When I tell people that I work in a school, their reaction is, “Oh, what do you teach?” My knee-jerk response is, “I don’t teach; I would be a terrible teacher, the worst teacher ever!” But, It’s not really true. I can teach if I know the material that I’m teaching, whether it’s demonstrating how to use a mobile phone’s navigation system to an amicable luddite or explaining to a colleague how to make changes on the school’s website. Just don’t ask me to teach fourth grade math.
At Bank Street, I’ve seen great teaching. One day, as part of a lesson, our math specialist Sally was measuring the height of a child using a measuring tape. The child was lying down on a bench; I’m sure there was a reason why the child was supine and not upright. (There’s a reason for everything at Bank Street!). She asked the child to estimate his height in inches before she would reveal the answer. He was way off. Sally questioned him about his process in a curious and conversational tone. He began talking. Who doesn’t like talking about themselves, especially when the other party is so tuned in? Sally had him hooked. After some inquiry back and forth, the child worked on his process (He arrived at his first answer by guessing.). Sally gently guided him, showing him the numbers on the measuring tape, holding up the measuring tape, and asking him to count the numbers until the correct answer was finally produced and the lesson was complete.
I came away from that brief encounter thinking, “How lucky is this child! He gets to learn math from Sally in such a kind and non-threatening way.” I was completely envious of this student’s experience. When I was in fourth grade at Metairie Park Country Day School, the teacher asked the class to multiply two large numbers. We had to stack them up and multiply and carry the balance (What do you call it?) and I don’t know what else (I now use a calculator.). I made some errors. The teacher, Miss Martin (I’ll never forget her name.), got mad, came up behind me, grabbed my shoulders and gave me a hard shake. I was scared, mortified, and wanted to disappear. My first thought was I hate math. My second was, I’ll never get out of fourth grade. My third was, even if I get out of fourth grade, I can never teach fourth grade because I can’t do the math; however, I could probably teach third grade math if push came to shove.
I think of great teachers who helped me master skills. Some skills I don’t need now and some I do. I can engrave a copper plate, ink it, and produce prints from it (Thank you, Dadi Wirz.). I can sew a zipper into a piece of clothing (Thank you, Mrs. Stewart.). I took photography in college, never imagining that I would use it in my work life. These days, I use photography in my work every day. (Thank you, Geoff Winningham.) In every instance of being happy as a learner, what I learned has stuck with me. In every instance of being a stressed learner, what I learned has fallen clear out of my brain, if I ever even learned it in the first place.
At Bank Street, the process of learning feels good. Unlike my fourth grade math experience, being a student at Bank Street is filled with excitement and positive energy. Students are motivated to explore, to reflect, and to experiment and see what works and what doesn’t. They can ask questions without fear. Failure is fine because you learn from that too.
And here’s a secret: Working at Bank Street is a lot like being a student at Bank Street. In what I think of as my age group; I’m in the 61/62s this year, I still get to learn and master skills. The culture at Bank Street is one of learning. The faculty members get together and talk about what’s working well and what can we do better at. The students are growing but so are the adults (well not physically, but certainly brain-wise).
Back to Sally for a minute. She was in the elevator recently and a student looked at her and said, “Sally, I think you’ve grown!” At the time, she was wearing high heeled shoes and did look taller, but it struck me. Of course Sally was growing. So are all of us at Bank Street.
Kate Marcus, Director of Communications at Bank Street School for Children, continues to learn about writing and photography. She thanks Aiden in the 3/4s, for taking her photo after asking to use the office camera.
Rice University, BA, Art
Southern Methodist University, MBA