Be Yourself…It’s Not That Hard

I have what can sometimes be a pretty thick southern accent.  It’s part of me, and I’m proud of it.  However, it wasn’t always that way.  As I was finishing college and gaining my teacher certification, I thought that I needed to change myself in order to be an effective teacher.  I really wish I could go back in time and tell myself that is not the case, that I will be a much better teacher just being me, rather than someone I think would be successful.  I’ve learned a lot since then.

As an English major, I pride myself on a certain eloquence and sophistication in my written correspondence with others.  Conversely, when I speak I use phrases like “I aint got none of that” and “Y’all aint gonna believe this…”  It constitutes two different worlds, and when I was preparing to become a teacher, I felt that one world needed to change.

So I focused on enunciation.  I slowed down my speech.  I thought about what I was saying and worked on removing the “aints” and trying to speak in a more scholarly manner.  Now this was no wildly drastic change.  I didn’t change from sounding like Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies to sounding like a proper Englishman overnight.  However, I did feel I sounded more intelligent, and was being a good model for my students.  I would catch myself using poorly phrased grammar and correct myself in front of them.

Then one day I stopped.  I went out with some colleagues over the weekend and got the “you sound so different when you’re not at school” line, and realized I wasn’t being myself around the people that counted on me to educate them.  So when I got to school Monday I didn’t focus on my speech.  I focused on teaching my kids.  And guess what?  Despite my horrible grammar and hillbilly slang, my students still learned and found ways to be successful.  Amazing right?

I learned a lot from this experience that has deeply affected me in both my personal and professional lives.  I learned that my relationships had more effect on my students’ learning than how I was relaying the information that they needed to learn.  I taught them that you could be a great writer, and an intelligent scholar, and not have to pretend to be something you “aint”.

On the other hand, I also learned that it is not so bad to clean up my speech a little bit.  While you will still hear me say “no we aint gonna have none of that” from time to time, there might be a little less of it.  Therefore, I have learned to be myself, and better myself a little at the same time.  Granted, if you get me started talking about my truck or I hear Keith Whitley on the radio (which at my house actually happens A LOT), that accent may get a little thicker.  I’m proud of that fact though.  I’m also very proud that my kids are probably going to grow up with an accent like mine, with full polite southern etiquette including all the yes ma’ams and no ma’ams you can handle.  I’m going to teach them what I have learned in this experience, and teach them the importance of being who you are.

So, this was a great life lesson, but how has it truly helped me as an educator?   The educational world is full of “the next big thing” that teachers are doing in their classes to help find better ways to reach their students.  While many of these ideas contain value and we can learn from most of them; they often cause educators to try to create a mold of themselves out of what these initiatives want them to be.  Similar to how I was trying to make myself into a mold of a perfectly speaking English teacher without an accent.  However, in the end the best way to reach your students and help them learn is to just be yourself.  When you are open and honest with them, they will be open and honest with you.  Ultimately, that creates a better learning environment for everyone.  As a teacher, it is important that you understand that you need to learn from your students as much as they need to learn from you.  You can’t do that if you’re trying to be someone else.  Be yourself…it’s not that hard.