Julia Schwartz

April 12, 2002

Knowing More Helps You… Know More

Through their high school careers, many students find one or two teachers who really touch their lives. These people inspire them, show them a new twist on learning, and actually teach them something new and exciting. However, this teacher is not usually someone who the student saw three times every four days for fifty-seven minutes. It’s the teacher with whom the student spent hours with after school, learning more and asking for help. By knowing his or her teacher better, a student is able to take more from the student-teacher relationship, and actually learn something that has an impact on his or her life. A strong relationship between student and teacher is vital, for once the trust between student and teacher is established, they will both be able to take much more from the learning process, for as in any relationship, the better one person knows the other, the more the two can trust each other. This creates a much more open relationship, which in turn creates a more comfortable learning environment. Students learn much better when they are comfortable in their learning environment, thus establishing a solid relationship between teacher and student helps improve any learning environment.

                There are many different kinds of relationships in this world. There is that of two people standing in the same elevator, or sitting together on a train: they talk for a few minutes, share maybe one or two thoughts and personal details, then part, never seeing each other again. Then there are the people who see each other every day, like the group of a few dozen high school students who have been together since the first grade. They feel comfortable working together in class or having a verbal exchange on the walk to lunch or in class, but they would find themselves in a painfully awkward situation on a weekend out by themselves. Beyond those, there are the people who take the time to get to know each other, and actually begin to take something of substance from the other. The relationship between student and teacher can be any one of the above, but sadly is typically that of seeing each other for the fifty-seven minutes that a class lasts three days out of four, where the teacher virtually knows the student as a face and some grades. These two people will never get to know each other past what occurs in class, and won’t say hello to each other in the halls after the student has left the teacher’s class. It’s not that the student is unimportant or uninteresting; it is merely that she submits herself day after day to the teacher as in a strictly work relationship: both are there only because a scheduling program on a computer put them that way. The student will never take anything more than perhaps a few mathematical techniques or outlooks from the teacher.

                If a student takes the time to get to know their teacher, however, she will not only get another view of the world, she will also be able to succeed to a higher rate and feel much more comfortable in her learning environment, for she will know the teacher and understand exactly what the teacher expects from her and just how she can meet the teacher’s expectations. Not only this, but the student will also have the opportunity to learn more than might be necessary to pass the next test or paper, which will help in the future in other similar situations, or as a basis for a completely different field.

                When a student gets to know a teacher, she will feel more comfortable asking for extra help, because she won’t have to dread an awkward encounter. Additionally, she will be able to see a different view on life and student activity which is often useful to bettering herself, and she will be able to have a much greater input on her learning, because she can ask the questions that interest her, and tell the teacher just exactly what she thinks might be successful in learning new material.

                When the relationship between student and teacher exceeds the base level, the student not only becomes more than a face and some grades, but also a person whom the teacher can trust. The student can learn to trust the teacher as well, as is typical: the more one knows a person, the more they are able to trust that person. This interaction comes in handy when a student fails to meet their requirements in a specific incident. If the teacher has gotten to know the student and knows that the student is honorable and actually did have a good reason for not reading Chapter 23, Section 4, she will be more willing to give the student an extension because she trusts that the student will do the work to the best of their abilities as soon as possible and didn’t do it not because she isn’t honorable and committed to her work, but because the 24 hours in the day before just weren’t enough. Similarly, if a student has an “off-day” or makes a plethora of silly mistakes on a test, the teacher who has worked constantly with the students will know that the student actually does in fact know the material and be able to realize that the test wasn’t a true test of how well the student can understand the material, which is the ultimate purpose of examinations.

                Trust between teacher and student does work both ways: if a student has learned to trust her teacher, she will know when she can take her teacher’s advice on something, be it a way to study for a test or simply the faith to know that her teacher knows what she is doing and all her talk has the ultimate point of the student’s understanding of the new material. Additionally, while a better relationship and more interaction between teacher and student sometimes yields extra hints and tips for the student, the teacher can also learn a lot as well: she can get better feedback on what she is doing in class and on potential assignments, and learn to understand learning styles of different students. As in any relationship, the more open the relationship is, the more there is that can be shared.

                When a student is comfortable in her learning environment, she will learn much better, and learning will not become a tedious process. By knowing the teacher and just what he or she expects, the student is able to feel more confident that she is doing what the teacher wishes. As the teacher has already gotten to know the student outside of class, the classroom will be left a place to learn, and the student will not feel that the teacher is judging her by every word that comes out of her mouth, for the two already will have a firmly established relationship and both will have set and honest opinions of the other. Also, the student will be much more comfortable asking for extra help because she feels more comfortable giving and receiving help from someone she knows, and the teacher will be more willing to give the extra information, because she knows the student actually cares about finding the “right” answer.

                The better a person knows another, the more the two can trust each other, and more can be shared in an open relationship where both parties have trust and respect for each other, creating a more comfortable learning environment. Students learn much better when they are comfortable in their learning environment. In order to create a good, open relationship, a student and a teacher should get to know each other, because they will be able to learn much more from the other, and establish themselves as real people to the other—real people who will be remembered for years to come.