THE TEACHER AS WATCHER

I sometimes wish I could be more of a watcher than a doer. When I’m teaching, I’m usually so perfectly focused on getting steps in the lesson accomplished that I lose sight of the importance of simply witnessing what’s happening. I guess I have too much of the officious busybody in me and not enough of the silent observer. In fact, I usually live my whole life that way – always doing, performing, carrying out, completing, achieving, and making, but rarely standing back and simply seeing what’s going on. I often wonder what would happen if athletic coaches worked like this -- constantly talking and showing, but never observing and studying. What if a basketball coach talked to the players throughout all the games and practices, and never once sat silently and just scrutinized their performances? I’m sure their season would be a mish-mash of hit-or-miss victories and losses, all led on by the loud words of the coach instead of the steadily improving skills of the players. I don’t want to teach like that. Perhaps there are professions where doing is everything and observing is nothing, but teaching isn’t one of them. Sitting back and studying students is just as helpful as having them listen and watch as I work through my teacher’s to-do list.