12 paradoxes of education
I recently read a list by Adrian Shaughnessy called “the 12 paradoxes of graphic design.” Here’s his list:
- There’s no such thing as bad clients. Only bad designers.
- The best way to become a better graphic designer is to become a client.
- If we want to educate our clients about design we must first educate our self about our clients.
- If we want to make money as a graphic designer we must concentrate on the work, not the money.
- For graphic designers, possessing verbal skills is as important as possessing good visual skills.
- Most ideas fail, not because they are bad ideas, but because they are badly presented.
- Designers who use the argument “I know best because I am a professional” are usually unprofessional designers.
- We often imagine that all the good projects go to other people. Not so, in fact, nearly all jobs start off as neither good nor bad.
- The best way to self-promote is to avoid talking about yourself.
- A designer’s brain is capable of much more than making things look pretty.
- If we believe in nothing, then our clients will have no reason to believe in us.
- Designers often imagine that they need to be embedded with the clients, but there are advantages in being an outsider.
There are some stunning paradoxes on that list — paradoxes that, if worded slightly differently, explain all kinds of things I see happening in schools. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I took his list and tweaked it slightly… mainly changing the word “designer” to “teacher” and “client” to “student.” So, here’s the teacher version of his list:
- There’s no such thing as bad students. Only bad teachers.
- The best way to become a better teacher is to become a student.
- If we want to educate our students about our subject, we must first educate ourselves about our students.
- If we want to make money as a teacher, we must concentrate on the work not the money.
- For teachers, possessing good visual skills is as important as possessing verbal skills.
- Most lessons fail, not because they are bad lessons, but because they are badly presented.
- Teachers who use the argument “I know best, because I am professional,” are usually unprofessional teachers.
- We often imagine that all good classes go to other people. Not so, in fact, nearly all classes start off as neither good nor bad.
- The best way to self-promote is to avoid talking about yourself.
- A teacher’s brain is capable of much more than grading things.
- If we believe in nothing, then our students will have no reason to believe in us.
- Teachers often imagine they need to be embedded with the students, but there are advantages in being an outsider.
I don’t think some of these work quite as well when applied to education (I’m still trying to figure out how #12 may or may not be true), but some of them are spot on. #1, for example, is a necessary corrective for that cadre of teachers who love to scapegoat the students for their paltry efforts. I think that #2 and #5 explain some of my greatest successes in the classroom.
