In a comment here a few days ago, Annemarie wrote:
…I felt that I couldn’t have any moments of quiet, that I had to fill every single minute. I realize that I still feel that need….
These are the words of a warrior. Yet, the war is not physical, but mental. How can we convince ourselves that there is nothing in the research that supports the idea that we have to fill every single minute with hair-on-fire greatness?
I am so glad Annemarie reminded us of this. We don’t have to do anything but learn to relax and make our experience natural and flowing and with lots of pauses in our instruction. That’s why we walk before we talk. That’s why I use the Invisibles and not CI as most people see it. CI brings excellent language gains; the Invisibles bring that plus a front row season ticket to the Teaching from the Heart Theatre, with its ten-hour long shows daily.
That’s why this group is small and why I want it to stay small. Because teachers who read here, in my opinion of course based on the fifteen years we’ve been leaning on each other here, are going for deeper things in this profession.
If you are reading this, it is likely that you are one of a very few teachers who see our profession not as a platform to get attention with high test scores to get people’s approval, but as a place for deep personal growth through the immense challenges of teaching a language – in the way that actually reflects the research.
Is that not what the research says? Did Terrell and Krashen call their method the “Unnatural Approach” or the “You Have to be Impressive All the Time” approach? All of those decades of crunching numbers (Krashen’s favorite activity – I asked him) and they point us straight in the direction of speaking in ways that mentally healthy and loving parents do to their child.
But can stressed parents do that? That is why we put the priority on being kind to our students. That is why we teach like our hearts are filled with water that can douse the flames that fill our buildings these days.
We may be the only adult in our students’ young lives who gives them daily reassurance that the world is good. I hope that some day we all realize, as I have but it took 40 years, that language gains, the focus of basic CI, are not the goal.
Just being kind and doing what Annnemarie said – that’s all that counts. Kids need to know that we care more about them than we care about teaching them a language. Only then will they learn. I realize that’s cliche, but it’s also true.