Geez, I love this story.
Merrilee Wright – one of our Expert Facilitators working chiefly across Western Australia – was at Wembley Primary School with teacher leader Debbie Darbyshire and her principal Donna Snow. Debbie’s done something that I reckon is more profound than she might think.
She asked her colleagues a simple question.
Who was your favourite teacher?
And it wasn’t part of some naff icebreaker. It wasn’t small talk. It was a conversation positioned as a mirror. An invitation for every person in that room to consider the qualities they most valued in a teacher – and then reflectively ask themselves how much of that they’re currently living up to.
And that – right there – is the whole point.
Ask any teacher who their favourite teacher was and they’ll conjure them instantly in their mind’s sepia-toned eye. Ask them what made that teacher special and the answers are almost never about curriculum design or instructional sequencing or classroom management gimmicks.
They say things like: She saw me. Or, He believed in me before I believed in myself. Or simply, She never gave up on me.
In Restoring Teaching, I write that the most common answer teachers give to the question, “What’s the most important part of being a teacher?” is relationships.
I reckon those teachers are right. They’re not speaking to soft, fluffy, comfortable relationships – but the robust, challenging kind. The kinds of relationship that can be tested and still survive. The kind that a student who has done something terrible still values when they need to authentically make amends.
A kid called Patrick punched me once. I was a young teacher and he was a big, very troubled teenager and it was genuinely frightening. And then, from behind a closed door, I heard him sobbing: “Mr Voigt! I’m so sorry Mr Voigt! You’re the best teacher ever Mr Voigt! You’re the only one who listens to me.”
He didn’t say I ran great lessons. He said, through the pain we were both feeling, that I heard and saw him.
That’s what schools are for.
You can’t mandate that sh*t, script it or teach it in a sequence of lessons.
Debbie Darbyshire and Donna Snow at Wembley PS know this. And so do you – because you had a favourite teacher too, and that teacher is likely a big chunk of the reason you’re here.
So, who was your favourite teacher? I’d love to know who it was and why in a reply if you’re feeling pumped up enough to share.
And then (with a pinch of self-kindness, not judgement), ask yourself what that teacher would see if they walked into your classroom today? Would that teacher be proud of you? Really?
Keep fighting that good fight,
P.S. If you’re looking for some practical ways to make the rest of the school year a little easier in the classroom, join me online for The Restorative Classroom Playbook on 21 August. I’ll share simple restorative strategies you can put to work straight away to strengthen relationships, respond to behaviour and spend more time teaching.
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