I purchased a new bicycle last weekend. A recumbent. Most people don’t know exactly what that means, and I didn’t either until I went out this morning to try to learn how to ride the darned thing. It is completely different from a regular bicycle, both in appearance and in function. The first challenge is simply getting started. If you think it’s easy, you’re wrong. It’s not even a little bit like riding a bike.

After a while once I managed to get myself going, I realized that something really interesting was going on in my brain.  I was familiar with some aspects of this new experience, but others were surprisingly and oddly disorienting.  When all I wanted to do was to ride forward, I found that the wheels kept sliding sideways.  When I attempted to steer slightly to the left, I discovered that I was in the middle of the road.

This attempt at learning seems to mirror much of what goes on every day in the elementary school classroom.  If we don’t often experience anything unfamiliar, we may feel comfortably secure in our knowledge.  However, if we aren’t regularly exposed to challenging or unfamiliar situations, we may grow over-comfortable, even to the point of stagnation.  This is why teachers matter.  This is why good schools need strong curriculum and strong teachers.

Strong curriculum alone doesn’t do much for children, just as my new bicycle won’t be of much use to me if I don’t learn how to ride it.  Strong teachers are important because they monitor their students so closely.  They know when a child needs more practice on a familiar skill, but they also know when a child needs to move on to something new.  Whether in the training room or in the classroom, this is a special talent.  

Strong teachers understand instinctively when children are feeling too much discomfort in unfamiliar situations.  Rather than push too hard, their job is to provide just the right level of moral and technical support.  Since every act of learning involves a social/emotional component as well as a cognitive one, the teacher’s challenge is to remain firm but flexible while monitoring the natural inquisitiveness of the child.  This is the essence of a teachable moment.

I did not benefit from any actual teachable moment this morning.  I figured out a few things for myself, but I am humbled at the difference between complex teaching and simple self-discovery.  Rare is the person who does not need a strong teacher.

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