In praise of teachers

Last weekend, I gave a presentation to the UTAS Masters of Education students on what it means to be a teacher in 2022. This term I have also returned to the classroom, teaching some Year 10 Religious Education. I’m looking forward to doing some teaching in Year 3 next week as well. All of this has me reflecting on being a teacher. Here are some of the things I had to say to the UTAS students. 

The first thing was to congratulate them all on their choice of profession, as teaching matters. Education is the single most important factor in relieving poverty. Education changes life trajectories and has an impact on future salary, health and length of life. The most important factor in student success at school, is teacher quality and the most important ingredient in good teaching is good pedagogy. Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching. Teachers have a responsibility to be life-long learners when it comes to their craft of teaching.   

Often times it is the skills, rather than the content, which is what students most need to learn. The content knowledge comes and goes, but skills such as how to read and write, how to study, how to manage your time and so forth are of benefit for the rest of your life. The latest information on brain science tells us that the harder we work, the more intelligent we become. 

The main question teachers need to ask is not “has it been taught?”, but “has it been learned?” When students tune out they are doing us a favour, they are telling us we need to teach the content in a different way. A good teacher has a Swiss army knife of strategies – this takes time! The original meaning of the word educate; ‘educare’ in Latin, is to draw out – I think this is true. We are helping students to become what and who they really are.

I have worked in a number of schools with hundreds of teachers and can honestly say that each one of them deeply care about the students in front of them and each one of them go above and beyond every day in support of their students. Thank you to the teachers of St Aloysius for your care of our students. 

Staff Spirituality Day

On the first day of term, our staff joined with the staff of St James and Sacred Heart, Geeveston, for our annual Spirituality Day. This is a requirement for all Catholic schools in Tasmania. All up, there were around 250 staff present. We were led by Fr Richard Ross, a Tasmanian Priest. As you can imagine, leading a spirituality day for that many staff was a formidable task. 

Fr Richard focussed on the topic of the Trinity, that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the first session, Fr Richard talked about God as creator and told us some stories of the geology of Tasmania, from ancient times to the present. I think we will all look at the rock formations on our beautiful island a bit differently, after Fr Richard’s words. The second session focused on Jesus as the second person in the Trinity. In this session, Fr Richard told us some personal stories of his own journey and people he has met along the way. He placed particular emphasis on the importance of gratitude and forgiveness. In the third session, focusing on the Holy Spirit, Fr Richard talked about the words ‘inspire’ and ‘enthusiasm.’ The origins of the word ‘inspire’ are to breathe into. It is interesting that the word for spirit in ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew is breath. Enthusiasm in the original Greek means to be inspired by God. 

I am happy to report that the feedback from staff on our Spirituality Day has been very positive. We are all very grateful to Fr Richard.