Debate
"Never smile before Thanksgiving"--is that a good policy?

YES
Pat Morse-McNeely retired two years ago after 24 years as a secondary social studies, language arts, and special education teacher and guidance counselor in San Antonio, Stockdale, and Dallas, Texas. She also writes poetry.

I warn new teachers, "Don't be 'nice.'"

That is, be aware that you are a target. When school begins, you are being checked out on all sides. If you are looking back at those "mean" teachers of your school days and thinking you aren't going to be like them, better forget it! Those kids will know all the spots to hit in your personality by the time you pass out the supply list! This is not a sales pitch for meanness-no, no. It is a warning that a teacher must be on guard.

Students love to scope out ways to set you off, addle you, divert you from your goals for learning. Given the opening (however tiny), they will work you like a violin! Of course, you want to smile! Go ahead-but put something of "you'll be sorry if...." behind that smile that conveys very definitely who calls the shots. Laugh if you want to-but watch out for the trap that may be hidden behind the effort to get you to laugh.

Don't smile until Thanksgiving, but through your sternness, get across to your students: "You are important, you are capable, I expect the best from you, and yes, I love you."

Better than a smiling, cajoling, candy-dispensing, reward- giving teacher is one who may talk like you'll be skinned alive if you twitch your nose, but whose actions show he or she is in charge, expects the best from students, and can also be trusted to see you through a tough time.

One day when I was dressing down my students for their behavior, one of them blurted out, "But you love us anyway, don't you, Mrs. McNeely?" Since he was one of the central targets, I asked him "Why would I love you? Look at you!" He laughed and responded "But you do, don't you?" I laughed, too, and said, "Yes, I do-but I'll kill you anyway if you don't behave." And I truly did love him and most of the others-and oh, I still miss them and wonder if they are okay.

Funny-those who were the most troublesome, the actors, always in the soup-were the ones who came calling years later and said, "I learned a lot from you."

Cast Your Vote

NO
Christie Gold teaches English at Freedom High School in Tampa, Florida. She has taught for 10 years and was her district's Teacher of the Year for 2001-2002. In 2001, she won a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund award as an outstanding student newspaper advisor.

Two of my three brothers were teachers briefly-very briefly. When I decided to become an English teacher, they thought I had lost my mind. One brother's sage advice: "When you get your first class, remember not to smile until Thanksgiving." His adage wasn't exactly original. It represents many teachers' philosophies. In fact, many of my own teachers seemed grim-mouthed throughout the first semester each year. But, I must say, those were not the teachers who influenced me the most.

Many teachers seem to believe that being warm and friendly and maintaining rigorous academic standards are mutually exclusive. They assume that the well-liked teacher is a pushover. The notion that students will eat you alive if you appear kind and nurturing fosters an us-versus-them mentality.

The first two ideas I relay to my students are that they are welcome members in a learning community and that my academic standards are lofty. The establishment of my classroom as an academic haven is essential to my pedagogy. In order for scholarly ideas to flow freely, students must understand that their ideas are encouraged and valid. If those ideas are met with a cheerless demeanor, the student may feel intimidated and lose intellectual confidence.

Today's teachers are no longer mere purveyors of information. In our classrooms, we must create an atmosphere where students thrive academically, emotionally, and socially, and maintain high standards despite budget cuts, high-stakes testing, overcrowded classrooms, and a lack of parent support.

For many of my students, the five hours I spend with them in the classroom each week is considerably more time than they spend with their parents. As the family unit has continued to disintegrate, teachers have become the constant adult figures in children's lives. Our role as nurturers is unquestionable; it is a responsibility we should accept with a smile from the time a student walks across the threshold of our classroom until the day he or she crosses the stage, diploma in hand.

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