Dan Tricarico - The Zen Teacher: Creating Focus, Simplicity, and Tranquility in the Classroom

The goal is the path.
Zen saying

By the time I retire, I will havespent more than thirty years of my life teaching in a classroom. Furthermore,I will have spent the majority of those years in the same classroom. And when Iplop down in my La-Z-Boy and toss the shawl across my knees, I will have taughtnearly 6,000 students. Throw in summer school, extended assignments, serving asclub advisor, and tutoring students after school, and I wouldnt be surprisedif that number was double.

Working in education is different thanmany other jobs in that, unless one becomes an administrator, a teachertypically enters the classroom in his early twenties and leaves in hisearly-to-mid sixties exactly where he started. In other words, there is nocorporate ladder to speak of. So in 1997, after realizing that a mortgage and afamily would take more money than my teaching credentials alone could provide,I earned my masters degree in educational administration.

I realized early on, however, that thefront office experience wasnt for me. It wasnt the long hours, supervisingschool dances, handling student referrals, monitoring behavior problems, oreven dealing with the endless bureaucracy and piles of paperwork that deterredme. Rather, it would have taken me out of the classroom, and teaching is mypassion. I wanted to be in a classroom with students, hovering over a text, aproject, or a piece of writing, our sleeves rolled up, toiling together to createsomething or (if we were lucky) to make something better.

To me, that is teachingthat is the path.

In our profession, the movement is notup, but out. Our influence in the world has a ripple effect, like concentriccircles on the surface of a lake. The students we encounter enter theiradulthoods deeply changed by the experiences they have with us. We leave afootprint and, thanks to our students, that footprint gets passed on to thefuture. And while its difficult to pay your mortgage with a metaphoricalfootprint, its a pretty profound way to spend your career and to, as SteveJobs said, make a dent in the universe.

We all know dispassionate teachers who doit for the paycheck and for whom teaching does not even begin to approach acalling. I feel sorry for these folks. While its true that they are stillcapable of solid, competent work, I mourn the absence of passion that wouldmake their (and by extension, their students) experience transcendent. I wishthey knew the joy of the effort, the sweet exhaustion of the process, themotivating frustration of the almost right lesson, and the sleepy-eyedfeeling of satisfaction that comes from knowing youre on an important,meaningful journeyeven if they are, like me, driving a 1998 Buick Century thathas bald tires, a digital odometer that died six months after purchasing thecar, and a steering wheel that is crumbling to pieces in their hands. And eventhough I am sometimes embarrassed to rattle up to the corner grocery store, Iknow there is a nobility to my pursuits.

As teachers, we are given an amazingopportunity to influence young people and profoundly affect how they see theworld. Its an awe-inspiring privilege, but its also a challenge. In the lastdecade, Ive seen a number of excellent teachers break down, crash and burn, orjust plain leave the profession. This is a result of the stressors theyveencountered at their schools or in their classrooms and also because theindustry has, in many ways, gone plain loco. My school has also witnessed asignificant drop in the number of student-teacher applicants, a soberingindication that fewer people view teaching as a viable career. Its a shame.

Thats why I began The Zen Teacherblog and eventually wrote this book. I am devoted to showing teachers how tomaintain a sense of focus, simplicity, and tranquility in the face of theobstacles and problems the modern American educator encounters daily. I want toshow them that they can not just survive, but thrive in the classroom.

Teachers do incredibly important andinfluential workand they do it almost entirely devoid of the concrete,culturally valued rewards associated with professional employment, such as thebig paycheck, the luxury car, or the corner office with the stunning view. Despitethe limited tangible rewards, there is, perhaps, no career as fulfilling to thesoul as education. This noble profession can provide a deep sense of Zentranquility because we know that the ripples we create today can influence andeven improve tomorrow. The path we travel day in and day out with ourstudentsand the manner in which we travelis important. And if the goal is thepath, then it helps to love the path.