On Teaching: DIAMONDS IN THE CLASSROOM

I’ve been thinking recently about a helpful analogy: students as diamonds. I started off on this track because someone explained to me that a diamond only reveals its many facets when it is slowly turned in the light. If it always sits at one angle to the light, a diamond can actually appear almost dull. Only by turning it in as many ways as possible can an observer begin to appreciate the almost endless faces of its beauty. I’ve been wondering if my students could be considered diamonds in that sense, and whether it might not be my job to keep turning them in the light. After all, if a diamond has a thousand facets to its beauty, each of my students must have a billion zillion. Far more than a diamond, a human being is an astonishing phenomenon of incalculable richness and variety, and I see 42 of them in my classroom each day. I’m surrounded by living diamonds from 8:30 to 3:00. However, I won’t notice much of their splendor unless I constantly turn them in the light. By planning intelligent and challenging lessons, I must turn each of my students so they are able to show off another talent – another aspect of their magnificence. I must help them reveal their glittering brilliance, hour by hour, day by day. When visitors enter my classroom, I want them to be just as impressed as they would be if they were in the presence of a necklace containing 42 faultless diamonds.