But Not Least... The Flickering Teacher

"The word wick comes from Old English "weyke or wicke", Anglo Saxon "wecca", and Germanic "wieche or wicke". It is a name for a bundle of fibers that when braided or twisted together are used to draw oil or wax up into a flame to be burned in a lamp or candle." This complex core is a teacher. Placing the teacher at the center of the learning process, whether as guide or as information-provider (it is no surprise that I favor the former), is the first step in analyzing the flicker. A teacher is driven to teach by an highly individual twining of passion for subject, love of the idea that students can be enriched by learning, excitement about learning from students, belief that one is doing a very important job - perhaps the second most important job (the first job being parenting), and the choice to participate a world not characterized by business or labor. When the candle is "lit" it is the wick that must burn first. When it ceases to burn, the candle itself ceases to illuminate. In fulfilling its purpose, the best wick will burn best. Revitalizing the teacher then, as MacKenzie and many others insist, is not just a school's choice, it is a responsibility. The less well this is done, the more the wick will flicker.

It is interesting to note, also, how fully surrounded and immobilized the wick is. Compared to the other elements of the school environment and community, as I expand upon them below, the teacher is least able to move, stretch and interact in the process of doing a good job. Central as he is to the learning process, the teacher is ultimately the most vulnerable in the school community to rigidity. Indeed, some teachers refuse to be ignited at all. They are easily replaced by artificial candles (workbooks and digital curriculum delivery solutions). They are not the concern of this essay, however, for they will never flicker.

"A wick without wax around it is just a piece of string. Because the wick is fibrous and absorbent, melted wax adheres to it easily. Dipping a wick in and out of melted wax several times builds up layers of wax, sufficient enough to make a taper candle." What is a teacher without students? Bringing students, both of the best beeswax and the crudest paraffin, into the flame so that they can be transformed by a higher level of thinking and learning is the raison d'etre of teaching.

One aspect of this metaphor that is especially appealing is the concept of "dipping" the teacher into the wax. Experience supports a teacher; students contribute as much to the teacher's strength as he contributes to theirs. Schools that encourage students to create and to construct learning are supporting the ongoing strengthening of the teacher. Moreover, teachers can be students for other teachers, a powerful element of the informal support culture of a school. Encouraging collaboration and the sharing of ideas and skills is another anecdote to flickering.

Another interesting aspect of the metaphor is the nature of the wax. Those of us who have burned column candles in the fireplace know that too much wax for a wick means a candle that goes out quickly. Too much wick for the wax means puddled and wasted wax on the brick. A perfect proportion delivers a slow, strong flame and a candle that lasts a long time. It is not possible, then, to measure the teacher without also taking the measure of the quantity and quality of his students.

This is the elusive piece of the metaphor. What fires a teacher? Elements of this flame include colleagues, curriculum, formal and informal communication, technology and professional development. At is purest and most powerful, this flame ignites the teacher, who ignites the students, who enhance the flame, and a cycle of learning occurs.The desire to do the job, to create, to engage students with ideas, to try something new, to repeat a past success, to earn a paycheck or a recognition - there are as many flame sources as there are wicks, and the right flame for the wick is sometimes found only through trial and error. One would not, for example, light a birthday candle with a propane torch or a lobster bake with a one-inch match. Yet how many school administrators seek to ignite teachers with paradigm shifts in methodology or educational philosophy or with once-in a workshop ideas, only to be disappointed when the teachers flee or fail to catch on. What is more, what works for one will not work for all; administrators seeking to ignite teachers must take the time to learn what flame will work for each. Or to make sure that all teachers are made of the same stuff. One flame that does seem to work is that passed from one wick to another: teachers-teaching-teachers is a tried and true igniter, although it produces a flame that is slow to catch.

