve the tension and give the audience an opportunity to relax.
p. 60
To me the conclusion of a talk must be strong, inspiring and elevating—and I would spend almost as much time on it as on many points in the lecture…
p. 61
Final Words
Whether you agree with these points or not it’s always good, I think, to listen to an experienced pedagogue. Sheen spent 38 years in television and radio. During this time he twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality (when these awards meant something) and was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1952. For my part, I think these suggestions are excellent. My favourite ones are “burn your notes each year” and “always stand when delivering your classes”. I’ve already implemented the latter in my teaching. The former is going to be much harder to do – no doubt about that.
I wish you courage in implementing these tips, too, dear reader. I hope you found this post helpful.
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