Most-Clicked: Tough Words = Better Thinkers

This past school year, one of the greatest educators in Los Angeles taught his last class. Phil Holmes is a renowned teacher who is blunt and honest with his students, questioning them “until their brains hurt,” even calling one student's answer "mindless," all for the cause of shaping great, intelligent, deep-thinking minds.

This week's most-clicked SmartBrief article tracks his success. He started his teaching career at the famous Harvard School in LA. However, when some said his methods could work with only the privileged few, he transferred to a charter school in LA to prove his teaching was beneficial for all. After one quarter, almost all the students in his class at the charter school had F's. But by the end of the year, over half had A's and B's and not one had an F, making the performance of this classroom of primarily black, middle-class students comparable to that of the privileged at the Harvard School.

If teachers were tougher with students, would learning increase? How much should teachers push students?

Comments

[Matthew K]

This is such a great story. I have just completed my sixth year teaching at a predominantly white middle to upper class high school, and the majority of the students that I teach want to succeed in the class. I am not saying that my job is easy, but sometimes I do need that little bit of push or motivation to help me get through the year. I always wonder how some teachers can do the job for over 40 years like Phil Holmes did. I teach US History and AP Psychology, and one of the main goals for myself is to make my students think and to prepare them for the real world. It is inspirational that there are teachers who still go the extra mile after so many years. I hope that I still have the desire and motivation. It will be very rewarding to have a former student come back and tell me that I made them think more than they ever thought they could. Yes, I want my students to learn the subject matter, but I want to prepare and help them become life long learners. The notion of hope and changing lives is sometimes all that teachers have.

[Ed]

Why is this story even newsworthy? Shouldn’t all classroom experiences be like this? How have we lost our way? Is it not universally believed in education that real learning, learning that is meaningful, is achieved at depth? Yet somehow we have allowed education to be hijacked by those who believe breadth is more important. If we subscribe to John Dewey’s notion that “education is a social process...[it] is growth [and] not a preparation for life [but] is life itself,” well then how could we ever allow our students to be viewed as empty vessels merely in need of cargo? So while we celebrate the many accomplishments of teachers like Phil Holmes, let’s not stop the fight to reclaim the focus of what education is truly supposed to be!

[Maureen]

Phil Holmes is newsworthy because he is, unfortunately, rare. I have just completed my 13th year teaching and fought harder with this most recent group of students than any other to get them to think. Education has become just like the rest of society, where mediocrity is acceptable, average effort is rewarded with exemplary grades, and teachers who require effort and discipline are seen as the bad guys. Teachers like Mr. Holmes, whom I would like to emulate, are what will revive respect for the education profession. Maybe then progress can be made.

[James E. Mac Shane]

I have taught for 48 years Preschool Thur 12 and have two other words that I have experienced that are of greater value. The words are respect and honesty.

WE are all as whole today as we have ever been and are an accumulation of our positive and negative survival choices. It is that wholeness of each student that needs to be understood and respected.

Honest non-judgmental interaction with the students is the goal.

[John McGeough]

So we are now honoring teachers who call students mindless? Bull! I taught 36 years with great success. I never degraded a student with that kind of an insult. More importantly, there are thousands upon thousands of great teachers who have similar or greater success with their students from like populations. Mindless? So ASCD finds that kind of teacher worthy of inclusion in this post. How dare you? How dare he? In the last few years there have been movies and publications glorifying such behavior. All of them ignore the thousands of teachers who show the even more important quality - respect for kids who are still successful. Had he been in my school I would have fired him on the spot.

[SLWery]

Fired on the spot? For a comment takenout of context? No wonder so few teachers remain risk takers and develop relationships with students that make that one word just a statement of truth about that one particular writng submission, not an assault on the student's entire life and potential. Have you never done something that was mindless and had it pointed out to you by a loving mentor? Sad to be you.

[karen Archer]

Teachers should be allowed to get tougher with students. I am positive that if students are pushed very hard, questioning them until they have used up every ounce of their thinking capacity teachers would get more out of them.

There should be consequences for students who do not make the effort to excel. If a teacher knows the ability of the students they teach, then being tough with them and pushing them until you get the results you want is definitely the way to go.

What does the statement "One of the greatest educators in Los Angeles taught his last class" means? Has he retired, resigned or was he forced to stop teaching because of his method teaching?

I would really love to know!!

[karen Archer]

"Fired on spot!" I disagree with the stance you have taken on Phil Holmes method of teaching.

I am sure when he called that student 'mindless', it was not done in a derogatory way nor was it a personal attack but a challenge for the student to think critically.

Isn't that what education is about?

[Benjamin Thompson]

What does the statement "One of the greatest educators in Los Angeles taught his last class" means? Has he retired, resigned or was he forced to stop teaching because of his method teaching?

I believe he has retired. He's been in the profession for quite a while. I don't think there was any bad feelings about his departure. I believe it was by choice.

[Glenda Edenton]

I support this type of teaching and believe that calling a student out for giving not thinking. There are other blogs and articles that go on and on about how teachers need to develop their students into critical thinkers. The advice is to give them hands-on activities, let them talk, let them choose their assigments, develop their own assessments, etc. I believe all of these have merit but if students are not held to high standards then they are no closer to becoming true critical thinkers than if they were doing fill-in-the-blank worksheets. I believe that the first step in becoming a critcal thinker is to learn how to accept productive criticism and how to use it to grow and improve. To me, that is what Phil Homes' comment was, productive criticism. If a similar comment was made by an athletic coach to a player about her/his skill would anyone complain? Probably not; in fact just the opposite is more than likly true: people would be up in arms if the coach accepted medocrity from players.