Good Kid, Bad Kid

As we get ready to start the second semester, I have had a thought that has been rattling around in my head. Let me see if I can put it into words....

A teacher's success should not be measured in the number of awards they receive or "good" students they teach, but in the number of "bad" students they have.

That sounds about right. Now I should explain that a little bit!

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Too many times I hear teachers bragging about the good kids they have taught and complaining about the bad kids they just put up with to survive the day. Some teachers take pride in pointing out these "good" students or classes, as if the teachers themselves were the sole reason for the positive outcome. I also see many educators pointing to certificates or grants they have received as if this too should be the definitive proof that they are successful teachers.

I guess my problem with those two pieces of evidence is this... they don't tell the whole story. The first option completely dismisses a large portion of the student body, the "bad" students. If we are truly honest with ourselves, succeeding with a room full of "good" kids isn't really that impressive. I mean, how hard is it really to work with a room full of motivated, eager people?The second reason totally misses the mark on what is most important in our schools, the kids! We are not paid to gather ribbons of merit or to collect honors to hang on the wall. We are in the classroom to work with children and to help them be better prepared for their future lives.

I believe true success comes from reaching out and connecting to as many of your students as you possibly can---to honestly say that you have no child in your room that you could live without, have no student that you constantly complain about or wish was no longer in your class. To say that means that you have taken every step possible to reach out to your students and left no stone unturned in trying to find a way to connect to each of the children that you see during your class periods instead of just writing them off as a "lost cause" because they don't get it as quickly as the others.

So to those of us in education looking for someone to look up to, someone to model our teaching styles or classrooms on, don't look at resumes filled with awards or fall into the rut of bad mouthing a kid just because it takes a little more effort to get through to them. Instead, take that energy and apply it to building a relationship with your students and realizing that the children in your room are only as "good" or "bad" as you perceive them.