It's an undeniable fact that a teacher's age affects the way that students view him. Being 26 years old, I'm fairly certain that my relative youth makes it a little easier to obtain and maintain students' attention. I also think that it gives me a slight edge as far as being able to "relate" to students -- in terms of technology, pop culture, etc. I think that the fact that I look like I could still be in high school / college (depending on whom you ask) furthers those edges. It's naturally easier to gain the student's collective attention and to find connective bridges between their lives and the material being studied in class.
It's also true that the age factor can be a slight disadvantage as well, given the fact that high school students like to tend to "push" young teachers. That doesn't really happen anymore, a fact that I consider a byproduct of my approach to teaching and the fact that I've been at my school for four years. My first year or two, however, the seniors that I taught usually tried to push at the beginning of the semester and would need to be metaphorically stomped-down on the first day or two. After that "stomping", there were very few problems. A teacher that was 54 years old and had a draconian personality would likely not have to deal with that first day push. On the other hand, however, he also would be less likely to be able to connect with and impact the students.
I often wonder about the changes I'll have to make to my teaching style as I get older. Not just the natural year-to-year adaptations, but rather changes based specifically on age. I'm not sure that I could teach the same way at 45 that I taught at 25, for a number of reasons. I suspect that it will be more difficult for me to connect with students, as I won't have age in my corner and likely won't have the same reservoir of pop culture awareness to draw from. It will be an interesting challenge for sure; one that I'm not really looking forward to encountering.
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Hey Michael!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post in that as a fellow 26-year old, I can completely relate to what you are saying. Now I teach middle school students so I feel that this age of students still encompass an element of wanting to "suck up" (for lack of a better term!) to you:)
You bring up a very interesting point about how we will develop or change as educators when we get older. Although, there is a one teacher at my school who is a 10 year veteran and still has that "youthful" connection with her students. She is a huge mentor to me and I think you simply grow wiser in handling students while still maintaining that "youth". I guess time will tell right??!!!!......:)