Process Lessons

Excellent teachers use a number of modalities when teaching. Most teachers lecture, some use “discovery”, and yet others provide “active participation”.

All teachers model behavior.

Character development may not appear on a list of educational objectives of any given lesson but any interaction the students have with a teacher is a lesson in human behavior non-the-less.
Who will forget the kindness a teacher showed on a difficult day?
Which one of us can forget the sixth grade science teacher who lost his temper?
Who can forget the times we were sent to the principal and how he reacted to our misbehavior?

The lessons learned through personal experience last long and can permanently change the way a child interacts with the world. When we think about our actions as teachers in this light we can appreciate why Chazal expect Rebbaim to act as “Malachim”. Education can not only be about meaningful content, it must also be about exceptional character development.

One can say that in every interaction between teacher and students there are two layers to the lesson. There is the content of the words being taught on one level and then there is the process. The process refers to the lesson about how the information is given over.
For example, if a child runs into the street and the parent screams “Moshe, get out of the street” there have been two layers of lessons taught. Content – Moshe should not be in the street. Process – When there is danger one should scream.

Now to the classroom.

When are we to make of the use of anger and intimidation in the classroom or school building? Is there a place for screaming at a child (even if one can keep “calm” on the inside)? What about using intimidation to get a child to behave?

These approaches are quite effective when attempting to get control over a situation but what is the “process lesson”. When is life would these modalities be appropriate?

Are we teaching that screaming and intimidation are acceptable when you really need something?
Are we teaching that when one has absolute power it is okay to embarrass or overpower someone?

We must find process lessons that result in behaviors we want to see the child doing in other context. This may be easy to write about but in the heat of the moment it is much easier to only focuses on the content of our words but not the process.
The problem is that the process is experienced, not only heard, and therefore will be a more effect lesson that the content which is purely auditory.