Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 3; May 02

Bending Rules

The rights and responsibility of the teacher.

Mary Meyer, Paraguay

In recent workshops I´ve conducted one of the key concepts I´ve been working with is that of the "real" responsibility of the teacher. Often we are so overwhelmed by the myriad of things we are "responsible for" in our jobs – from things like lesson planning and classroom management to such humdrum things as assigning, correcting, and documenting homework- that we sometimes lose track of our mission.

Of course we all know that it is our responsibility as teachers to serve the best interests of our students. By "best interest" I do not mean that everyone should get a pass without even making an effort. But rather that we must focus on what will be ultimately good for the student, even if it means bending the rules a bit.

Last year I attended a lecture in which Dr. H. Puchta spoke of expectations and narrated the case of a teacher whose student did not do as well as had been expected. When asked what he did with the low grade of the student, the teacher responded " I cheated". My heart was touched by those words, and my mind was flooded with a very personal and powerful memory from long ago. As a freshman in college, and though I was a diligent student, my personal life (like that of any normal 18-year-old) was quite chaotic & dramatic. After having studied hard all semester, I had failed to show up for my final exam because of a personal problem – my boyfriend. For me it was an earth-shaking valid reason. But the following day I was not so sure, the rules at the University were strict. Final exams were not missed unless for medical reasons. So I went in with a heavy heart to speak to my professor, dreading having messed up my semester (if not my life!). He was correcting exams when I knocked at the door, and continued doing so as I explained to him that I was sorry I had not taken the exam nor advised. He looked up at me and quite bluntly asked me "Why?". With as much restraint as an 18 -year-old can muster, I explained in a somewhat tearful voice what had happened. He listened without responding and then, after I had finished, in a very calm voice reminded me of all the great work I had done during the semester, reminded me that I was an A student, and asked me to go home, get a good night´s sleep and come in the following day to take the test in his office. He made the exception, he handed in his grades a day late. I took the exam, I got the A…and that professor changed my vision of teachers and of human beings forever.

We all need rules and regulations. We need them to establish a social order, to make life run smoothly, to keep things "fair". As teachers we have rules which we and our students must follow. But "life happens" and as teachers our goal is not just to "teach English", but to educate the human being in the broadest sense of the word : to help him make sense of this world. To help him feel competent at all times, To make him aware that we believe he is incredibly competent, that even when life happens we believe he will have the strength to get up and keep going. To create such a bond that even when chaos reigns outside, he knows that inside our class it will always be warm, safe and welcoming.

But what is in his best interest? That is the sticky part. And here lies the responsibility. Only the teacher is in the position to look into the soul of a student and see what he needs. A simplified version of the test so he can feel successful. An extra day to complete his homework? A little time for you to explain something he didn´t understand, a listening ear to hear him out? Sometimes it is in his best interest to pay the consequences, to receive a negative consequence to help him realize that his acts do have consequences?

What is in his best interest? That is where our responsibility lies, in figuring that out and acting on it. We cannot just let the system take over and define what will happen to our student. Sometimes with all the administrative tasks we are burdened with we tend to forget that the bottom line is that it is our right and our responsibility to fight on his behalf. Rules and regulations are part of any system, but we should consider them as flexible tools to ensure fair treatment. A student is only human…and to deny his humanity, to deny that life is happening to him… is to fail our calling.

Mary Meyer, MSc.

Biodata:
Mary Meyer, an educational consultant, has a B.A. in English Language and a M.Sc. in APS in Education and Training from the University of Surrey. Experienced in the practical as well as the theoretical aspects of ELT, she has extensive teaching and training experience in Paraguay, where she served as Academic Director at the binational center in the 80s, served two terms as president of Paraguay Tesol in the 90s, published a booklet "Watch It" and designed and supervised a three year OUP training program for public school teachers in the late 90s. Mary heads a consulting firm (ESP) which designs and supervises English programs for private schools and institutes, and designs and conducts teacher training courses. She is currently on a leave of absence at the ISL (UNA), where she teachers Methodology in order to pursue her work as an academic consultant for Oxford University Press, traveling extensively lecturing and conducting teacher training programs in schools, language institutes and universities