1. Educator vs. Teacher – The Difference Between Education
and Schooling
August 2, 2012 By Dana Houston Jackson 1 Comment
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Finally! — thanks to a true Educator, I have come to understand the difference between a Teacher and an
Educator. It has taken me over a year of hands-on research.And I discovered that while the world needs both,
Educators are in shortsupply.
We are all Teachers to someone – our kids,our parents,co-workers,friends,even acquaintances.For some ofus,
like myself, it’s also a full time profession.
As a Teacher, you recall pastinformation learned and pass iton.You correct faulty information and insiston more
practice until, indeed,2+2 = 4.
But what aboutthose students who know you want them to say 2+2=4, yet in their universe 2+2 can equal infinite
possibilities?
What do we do with those who see the world differently?
Do we simply label them as something to make ourselves feel better because they are different? Or because
we really don’tunderstand whythey’re different? For whose benefitis all this labeling?
When you give a Studenta label — ADHD, Autistic, Genius,High IQ, a boy, a girl, an English Second Language —
does this justifyyour mind’s confusion as to why this round peg is not fitting into your square hole?
Each of us sees the world differently in one field or another.Yet how do we educate the “genius” and “autistic” we
each seem to possess?
“A true Educator locates the intelligence and abilities within another, drawing them out for all, even the
student, to see. And then steps out of the way, allowing them to develop, create and pursue their talent.”
– L. Ron Hubbard
A case in pointis a recent pilotproject I headed utilizing Toastmaster’s Youth Leadership program to teach public
speaking and formal meeting procedure.

2. After 12 weeks of weekly seminars to our Middle School studentToastmasters (ages 11-14) — including both ESL
(English Second Language) and EFL (English FirstLanguage) — we held an internal school Speech Contestwhere
each Toastmaster studentjudged their fellow members on a speech theyhad written and delivered.
The top 10 moved into Finals and presented their speeches for the entire Middle School to observe.They were then
judged by seasoned Toastmaster judges from local chapters.
The results were remarkable!
Our Speech Contestwinners turned outto be 3 of the mostunlikelystudents.No one could have predicted it because
these students had been given pre-conceived labels thathad not allowed anyone to believe they could become such
polished,professional,entertaining Speakers!
Their abilities were uncovered.And with minor education utilizing the fantastic curriculum thatToastmasters has put
together (my hat goes off to them) – along with the L. Ron Hubbard Communication Course delivered here at the
Delphian School — true Public Speakers were able to come to life.
I cannotlook at my own child the same after this experience.Instead of justteaching the basic life skills anyparentis
responsible to teach,I now searchout his true abilities and let him shine through them.
I still struggle with the “step out of the way” and let him roll with it part. But I’ll go ahead and mention my “Type A
Personality” label to “explain” it, so you can feel better about my being “different”.
Teacher or educator?
Everyone is a teacher. We all have the ability to help others to learn. This is exactly what Vygotsky
had in mind when he proposed his famous Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory.Children (and

3. adults too) can learn more broadly, deeply and extensively if they have a knowledgeable person by
their side, than theycan on their own. In our society, we often thinkof that knowledgeable other person
as a professional educator, a tutor, lecturer or classroom teacher. But it need not be. Not everyone is
cut out to be a professional educator, but anyone can teach and most of us do exactly that, just about
every day. The artistry of a good educator though is to continually engage students in learning, to
inspire them to persist in their studies and to transfer their own personal passion to that student's
learning. The art of education is to draw out the very best from learners, to encourage them to excel
at what interests them, and to instill this within them so they continue to do so for the rest of their time
on this planet. The very, very best teachers can do all these things, and usually instinctively.
We learn in a multitude of ways, some within formal settings, others less formally. How did you learn
to tie your shoelaces? Most people would remember a friend, or a parent showing them how it was
done. Then it was practice, practice, practice, until you could do it without thinking. Your first language
was acquired naturally before you ever went to school. You learnt informally, listening to your family
members speak and then engaging with them as you built your vocabulary. One of the great,
unchanging roles of a parent is to be an informal teacher of their children, and older siblings also take
a hand. Children today learn a lot of social rules and mores through informal play, long before they
ever see a school playground.
If there is anydifference at all between formal and informallearning,it is where that learning is heading.
What is the study for? In formal learning contexts, learning is usually aimed toward obtaining some
kind of qualification, an accreditation of a skill or knowledge. In informal contexts, it's simply about
living. Going to school or college can be a real effort, day in, day out. Formalised learning can be a
chore, but it need not be. This is where the skilled teacher can make learning engaging and fun, and
motivate studentsto arrive each day anticipating something special.It takes passion,dedication,drive,
tenacity and self-belief to become a professional educator. That's the difference between education
and teaching, and it is why, although there are 7 billion teachers in the world, only a very few ever go
on to become skilled educators.
The Essence of Teaching and Learning
I remember when my eighteen month old son toddled up to me, put his little finger on my shirt button
and said, "That’s a button!" His first complete sentence. Made me proud and excited. The potential.
Somehow he had learned language.
When I taught English to teenage outcasts, I established a complex relationship with my students
and a similar interplay of teaching and learning occurred. With my students, it was more direct. It
was my job. It wasn’t unplanned and retroactively successful like my little boy learning language
from his parents who eschewed baby talk. But I felt comparable proud moments when they "got it,"
whether it was understanding a comma placement or the nuances of complex poetry. Or when some
of my otherwise disenfranchised students were able to accept their success and discover self-worth
with poems published in a local newspaper.
I became principal of that alternative private school. And while rooting out drugs, calling police, and
backing away from knife wielding students, I developed behavioral learning plans that taught them
that they could (as my father used to say) gain more from being positive. Those learning moments

