Shule101

It is the middle of winter in Kettering, a city located in southwest Ohio. I am hugging the fence in my backyard, trying to find enough courage to skate onto the ice rink my parents have built in the backyard. My parents, as always, are supporting my dreams. After taking a few ice skating lessons, I have developed a new passion and long to be the next Peggy Fleming. My dad stands on the sidelines, taking pictures, while my morn skates with me. I let go of the fence and start to glide, loving the feeling of almost flying.

I soon realized, however, that I lacked the skating talent for serious competition, and so I turned to dance. Like figure skating, dance is a combination of artistic and technical skills, of finding a way to express oneself within the confines of a series of eight counts. I loved choreographing routines, whether the steps were for my own performances or for students in the school musical. As a high school English teacher in Ohio and later as a college professor of future teachers in Florida, I viewed teaching as also consisting of both artistic and technical elements.

Figure skaters receive two separate scores for their performances. Each program has a certain number of required elements, such as jumps and spins, that are judged for the technical score. Each program also requires creativity and artistic interpretation, which contribute to the artistic score. Without the technical elements, skaters have no way of proving they know how to successfully execute a double axel. Without the artistic elements, a skating routine is nothing more than a series of unconnected jumps.

In teaching, required elements of the curriculum exist that teachers must cover during any given school year; this becomes the technical part of teaching. Teachers choose how to present a lesson in order make it interesting and connect with students; this becomes the artistic part of teaching.

In this era of standardized tests, teachers complain that no time exists for creativity. This means the focus remains on the required curricular elements–the technical part of teaching–thus losing the artistic part of teaching. We need to remember that how we teach is as important as what we teach. We all know this, although it becomes easy to forget when the media, government, or school administration discusses test scores; fear permeates schools and communities when money jobs, and school rankings are at stake.

When I wasn’t dancing or figure skating during my younger years,…

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