What To Learn or How To Learn?
David Spreadbury, Secondary Principal

I was very fortunate to have a mentor teacher in my early days of teaching, who was adamant that he did not teach math, he taught children. At the time, I thought it was a just his unique way of saying that good teachers should care about their students.

I’ll admit, I thought I was a good teacher because I cared. I would go to the arena on Saturday to watch their hockey games, I’d be in the gym to cheer on the basketball or volleyball teams, I coached various teams, and I would have those conversations with my students on Monday about how their weekend had been. But that was only part of it. I also thought I was a good teacher because I was able to teach them the ‘stuff’ that was in the math curriculum. If I could get them all to complete the square in order to factor polynomials, I could pat myself on the back and think; “You sir, are a good teacher.”

Fortunately for me, and my students, it didn’t take too long to realize that the actual content I felt was so vital really wasn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things. What I discovered was that, in reality, my job was to help students develop the skills to be able to learn efficiently. I needed to teach students how to go about learning the content instead of obsessing over what content they needed to learn.

I was reflecting on this idea as I watched the grade 12s walk the stage recently to receive their honorary diplomas. I wondered how many of them would come to realize that the stuff they’ve learned in high school isn’t what is important? What is important are the skills they have developed that allow them to be, as our TIS mission statement says, “… life long learners able to problem solve, think critically, and make positive changes…”

As educators, we need to ask ourselves: ‘Am I teaching content to my students?’ or ‘Am I using the content to teach my students how to learn?’ Even with the diploma exams and other standardized tests dictating content, I believe we should be focused on the second part.