Teacher, Leader

(I published this article in the magazine of Colegio De Dagupan, formerly Computronix College, where I used to work.)

I came across a teacher-author’s interesting experience while driving on her way home from vacation. Wanting to arrive sooner, she followed a car that took a U-turn on a one-way street. Soon enough, a street police stopped both cars and issued them tickets. “I could not blame the driver ahead of me,” the author said. “I followed him, but he did not realize he became my leader.”
We realize it or not, we become leaders when we become teachers. Students look up at us, trust us, and follow us. To be an effective teacher, therefore, we must be effective leaders.

Pleasant, but not a pleaser. “I asked you last time to try to make someone happy,” a preschool teacher opens. “How many of you have done so?”
“I have,” a boy promptly replied.
“That’s nice, Juan. What did you do?”
“I went to see my Aunt, and she’s always happy when I go home.”
Are people happy when we are around? Then we are probably pleasant. But we should think again if we sense that people dislike our presence. Being congenial to people, however, does not mean we should try to please everyone at the expense of sincerity.
It is always foul to praise, or keep back an embarrassing remark from someone, for the sake of pleasing him. As Lord Alfred Tennyson incisively articulated, “A face-flatterer and backbiter are the same.”

Organized, but not rigid. A tangled leader is a baffled leader. A teacher cannot dispose of efficient services when everything around him is higgledy-piggledy.
Some people would rather tuck papers somewhere — between pages of a book, under other papers, inside drawers with unintelligible contents, etc. So in the end, things they originally “keep” and intend to “use in the future” end up fruitlessly hiding in places they cannot even remember.

• Do we plan how to creatively finish an entire syllabus for a semester without sacrificing instructional quality (or do we often leave our students receiving only half of what they paid for)?
  Do we so set up our activities as not to go beyond deadlines (since we know that our bosses feel just the way we feel when our students ignore our deadlines)?
• Do we have orderly files of our students’ quizzes, tests and other submissions (because we know for God’s sake that they deserve prompt feedback for efforts they exerted sincerely)?
• Do we keep handy records of incentives we promise to give (as when we say “I’ll give plus 2 to those who….”)?
• Do we maintain systematic folders of lesson notes and materials we use in the class (in the thought of being able to use them again in the future)?
  As always, orderliness is a mark of an educated man.

Open-minded, but not all-too-receptive. Charles Kettering once said, “If you’re doing something the same way you’ve been doing it for 10 years, chances are you’re doing it wrong.” We live in a world where the only permanent thing is change.
A department head at a reputable university in Baguio City told of his encounter with a teacher-applicant, who has had extensive experience in teaching a subject. Asked how much she knows the course, she declared, “I’ve been handling the same subject the same way for years. I know it by heart, by the letter.”
She was not taken in.
A broad-minded teacher is open-minded. He doesn’t easily believe anything that he hears, but neither does he close his mind to possibilities. He knows that even his long-held ideas may eventually be proven false tomorrow. He welcomes suggestions, appreciates innovations, and takes corrections maturely and intelligently, and learns from them.
He listens to opinions of others — colleagues and students alike — patiently, sincerely and attentively. He is not confined within the nuke of his perspective, regardless of how “huge” it may be. He takes each day and situation for professional growth and learning.

Democratic, but not loose. Psychologist Glen Elder (1962) had an appealing way of differentiating autocratic from an authoritarian leadership: in an autocratic home, parents do not allow young people to express their opinions or make decisions about any aspect of their own lives; in an authoritarian home, adolescents can contribute opinions, but parents always make the final decision according to their own judgment.
Authoritarian orientation then is plainly autocracy in the guise of “democracy”.
A responsible democratic leader is able to facilitate group decision-making effectively without the fear of bearing the accountability if things go wrong. He appropriately delegates tasks, but does not wash hands off.
In the classroom, democratic atmosphere gives much space for personal growth. Educators Lardizabal, et al. (1996) assert that effective discipline should be based on the tenets of democracy. College students can efficiently contribute to classroom decision-makings.
Furthermore, an effective teacher recognizes the human aspect of every person and makes necessary adjustments. While he knows his rules and keeps up with them, he sees every offense as a unique case. He knows that no one rule — not even one teaching method — applies best to every situation.