What supports the candle while it burns? In the current culture of k-12 education, a culture of individual teachers in individual classrooms with set class sizes (tapers rather than columns), this generally is the school, which becomes a candelabra if you will. This support has many elements, which combine into what has been called "organization capital." It comprises pragmatic specifics such as physical environment, schedule, financials, standards, rules and policies, goals and objectives, as well as more elusive elements, such as community ethos and the informal faculty culture. Pressure is often brought to bear on this support by parents, educational theorists, trends, public sentiment and policy. When the candlestick itself is weak, too small or too large, the candle is in danger of falling, the wax of dripping rather than burning and the wick of sputtering out. Some schools will add a flame guard or glass lamp to the stand, to protect the flame. While not a terrible idea, controlled curricula and information access limit the creativity and communication that we have seen can strengthen the teacher and spark learning. Schools that wish to support their flickering faculty must identify and fairly evaluate these support systems, changing them as necessary.

It is becoming increasingly the case that the candlestick is strengthened by (in some cases totally replaced by) Internet-based resources and tools. Schools that understand that a teacher, and his students, can be supported by a global community, and that encourage this support, will be best equipped to deal with the future needs and flickers of their faculty.

The worst use of technology, or any educational methodology, is burning at both ends. For example, the teacher learns new tools and integrates them (which may or may not excite him but which pushes him to grow), but he is also expected to meet new standards and teach to tests that limit his creativity. Another scenario would be a teacher who is excited by a curriculum, but required to teach it in a physical space or with texts and technologies that limit its implementation. A third example would be the teacher who does in fact ignite his student, but whose time is consumed by the non-teaching tasks required by the school. Imagine a candle supported horizontally and lit at both ends. Such a candle burns, melting the wax along its top edge, but instead of sending the melted wax up the wick and into the flame, the wax drips off of the candle, to puddle at the base of the candlestick. The wicks burn brightly toward the candle's center, fueled by the topmost layer of wax. The thinner the taper, the better the burn. Try it. A taper candle will burn to the center while you watch, the flames seeming to reach toward each other, until they meet and die out, the wick frizzled and very little of the wax converted to flame.

A school, then, needs to examine what is required of "the other end" of the teacher's job. Streamlining, digitizing, simplifying these time and energy consuming tasks give a teacher more energy to do what he does best - teach.

"The cycle repeats itself until the wick no longer functions due to consumption or lack of fuel for the flame." It is not helpful to imagine the students disappearing, but the wick may do so. Teachers age or become unable to continue in the classroom. It is more problematic, however, when teachers lose one or more of the "wick fibers" that first ignite and then draw students to do the same. This is burn out. It is important however, for the school to realize that the burn cycle is not 40 years (or a teacher's tenure at the school) - it is only one year. Schools that approach professional development as a yearly cycle of rebuilding will greatly reduce the occurrence of burned out teachers.

We come to the flicker. Oppenheimer suggests that flickering is a result of dissonance. This works for me, for I see a wind blowing that affects all teachers, a dissonant wind (see Dis What?). I also see Oppenheimer's wind-blocks going up around our teachers and our schools. That does not work for me. McKenzie suggests that flickering is a result of not using the best teaching tool for the job. I believe this is true, but it is only one piece of the problem. We must also look to the design and regrowth of the wick itself, to the students and the learning processes in which the teacher engages them, and to the culture and organization of the school. A teacher may be undernourished or overwhelmed by any combination of these elements. Re-igniting the flickering teacher requires a reexamination of all elements, not the separation of the teacher from the flame, the wax and the candlestick. A seminar, workshop or consultation that seeks to address flickering must address the totality of the candle metaphor.

I like this phrase especially, for it suggests that our flickering teacher, if strengthened, can be the true strength of the "Age of Information Fluency," the 21st century. I am reminded of those wonderful birthday candles that can not be blown out. Appearing to flicker, they suddenly rekindle themselves and challenge the birthday girl to snuff them. That is what I call a glower, and its development and sustenance should be the goal of all professional development for the 21st century school.