4. were almost impossible to see, hidden by the exterior pose of tough antisocial teenagers.
Sometimes, after verbal sparring, I could see it happen, their glare abruptly interrupted, eyes filling
momentarily with understanding, then receding back beneath the rough multi-layered exterior.
Learning occurred by accumulating similar moments over long periods of time.
As teachers know, this constant effort can take its toll. Negative energy drains you. You become
exhausted and overwhelmed, unable to see the learning. After fifteen years of working with alienated
teenagers, I had to move on. But another profession didn’t work for me, and now I teach English to
technical college students, many who hated to write most of their school careers. Thankfully, I’m
able to see learning occur again. It takes tremendous effort, and lots of repetition, but it does
happen.
However, all of the challenges during my career in education pale in comparison to my wife’s. She
has taught at the same public elementary school for 24 years. She is a brilliant teacher. Her
challenges were and still are very different than mine. While generally my focus could be primarily on
my students, her efforts to create learning moments are constantly and sometimes overwhelmingly
interrupted by nonsense. Especially in the last decade. Politicians who have never taught in any sort
of classroom dictate procedure. Administrators fearing for their jobs pressure teachers, and a toxic
culture of fear ensues.
Under these extreme conditions, my wife has persevered, and often her students, even former first
graders, come back to thank her. I listened to her stories, discussed plans and methods with her,
and unfortunately, often I had to defend her. My admiration for my teacher-wife increases each year.
I tried to convey this admiration for her and for all dedicated teachers by recreating many of my
wife’s true-to-life situations in my fact-based novel No Teacher Left Standing. "All her preparation
would never fully match the needs of twenty-five, stumbling, loud, anxious first-graders and their
equally anxious parents. She could only brace for the onslaught. The daily presentations, nightly
preparation, long hours, staff meetings and conferences, a long slog to winter break and the
craziness of the holidays, but all worth it for her little ones."
The essence of teaching and learning lies in the hundreds of moments a day when students learn
something as a result of the teacher’s actions. What they learn depends on teacher experience,
temperament, and creativity, but also on administrative leadership, curriculum, political demands,
and parental influences. Additionally, learning is affected by the wealth of the district, background of
individual students, class size, classmates, social dynamic of the class, and the physical class
environment. And much more of course. It’s easy to see how the variables increase exponentially.
The current educational trend, in place for over ten years, is a simplistic top-down bottom-line
approach. A business model based on standardized tests. Students either pass the test or they
don’t. Schools either make annual yearly progress or they don’t. While this seems clear and simple
and workable, something everyone can understand, it has been a terrible mistake. Teaching
becomes all about administering tests and data collection. While the teacher is collecting the data,
the student is learning how to take tests. It drains teachers and wastes valuable instructional time.

5. There has been high profile pushback against the corporate takeover of our education system. Actor
and teacher’s son Matt Damon has famously championed the empowerment of teachers and has
called the current trends focussing on bottom-line testing "simple-minded" and "punitive" driven by
"some corporate reformer" who has "never taught anyone anything." And esteemed education
historian Diane Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education and initial supporter of No Child
Left Behind, has written extensively about the damage caused by the corporate takeover and
emphasis on testing. Her most recent book is The Death and Life of the Great American School
System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. And of course Jon Stewart, another
son of a teacher, often counters conservative arguments for so-called accountability.
My own experience with current trends stems mainly from my wife’s travails in the public school
elementary classroom. Since I have written fiction all my life, logically I use that medium to help shed
light on an often misunderstood profession. My guess is that about ninety-nine percent of teachers
are not overpaid laggards, as ultra right wing pundits want you to believe. As I try to show in No
Teacher Left Standing, this piling on of negative influences can create extremely tense situations
overcome only by the devotion, tenacity and strength of teachers protecting the essence of teaching
and learning.
I wonder if my son would have developed his proficiency at language so quickly, and I wonder how
enthused I would have been, if I had forced him to repeat "That’s a button" to a politician.
The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen.
A kingdom of isolation,
and it looks like I'm the Queen
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in;
Heaven knows I've tried
Don't let them in,
don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel,
don't let them know
Well now they know
Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore

6. Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care
what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on.
The cold never bothered me anyway
It's funny how some distance
Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me,
I'm free!
Let it go, let it go
I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You'll never see me cry
Here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let the storm rage on
My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I'm never going back, the past is in the past
Let it go, let it go
And I'll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone
Here I stand
In the light of day
Let the storm rage on

7. The cold never bothered me anyway!