Edu-blogger, David Warlick asks this provocative question that, I think all teachers (practicing and pre-service) really need to think about.

Of course, any reasonably educated person (i.e., a teacher) will say, “Of course!” But my next question to that teacher is: “When is the last time you changed your syllabus? An assignment?”

If the answer is “I change things almost every time I teach them,” I know I’m talking to an excellent teacher — one who learns alongside her students, regularly reflects upon her practice, and is constantly making adjustments to improve or to better adapt her instruction to her students, the times, etc.

As Warlick says, we all continue to learn — as we adopt new hobbies, create new things, read, and so forth. Otherwise, we wouldn’t do any of these.

And teachers, as students’ primary conduit through which to learn not only about content (such as the American and British literary canon), but also about LEARNING, must need be avid learners themselves.

Warlick offers up this great aphorism: You don’t stop learning when you grow old, you grow old when you stop learning.

I’d like to add two more:

(therefore): 1) Good teachers never grow old.

and 2) Never trust a teacher who hasn’t learned something new today.

[cross-posted on Twenty-First Century Literacies]