Saturday, September 10, 2011

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" - William Butler Yeats


I am across this video recently and wish I had it for my opening day with teachers.  It is definitely a discussion starter in regards to what should be occurring in the classroom, our respective roles in the profession, and how we should be working with our students to unleash their potential.


Is there more that can be added to this discussion?

8 comments:

  1. With these definitions. Surely, you need to do a bit of both. You cannot just illuminate, enlighten, empower and yet not teach skills and facts. I'm not saying one is more important than another. There needs to be a balance between useful facts, skills and knowledge for the real world AND the nurturing, encouragement, freedom, motivation for self discovery and independent learning. It's surely not one over the other, but rather a fine balancing act. @lauwailap1

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  2. I would disagree with the statement in the above comment from @lauwailap1, "You cannot just illuminate, enlighten, empower and yet not tech skills and facts." If you are educated, you will acquire skills along the way and learn how to access facts. By the definitions in the video, to educate is to start a fire in the student. To educate is to foster intrinsic motivation to learn, which will itself create the type of balance a student needs to succeed! A shift from teacher to educator will help transform our schools into the type of learning institutions we need to ensure that all kids can and will learn–it's transformative. @jheil65

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  3. I believe you need to be both. There is an ebb & flow to when you are a teacher and when you are an educator. Sometimes & with some students you are more one that the other, and that even changes depending on topics.

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  4. My principal calls himself an educator. So do the superintendent and all the mini-superintendents.
    Har! Har!
    The instructional assistants call themselves educators, so do the office workers.
    Har! Har!

    I'm a teacher. A public school teacher. I teach.

    (they don't --- in case my point is not clear)

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  5. Great sentiments for those about to retire. In Louisiana half of my job evaluation will be based on standardized tests that cover four years of curriculum in 90 minutes. I'm never told if the questions that students missed were from my year of one the other years (5th - 8th grades). If I want to continue educating I'll have to do a lot of teaching along the way until the testing madness subsides. This message brought to you from the real world.

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