Principled, but not stiff. General Reed, President of Congress during the American Revolution, once received an offer — ten thousand guineas — from the British Commissioners, should he desert his country. His answer was clear-cut: “Gentlemen, I am poor, very poor. But your king is not rich enough to buy me.”
A noble teacher (since we claim that teaching is the noblest profession) maintains clear principles in life, and lives by them. He shows values that are worth emulating. He strives to be a genuine model to his students. He does what he knows is right and fair.
Again, even our principles should have room for malleability. We should be the masters, not the slaves, of our philosophies.
I overheard a Math teacher stating, “In Mathematics, all problems have a solution. If something doesn’t have a solution, then it is not a problem.” I see similar precepts when it comes to principles:
“All values ought to be flexible. If something is not flexible, then it is not a value.”
It is equally apt to say, “All true teachers should be principled. If someone is not principled, then he is not a true teacher.”

Frank, but not rude. Frankness is an asset. But it should not be confused with rudeness. One can be utterly forthright without being blunt. The former is motivated by concern and earnestness. The latter is motivated by undomesticated temper or poor breeding, or both.
Communication experts Bagin and Grazian have these to say: “Remember that manners are free. Be as courteous to the mail clerk as you would to the CEO…. People will respect you for doing so…. Be diplomatic without being phony. Avoid hurting others’ feelings….”
A cultured educator knows when and where to correct an errant. He knows that not all places are a right place to rebuke, no matter how noble the intention may be. He judiciously chooses the words to use, and delivers them circumspectly.

Mark Twain’s popular line still holds true today: “To teach is to learn twice.” Indeed, teaching and learning are a duo. And so are learning and leading. Nobody can assert that he is an effective teacher, until he is an effective leader.

Light Desk for a Light Work

As a professor, pastor and psychologist at the same time, I spend many hours working at my desk. Multitasking, I admit, is not always as easy as theory. But systematizing — that includes keeping my desk light — somehow helps in keeping my work light. Let me share some guidelines:

Keep your desk clear. An unsightly desk multiplies stress and pressure. It makes you feel tired than usual (and look older, too). Clutters tell you, “Look at how much more tasks are waiting ahead.” Have a separate table for your tools. Don’t squeeze your computer, typewriter, bag, paper cutter, books and all onto of your desk. Bring out only those things you work on at the moment, and keep them away before you commence with the next task. Update your corkboard regularly so it doesn’t get jammed with unintelligible reminders.

Keep your desk neat. Plan out how you can file the stuffs you receive (or create) so that you can locate them in a second when you need them. Put those pins together in a small box. Assign a fixed place for your table tools — stapler, stamps, correction fluid, etc. — and return them (as you would with any other things) on the same place after using. Stack papers that belong together in clearly labeled folders. Anyone who justifies, “Eh masmabilis nga akong magtrabaho kung magulo ang mesa,” simply denotes, “I don’t even have time to sort my filthy undergarments from clean ones. Why should I sort my desk out?”

Keep your desk plain. Remove the pictures and decorations under your desktop glass: they don’t belong there. Use table ornaments sparingly, if at all. When seen mixed with other stuffs, they are perceived by our brain more as mess than as inspirations. Even rubbles look better when put on a plain background. Soothing to the eyes, a plain, ornament-free desktop is most conducive to working.

Keep your desk clean. Many people sip coffee, nibble nuts, or even chomp a full lunch right at their workstation. This is perfectly all right, assuming there are no other better places to eat. But be sure to clean up your desk afterwards. Your janitor has so much to do aside from cleaning your crumbs and scouring your mug marks away. And it pays to exert extra effort to dust your workstation regularly. There is no doze of “adaptation” that is enough to make you work more effectively in a grimy area than you would in a clean, fresh-looking one.

Keep your desk bright. Most of us would carry out tasks best in a moderately illuminated workstation. Gone are the days when one had to ruin his eyes and wear glasses just to secure some amount of esteem. Relocate your table to a place where it (and you) can receive enough lighting. Rearrange your office in such a way that furniture and decorations do not obstruct sources of light. Let sunshine peer though your window blinds. Replace dim bulbs with daylight lamps.

