Humility

When was the last time you were wrong?

As with every human being, I too am human. One of the characteristics of being a human is that we all make mistakes from time to time. More importantly, however, is that fact that mistakes are not necessarily bad, as they can be sources of great learning. Scientists discover new things (i.e. learn) all the time through trial and error or, basically, making mistakes until something works. Regardless, I think the important question to be addressed for this blog is “How does a teacher strike the balance between confidence and genuine humility?”

The answer to this question is actually quite simple. First, a teacher should be confident in everything they present. This is the simple part. The hard part is admitting mistakes or admitting that one may not know the answer to a question posed by a student. In the first case, if a teacher is corrected by a student and the teacher realizes s/he made a mistake, s/he should just say something to the effect of, “You’re right, my mistake,” and move on. If a teacher is not sure the student’s correction is actually correct, but is now not sure that the answer that they originally provided is correct, they can do one of two things. First, a teacher can say, “Alright then, I’m not sure that’s correct, but let’s move on, and I will look up the answer and get back to you tomorrow.” If a teacher wants a more confident approach they can handle the situation with dialogue like, “I don’t think that’s correct, let’s use the answer I provided for now and I will research the authenticity of my answer.” In either circumstance, the important part is that the teacher researches the correct answer and yet, maintains control of the situation. Moving on to the last example, if a student asks a question that the teacher does not know the answer to, the teacher should either say, “I don’t know, but I will look it up and get back to you,” or empower the student to look up the answer him or herself and provide it for the entire class. Once again, the important point is that a teacher accepts that they do not know everything, but that they know how to find the correct answer, maintaining their expertise in their field.