After 27 years of teaching, I can say with absolute certainty that reading, writing, and mathematics are critical to a child’s success.
Science, social studies, and all of the other elements of the curriculum, too.
Maybe not calculus. Late 18th-century sentimentalism also kind of sucks.
But the rest is all essential and good.
But when it comes to my role as a teacher and my responsibilities to students, academics are not nearly as important as the following, in this approximate order:
- Guaranteeing a child’s physical and psychological safety
- Growing self-confidence
- Modeling kindness
- Fostering a love for school
- Improving conscientiousness
- Ensuring happiness
- Increasing a passion for learning
- Encouraging tolerance and collaboration
- Developing a strong work ethic
- Nurturing self-control
- Expanding social skills
- Making kids laugh
All of these come before everything else.
If necessary, instead of everything else.
Not everyone would agree with this, of course. It’s hard to imagine placing reading, writing, and math at the bottom of my list, but when it comes to being a successful, happy person in this world, the dozen things I’ve listed are more essential to learning than anything else.
None of the items on my list can be objectively tested, charted, or monitored with data and trend lines, which makes my assertion likely unpalatable to shortsighted, know-nothing, data-driven administrators and so-called experts.
Unfortunate but okay.
In my long career, most teachers and administrators feel similarly. Parents, too. Those that do not are often easily ignored.
Ultimately, a teacher’s moral and ethical imperative is to always do the right thing for students, regardless of what some adult in some office who has forgotten what it’s like to be a kid or work in a school thinks.
