Connection-building not an “extra” but an essential

Every teacher has heard some version of the phrase, “Just teach the curriculum.”

It is often presented as common sense advice. Teach the subject matter. Cover the required outcomes. Leave everything else at the door. At first read, this makes complete sense! The problem is that this view misunderstands what teaching is.

If teaching were simply the delivery of information, teachers would be much easier to replace. Google can provide facts in seconds. Artificial intelligence can explain concepts, create summaries and generate practice questions (though not always reliably). Students today carry more information in their pockets than previous generations could access in an entire library. Still, schools and teachers remain vital because real learning is not the same as having the ability to access information.

The challenge facing teachers is not getting information in front of students. The challenge is helping our students engage with it, understand it, retain it and use it. That work depends on something critics often dismiss or overlook: human connection.

The suggestion that teachers should “just teach” assumes that relationships are somehow separate from learning, but relationships are often what make learning possible. Students who feel respected are more likely to participate. Students who trust their teacher are more willing to ask questions. Students who feel a sense of belonging are more likely to take academic risks and persevere when the work becomes difficult. This is what makes teachers the professionals they are; they have this skill down to an art.

Every experienced teacher knows this. A lesson that succeeds with one class may fall flat with another. This baffled me when I was a beginning teacher. The curriculum was the same, but the approach had to change. Teachers must constantly adjust, motivate, encourage, redirect and support to facilitate meaningful learning. Teachers read a room, identify barriers to learning and respond in real time. That is teaching.

Teachers must constantly adjust, motivate, encourage, redirect and support to facilitate meaningful learning.

Critics sometimes speak as though relationship-building is something “extra” that teachers choose to do instead of teaching content. The reality is exactly the opposite. The connections that teachers build allow content to be taught effectively. It is the bridge between the lesson plan and student learning.

Teaching is much more than delivering content to students. It requires expertise, judgment, adaptability, empathy, communication and the ability to engage dozens of unique learners at the same time. Teaching demands a complex combination of skills that deserves more recognition.

Of course, teachers teach the curriculum. They teach mathematics, sciences, languages, fine arts, career education and countless other disciplines. But they also create the conditions that allow students to learn those subjects in the first place.

In an age when information is everywhere, it is important to remember that students do not learn from content alone. They learn through connection. Far from being an “extra,” connection-building is one of the most sophisticated and essential skills that the teaching profession requires.

I welcome your comments, thoughts and ideas. Contact me at kristine.wilkinson@ata.ab.ca.