Get in the Boat, Not on the Bus

When I started teaching, I was often frustrated when students fell behind. We would be moving ahead as a class and invariably a student would tell me we were moving too quickly, or that they had missed something, or that they were absent for some reason that I deemed unimportant and needed to be caught up. I would tell them that the class had goals to meet, standards to teach, or an advanced placement test to prepare for and that we could not make an exception for them. I then reminded them that I had a responsibility to all of the other students to keep things moving forward and it was not fair to the other students to slow down. I would often close my response by telling them that, “the bus is rolling and not going to stop. You need to get on or you will be left behind.”

While I still have students falling behind, I have changed my outlook about what that means for the students and myself over the years. I have read too many articles, seen to many presentations and heard too many lectures not to recognize the critical importance of my classes for my students. With many of my students, the class is not a bus to get on or get off. For many of them, school is their best or only hope. Education is the only way they are going to change their station in life. There is not another bus coming along in thirty minutes to pick them up. Missing the bus is not simply an inconvenience, a slight change in the plans of their day, but rather it is life altering, and most likely for the worst.

With this in mind, my perspective has changed and instead of a bus, I have instead begun to see my class as a lifeboat. If the students miss the boat, there is not another one coming along to save them. They can tread water for only so long until it becomes hopeless and many of them simply give up. If they are not getting into the boat, they are going to be lost at sea.

This new perspective has not changed the sense of urgency, but it has changed what I feel is the most urgent need of my classes. Before I felt the pressure to keep up the pace and push ahead out of fear of falling behind. This concern was mostly about myself and my own abilities as a teacher. Now I feel the pressure to help the students, out of fear of them falling too far behind. Instead of believing that if they miss out in my class, they will be picked up later, I try to help them believing they have no other chance. This concern is now about the students and my concerns have faded into the background. This has been much more challenging, and required much more work on my part, but it has to be done. When students do not get on the bus all they lose is time. When students do not get in the boat, they lose their lives. It is hard for me to not justify the extra investment if I know that I am their best hope for survival.

Changing from a get on the bus mentality to a get in the boat mentality means changing what the most important thing in the classroom is. In a get on the bus mentality, the schedule, drives the classroom. When we think about a bus, the most important thing is the schedule. The bus has to run on time so that it can get all of its passengers where they need to go. A bus is transportation to get you from point A to point B. Classrooms that function this way are focused on the teacher and the teacher not wanting to fall behind. In the get in the boat mentality, it is about the student.  A lifeboat is about saving lives and getting people out of the water. Its only purpose is to help. The focus becomes helping the students. It becomes student centered and student driven because the goal is helping students not maintaining a schedule.

As a leader, I continue to push others to think about getting in the boat and not on the bus. As my district has included more students into its advanced classes, I have had to try and encourage more colleagues to think this way. While some grow frustrated with those who refuse to get on, with the students who cannot keep up with the pace, I try to remind them that there is no other bus coming along. I ask them to think of their classes like a lifeboat and look at their students. If a student fall behind and we do not try and help them, we are throwing them overboard. While we can accept missing the bus, because another is coming along, we cannot accept missing the boat, because their is no regular schedule of lifeboats.They are either with you or they are with no one. Get them in the boat.

If you are interested in more posts from John, follow him on twitter @jhhines57. Be prepared for education mixed with PNW love. Go Hawks! Cross posted from: http://edge.ascd.org/_Get-in-the-Boat-Not-on-the-Bus/blog/6561686/127586.html