Enthusiasm and salesmanship

One of my proudest teaching moments was when a grade 7 parent came to me at the end of the school year, and informed me that her son who previously hated Social Studies, now loved it, and I’d inspired him to become a Social teacher one day. Social 7 was actually a course that I secretly found extremely boring at onset, but by forcing enthusiasm, was able to convince the students (and myself) that it was pretty cool stuff to learn. 

15 years later, my daughter Olive is now a grade seven student. The course, textbook, worksheets and teaching process; all unchanged in the 15 years since I taught it last. 

In a world where Gemini AI can interactively discuss the content, socratically challenge the learner, and assess in real time, the stagnation of our pedagogical practices is a blog for another day.

This blog is about Olive begging her mother for help, as she prepared for an upcoming test, and her mother suggesting that she ask a person who had actually taught the content before (dad). 

The idea that ‘teacher dad’ can inspire random students, yet is inadequate enough to earn a perfunctory question from his daughter, is quite ironic. I suspect that the level of enthusiasm and salesmanship, happening at home, is not quite the caliber I used to bring to the classroom.

Or perhaps, it's simply a daughter tired of listening to a boring dad yammering on.

Either way, I’ve got to ‘up’ my game.

• Now that’s a peak ethos.