One of the most iconic episodes of Saved by the Bell, and maybe my favorite (so hard for me to pick just one) is the Hot Sundae episode where Zack tries to get Jessie, Kelly, and Lisa to form a girl's singing group. With all the practicing and an important geometry test to study for, Jessie turns to caffeine pills to stay awake and focused, becomes addicted, and has a huge breakdown the night of the big performance (but remember when we snuck out to see E.T?). Besides the powerful lesson on the dangers of drug use, the episode also highlights the very essence of Jessie Spano.
Jessie was the straight-A, class president (MTV in study hall!), environmental-conscious, feminist, ideal student out of the bunch. She obsessed about her grades and getting into an Ivy League school (Stansbury anyone?). She mocked Zack's laziness and freaked out if she ever received a "B." Sadly, I teach many students who are just as extreme as Jessie when it comes to their academic performance. Even sadder, I teach with teachers who expect their students to perform at the same level that Jessie did.
I already wrote a blog on letting kids be kids and not burdening them with too much work in the name of learning. But recently, I've been thinking about the expectations that teachers unfairly place on students in their classrooms. We expect that they should be able to do/know certain things. We expect them to be better than previous years' students. We expect them to love our subject because we do. We expect them to want to be Jessie Spanos and strive to be the best. Really? Doesn't some of that seem silly? Now its one thing to set goals for our students and to challenge them to be better than they think they can be. The problem is that often teachers set the bar too high and then get frustrated and then complain when students don't meet their expectations...and then punish them for falling short!
I try to be a realistic teacher. As a history teacher, I know that a vast majority of my students do not enjoy history, so I can never expect them to take the same interest in the subject like I did (which didn't even come out until I was in college anyway). I remember how busy my life was in high school with sports, clubs, band, drama, and church involvement, so I never expect my students to be able to devote a ton of time to only my class. If I do find myself surprised by what my students cannot do compared to any expectations, I would rather re-evaluate what I am doing or how I am teaching before I just throw up my hands and say "oh well last year's kids could write better than this...what's their problem?"
All 8th grade students at my school recently completed a research paper. They had never done something like this before, so I didn't expect amazing quality from my one class of students. In fact, I was looking more for strong effort and a basic understanding of what a research paper is all about (so they are ready for high school) As I sat with the other teachers to grade, I was shocked at how some of them were so quick to harshly criticize the students' work. Low C's and D's were being handed out with little second thought and when we reflected on the papers, the comments like "I expected better," or "these are disappointing." or "why are these so bad?" were heard. Not once did we reflect on our performance as teachers: Maybe we didn't teach them well enough how to write this paper? Were our instructions clear? Should we have given them samples to compare before they wrote?
Jessie Spano might have placed high expectations on herself, but as teachers, we need to be careful to not add even more. If we do, we run the risk of being narrow-minded about our students and also forgetting that we are the biggest agents of change in the classroom...not the kids. So let's "put our mind to it, go for it, get down and break a sweat" (I just couldn't resist)
