TEACHABLE MOMENTS

It was Valentine’s Day in grade 3 and all the kids, myself included, were giving each other Valentines. I decided to give one to the special needs teacher. I wasn’t the only one – she had been taping all her Valentines to her door and the door was looking quite full by now. When I handed my Valentine to her, she smiled and thanked me. She gestured over to her door and said she’d display it. There weren’t that many other people around, so she asked me which Valentine I supposed was her favourite. I looked at the door, there were so many! They all looked the same to me; it was a collage of Disney characters and action heroes, all in bright colours and mass-produced to the same size. None of them stood out from the others. I gave up and pointed to mine, knowing that wasn’t the answer she was looking for. Mine was no different than any of the others.

 

She smiled and shook her head no. She then pointed to one I had missed. It was simple and homemade. I looked at who gave it to her: a boy in my year that I didn’t know very well. Everyone assumed he was poor because of how he dressed, but I didn’t really know. He wasn’t the type of 8-year-old boy that socialized with girls, and my circle of male friends at the time was pretty small too, so I never got to know him. This seemed to fit with that image of him being poor, his parents couldn’t afford to buy him the same Valentines as everyone else.

 

And yet the teacher had identified his as her favourite! She told me that although she liked that we all had thought of her, only he had put in that extra bit of time needed to actually make the card, not just write her name on one.

 

I came across the term “teachable moment” years later. Here is the textbook definition, courtesy of about.com:

 

A teachable moment is an unplanned opportunity that arises in the classroom where a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students. A teachable moment is not something that you can plan for; rather, it is a fleeting opportunity that must be sensed and seized by the teacher. Often it will require a brief digression that temporarily sidetracks the original lesson plan so that the teacher can explain a concept that has inadvertently captured the students’ collective interest. Taking this tangent is worthwhile because it is organically timed to maximize impact on the students.

 

A bit more broadly, it’s any unexpected opportunity to explain a concept or a point of view that either would not normally come up in conversation or would not make an impression under other circumstances.

 

In this case, she took the time to demonstrate to me a value system that says money spent is not nearly as valuable as time spent and sometimes sticking out from the crowd is a very good thing. It’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.

 

By now, most if not all schools in Canada and the U.S. have finished for the summer. It’s a time to reflect on the past school year for many. Whether you are in that boat or not, I’d like you all to reflect back on the teachers who’ve made a difference in your life. By “teacher”, I don’t want you to limit yourself to people who have had that word in their job description. Think too of your family, friends, neighbours, bosses, coworkers, and even strangers who have influenced you positively to be who you are and who have helped shape the experiences you’ve had.

 

Take a moment to be grateful for what they have done for you and marvel at how your life may have unfolded quite differently if they had not taken the time.

 

Now, think about how great it’d be to have that kind of positive impact on someone else. Again, you don’t have to have the job title “teacher” to do this. Find those teachable moments in the everyday (whether school is in or out!). It’s not about lecturing, it’s about seizing the moment to share and discuss the things that are really important. Because otherwise, it’s all too easy for those discussions to never happen.

 

The local Max Keeping Foundation in Ottawa has the slogan “Make a difference in the life of a child.” I’ll second that and add that the child can be grown or not, and their relative age to you doesn’t make a difference! After all, aren’t we all children until the day we stop learning?

 

Margaret Bailey lives in Ottawa with her husband and two cats. She believes strongly that knowledge is only useful if applied and shared. She strives to be a light to all who cross her path or walk with her awhile.