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COLIN HICKEY: Great teachers are like athletes

BY COLIN HICKEY, Columnist

What caused me the most anguish was that glazed, detached I'd-rather-being-doing-hard-labor-in-Alcatraz-than-be-here look.

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Could I really be that bad a teacher?

Could I really be that boring?

Yes, that expression -- etched deeply in the face of each student in my classroom -- said resoundingly yes, you can.

Alas, I'd have to say my students were right -- at least on more than a few occasions.

Teaching is not easy.

That proved to be the most humbling lesson I learned in my first year as a high school English teacher.

I thought my 11 years as a community college instructor would prepare me for the job. I thought my 20-plus years as a professional communicator would compensate for any minor deficiencies I might have.

I thought wrong.

Keeping 20 teenagers engaged and learning for one hour and 20 minutes on a daily basis is a challenge tantamount to climbing Mt. Everest with a broken arm: within the realm of possibility, but just barely.

That, anyhow, is what I concluded until I took time to see some veteran teachers in action. Somehow they accomplished the nearly impossible.

Somehow they kept their students awake and seemingly interested in the lesson. Somehow they made the one hour and 20 minutes elapse in fast-forward fashion.

The "somehow," I learned eventually, is not about magic or 21st century electronic wizardry. Instead, success in the classroom is about techniques and strategies honed over many years in the academic trenches. The teachers who have mastered these skills appear to operate instinctively, but their command of subject and students comes from dedication to their craft and deep-felt commitment to their young charges.

They became good teachers because they were willing to endure the sweat and toil required to achieve that status.

Teaching is like baseball in this respect. With few exceptions, even the most talented high school and college ball players need to go through the minor league system, usually for several years, before they gain the skill necessary to succeed in the major leagues. Raw athletic ability is not enough.

Teaching, like baseball, also is a long season, and inevitably one that comes with stretches of frustration and disappointment no matter how dedicated or well prepared the instructor. That's simply the nature of the game.

The top teachers, the ones who return to the classroom year after year, decade after decade, understand this. They realize the profession is humbling, that the daily challenge never ceases to be daunting, and that this situation will never change.

One day, after I unwittingly tranquilized another classroom of students, I told a wise and seasoned colleague that I must be the worst teacher in the universe.

He laughed and told me to relax. Teaching is like baseball, he said, and in baseball the best hitters fail about 70 percent of the time.

Colin Hickey is an English teacher Messalonskee High School. His e-mail address is differentwrinkle@yahoo.com.