Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 3; May 02

Trust -Learning from Other Fields

Jim Wingate, Wales, UK

Business

1. From the field of business, Professor West says that if a company has a high level of trust throughout, then he can predict the company will be very successful and profitable. If the level of trust is low, so are the success and profits.

Trust

2. Is there trust in your school? Does your head teacher trust the heads of departments? Do the heads of departments trust their fellow teachers? Do you and your colleagues trust your learners? Do your learners trust one another?

Experience

3. I work in a hundred different schools every year. In the schools where the answers to those questions are all "Yes", the learners are relaxed, polite, helpful, motivated, confident and hard working.

'Willingly'

4. Okay, so 'trust' is the latest buzz word in business, and top executives are going to workshops where they watch horse-whisperers building trust with big, powerful horses. Yes, the horse works willingly with you, not against you, and you-riding-a-horse are a more powerful and intelligent combination than either of you on your own.

5. I was brought up riding horses. As a child I used to go to school, sometimes, on horseback.

Horse

6. So when I rode my first motorbike I was amazed at how stupid it was! (This is relevant. Please keep reading.) When I rode a horse through the woods I can look around. I could enjoy nature. I could look far ahead and I could look behind. The horse followed the path, jumped over holes and obstacles. The ride was a delightful experience of co-operation.

Motorbike

7. However, when I rode a motorbike through the same woods: "Argh!" That was a different experience. I had to watch every metre of the way and steer and brake and accelerate and the motorbike plunged helplessly into holes and crashed helplessly into obstacles unless I did all the thinking. The ride was hard concentration, and a battle to keep control.

Re-Explore

8. Please read the last two paragraphs again, substituting 'a class where we have built up trust' for 'horse-riding', and 'a class where there is no trust' for 'riding a motorbike'. (Yes, it's a substitution drill, or exploring a metaphor.)

9. (Please keep substituting in your mind 'class' for 'horse'.)

Training

10. No two horses are alike. A horse may come to me ready-trained, or I may have to train it from the start. But training is a mutual process. The horse trains me as much as I train it. Each horse has its own characteristics and ways. The training is nearly all rewards. We rewardingly exchange interest, affection, touch.

During the Ride

11. I reward the horse by leading it to interesting challenges, exhilarating activities and nourishing experiences. The horse rewards me by enjoying all that and sharing its unique perspective and enjoyment. The 'discipline' is the nature of the negotiated co-operating which enables us to enjoy 'all that' together. Yes, the horse can refuse. It is stronger than me, and it knows that. But because of the trust we have built, the horse co-operates gladly in order to experience the natural rewards.

After the Ride

12. After the ride, I feel refreshed, energised, privileged to have co-operated with something so potentially wild and powerful, and our relationship grows and is reinforced by each ride.

Down?

13. And when I am tired or ill, the horse is sensitive to my needs as I am to it when it is tired or ill. That sensitivity and understanding is our greatest reward.

Staff?

14. Are these last four paragraphs true of you and your learners?

15. Please read again from the sixth paragraph, this time thinking of the trust you experience with your head teacher and your colleagues.

How?

16. How do we build trust with untrusting classes? In my book 'How to be a Peace-full Teacher' I say 'Trust = physical contact + eye contact'. Shake hands with your learners at the start of every lesson, and with your eye contact, acknowledge that each is an individual. (I shake hands 40,000 times a year.) Give them activities where they shake hands with one another. When you betray their trust (e.g. teaching a boring or puzzling lesson), apologise. When you take away your learners' power (e.g. not giving them time or space to think or guess for themselves), apologise. When they betray your trust (e.g. not doing homework, not thinking or guessing for themselves), don't withdraw your trust. Instead, show your disappointment and your pain and ask them how they can reward your trust in the future.

'The Trust System'

17. Kurt Hahn, my headmaster, was imprisoned by Hitler. He was at the top of Hitler's death list. The British Prime Minister intervened and had Hahn released from prison. Why? Hahn developed 'the trust system'. Teachers and pupils apologised when they were wrong and stood up and called things wrong when they felt those were wrong (e.g. Hitler's acts as Chancellor). At the school Hahn founded, we were trusted as pupils to record our own latenesses etc, and give ourselves punishments (longer or shorter walks). Yes, being trusted, we could cheat and not record latenesses etc, and not do the punishments, but then, being trusted, we were aware if we cheated. Truly, we were only cheating ourselves.

Enemies

18. Look at the businesses with no trust. The workers feel bullied, confined, constricted by the management. The management and workers become enemies. The workers want to 'cheat the management' by doing less work and of lower quality in order 'to triumph against oppression'. The management wants to 'cheat the workers' into doing more work for less money 'anything for profits'. It is a battle for control. Each side considers the other side 'stupid'. Why? Because shared intelligence is substituted by cunning. Shared knowledge is substituted by secrets.

Mistrust

19. Because "they cannot be trusted" (say the management and workers) mutual trust is substituted by measurement. Management and workers measure every minute, every task, every detail, trying to know when 'they' are cheating. People become statistics.

Inspection versus Autonomy

20. Instead of each 'side' giving each other power, each side seeks to limit and confine the other's power. Independence and autonomy is substituted by inspection and objection.

Metaphor time

21. (This is the last time I'll ask you to look back. Please read again paragraphs 18, 19 and 20, substituting 'learners' for 'workers', and 'teachers' for 'management'.)

Me and You

22. Do these worked metaphors give you clarity and insight? Have I worked with you to build up trust between us? I trusted you to look back and I gave you time and space to think. Did you betray my trust by not bothering to think and not working the metaphors? I can't know if you did the work or not. How does that make you feel? (Please read the whole article again.) Oh! I've betrayed your trust. I promised it was the last time I'd ask you to look back. I apologise! Read the article again only if you want to.

There! Has that restored our mutual trust? I hope so. I can't shake your hand, but I can thank you for reading, and for thinking your own thoughts. And let's make trust grow. Please share your thoughts with your learners and your colleagues. (You can share them with me via e-mail: jenniemunro@compuserve.com

Thanks.

Jim