The Skillful Teacher

Maxim 13: Recognize and Accept Your Power
Teachers committed to a vision of themselves as nondirective
facilitators of learning, or as resource people there only to serve
needs defined by students, often adopt the “fly on the wall”
approach to teaching. This approach assumes that through a vari-
ety of strategies (mostly staying silent and refusing to give direc-
tion) teachers can gradually wither away into insignificance to
the point where students don’t even notice they’re still in the
room. In the power-laden, hierarchical setting that is a college
classroom, this is a naïve and unrealistic assumption. A teacher
cannot be a fly on the wall if that means being an unobtrusive
observer. If you say nothing your silence will be noticed by stu-
dents and interpreted either as withholding approval from them
or as tacit agreement with their actions. Students will always be
wondering what your opinion is about what they’re doing. Better
to give some brief indication of what’s on your mind than to have
students obsessed with whether your silence means disappoint-
ment or satisfaction with their efforts.
Surviving Emotionally
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KILLFUL
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EACHER
Although many student-centered teachers are uncomfortable
with the idea that they are the focus of attention in the classroom,
the reality (at least initially) is that this will always be the case. As
long as you hold the power of the grade, you control a part of stu-
dents’ destinies. I believe it is far better to understand and acknowl-
edge that fact and then to work to make sure that your power is used
to best effect and not abused for unethical or immoral purposes. You
may not like it, but students will imbue the slightest of your actions
with all kinds of significance. When it comes to building trust in a
classroom, this most delicate of pedagogic projects can quickly and
devastatingly be sabotaged if your words and actions are seriously
discrepant.
So don’t make promises to students you can’t keep. Don’t tell
them that all viewpoints are welcome in a discussion and then shut
some down because they seem too harmful or irresponsible in your
view. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that by saying to students
you’re treating them as equals that this will mean they will view you
the same way. As Freire (Shor and Freire, 1987, p. 160) says, “Edu-
cation is above all the giving of examples through actions.” You
have power, so you may as well accept it and use it to model pub-
licly your own commitment to the kinds of learning you wish to
encourage in students. To pretend you don’t have power, that every-
one in the class (including you) is friends with one another and all
are on an equal footing, will only cause students to be suspicious of
you and to wonder what your real agenda is.