What bamboozle many workers are not those “too many tasks,” but those few tasks that appear too many — often because of a muddled workstation. Imagine trying to locate a small note that means life and death for your company. Or remember those long times you ravage in disastrous attempts to track down a “lost” report (which you later find innocently hibernating in your bag, or drawer, or filing cabinet, or between pages of whatever that has pages).
So next time you enter your office, you know what to do first. And last.

Happy Work, Happy Life

“I complained because I had no shoes… until I met a man who had no feet!” So goes an Arab proverb.

They say that we live to work, and we work to live. Working and living appear to be inseparable. Can we then deduce that he who is unhappy in work is unhappy in life?
Fortunately, happiness is a matter of choice. There are many things around us that may affect us. But in the end, we choose how we respond to them. We, not circumstances, make a stepping-stone out of a stumbling block. Or vice versa. We decide whether to be content — or not.

What makes a happy worker? Let us consider some points:

He enjoys the toil. A socialite lady passed by a pig farm. Smelling the repulsive whiff of the animal dung, she whined, “Kadiri, amoy dumi!” A doctor went by the same place and blurted, “Sus, amoy sakit!” A businessman came next and exclaimed, “Uy, amoy pera!” Finally, a chef rushed by. He savored the aroma as he uttered, “Wow, amoy hamon!”

I’ve been through several jobs, and I’ve realized that most displeasure is all in the mind. This reminds me of a parishioner’s text: “If you worry about what you don’t have, you wont be able to enjoy what you do have.”

No work is hassle-free. Nearly all jobs under the sun entail some amount of scuff. There are times that we need to do things we are not paid for. And this is fair enough, because there are also times we are paid for things we don’t do at all. There are times that others do not please us. And this is also fair enough, because we, ourselves, do not please others every time.
From time to time, we may have to exert extra effort at the expense of our personal convenience. In any profession, we need to bear with adjustments we don’t clearly understand, live with views we don’t fully accept, deal with people we don’t completely like, and so on. These are things that help broaden our perspectives, heighten our wisdom, and deepen our virtues.
L. P. Jacks said, “A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”

He enjoys the task. Asked about where its endless happiness comes from, a bird promptly chirped, “I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.”
The tie between motivation and performance operates in almost all cases: the more we love a task, the better we do it.

Don’t we teach this to graduating high school students when we go out for career guidance? Now we realize that this same principle operates in our very career. And since in most cases we cannot change our tasks, surely we can work on changing our view of these tasks.
Somebody said that there are only two types of worker in the world. When he wakes up, the asset says, “It’s another good morning, Lord!” The liability says, “It’s another morning, good Lord!”

James Barrie wrote this about the secret of happiness: “It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do.”

He enjoys the team. Who can demand for perfect teammates or a perfect boss? Answer: a perfect worker. In real life, when we start to look for more from people we work with (or people we work for) we start to become unhappy.

The juvenile mind has a tendency to require other people to be perfect, while expecting these “perfect others” to understand his imperfections. He asks, “Shouldn’t have they done that?”
The mature person, on the other hand, is more apt to require himself to be perfect, while understanding others’ imperfection. He asks, “Shouldn’t have I done that?

At any rate, we cannot afford not to bear with other people’s imperfections: remember, others bear with ours, too.

Perhaps one of the prima facie features of an effective worker is the ability to effectively work with a team. Even amidst diversity in culture and orientation, it is not difficult to characterize an effective team member: He offers his sincere time and effort (not just words and ideas) to others. He gives or passes praise to whom it rightfully belongs (and doesn’t claim praises that do not belong to him, for God’s sake). He helps keep the team going, not only by giving right concepts but also by setting the right mood (and doesn’t ruin other people’s spirit by losing his temper in times when it should be in tact). He doesn’t simply get the team working: he gets himself working with the team.

A student who enjoys studying, they say, is likely to perform better. So is a worker who enjoys working. And whether or not one is happy with his work is eventually because of his choice.
A Latin proverb encapsulates my point: “Not he who has little, but he who wishes for more, is poor.”

As for me, I choose to be rich. I choose to be happy.