Thank you Robin Williams, I'm still moved and motivated by your Dead Poets Teacher

Motivating performance - thank you Williams

Hearing the sad news of Robin Williams' death over the holiday I made a note to write something about it when I got home. Like many teachers I was very moved by Williams' performance as John Keating in Dead Poets' Society.

Although it would be a slight exaggeration to say the film inspired me to go into teaching, this picture of Robin Williams standing on a desk encouraging pupils to "seize the day" is often the first image that comes to mind whenever I hear the word "motivation" mentioned in connection with our profession. 

Sometimes, as teachers, we're so focussed on getting through our syllabus and “sluicing” pupils through exams that we forget the reason why we, hopefully, went into teaching in the first place. Of course we should be covering our syllabus and pushing students through exams. But that surely can't be the "A" and "O" of it all, can it? If so, then I want out. 

Personally, I love the English language, and I want to share it with others. Of the few good teachers I had at school myself, those who stand out most in memory are those who took an active interest in me, encouraging me from around the age of 8 or 9 to do what I loved most -  reading and writing. Not just to pass exams but for pleasure too. 

In a recent Hochschul-Bildungs-Report only 25% of teachers-to-be in Germany said they feel able to motivate their future students. And only 47% of those studying "Lehramt" felt they could “get along” with youngsters. Commenting on these statistics, this week's "WIrtschaftswoche" announces "Germany has the wrong teachers".

But let's not take such surveys too seriously. After all, the average age of a student preparing for their state teaching exam is around 22/23. That’s hardly five years older than the eldest pupils. At that age I didn’t feel I had much of a “connection” with pupils either, let alone the confidence required to stand up in front of a class of thirty pubescent youngsters. I remember experimenting with contact lenses at the time, and when I met my very first class tears were literally pouring down my cheeks. So much for self confidence! I can easily emphasise with today’s teachers in training because my own first lessons were a complete and utter disaster. I seem to remember willing a hole in the floor to open up right below and just quietly swallow me.

What I lacked in self confidence back then I made up for in motivation, however. And I hope that over the years I’ve been able to share a little bit. At the end of a course once, a student sent a very nice thank-you mail, saying I was the best English teacher they’d ever had. I was tickled pink, of course. But feedback like that is very rare. Normally you simply hope you’ve done the best for your pupils once they pass out of your hands.

Back to Robin Williams and Dead Poets’ Society. We can’t all be John Keating, and I don’t think we should try to either. Keating had amazing charm and personality – something I think all good teachers need to succeed – but he failed because he tried to impose that personality on the students. With disastrous results, I seem to remember.

Next year my daughter begins school, and I’m already wondering what sort of teachers she’ll come up against. Will they be able to connect with one another? Or will she simply have to sit quietly at a desk all day and just pay attention, as I remember my own schooldays? I hope not.

One thing is certain – tomorrow’s teaching will have to be different from today and how it’s been more or less since compulsory education began around 150 years ago. Rather than teachers being regarded as the fountain of all knowledge, with pupils sitting quietly in rows, taking notes, teaching will have to be more about a partnership between pupils and teachers. Sometimes when a pupil asks me a question, and I don't know the answer, another pupil after just two clicks on their smart phone offers up the right answer. We should smarten up to the fact that with just about everyone in the classroom on line these days, pupils often have access to information a lot quicker than teachers. It’s a challenge and an opportunity - for us all.

Let’s do as John Keating would – seize it.