Carolyn Wharton Holloway, To Teach is To Learn

Carolyn Wharton Holloway

Teaching is Education

I entered the field of education as a profession because it was the most logical choice for employment given my circumstances at the time.  As I continued my own education earning a Masters, a Doctorate, and attending Oxford University, I moved from teaching in a junior high school, to a high school, to district coordinator positions, and then to the superintendency.  I saw myself as a teacher but in reality, I was the one being taught.  (Right, Carolyn in 1960)                                  

Teach Every Child

From children I learned that one size doesn’t fit all.  I had to learn that they came from very different backgrounds, and so their views of the books we read and the topics for writing would give clues as to how they best learned.  Some were visual, others auditory, and still others performance learners.  Lessons had to be designed to address all three.  In addition, when teaching a classic like Great Expectations, I learned that a few students could read the entire book, most could read the abridged version in our anthology, and still others needed a sort of comic book version.  The beauty of it was that all could participate in discussions and have their opinions heard.  I was the learner!                        

Beware!  Words are Powerful

Public schools also taught me about the power of my own words.  A young lady approached me one day in a shopping center and said, “Do you remember me?”  I did.  She said, “I have always wanted to see you again some time because once you said to me that I was not serious about learning and was just like a butterfly that flits around. I want you to know that I am now a Head Hunter for a large corporation in Chicago.”  Wow!                                          

Create Teams!  Involve Everyone

From working with the community, I also learned that decisions had to somehow involve all voices regardless of how different they were from my own and that of the school district. Luckily, my Doctorate was in leadership, and at the time consensus-building was the format. I had been taught the time-consuming techniques of team building but, oh my, I didn’t anticipate the deep-seated feelings that had to be heard in the process. Just making a decision and being done with it seemed so easy, but then I remembered the analogy of the Saturn automobile company. Designers were told to meet with groups and design the best engine, best exhaust system, best lighting, etc. They came together and the whole design didn’t work. When they put one individual from each specialty area on teams, they came up with a number of viable choices and the Saturn was born, at least for a while. I learned that team building takes time but must involve everyone in the process. In this case we were mandated to integrate sex education into the curriculum.  Oh! Those were lively times! 

New Ideas Take Groundwork

After leaving the public school system, I served on a think tank made up of five people from all around the country.  Our task was to develop a plan to infuse the latest computer technology for learning into a small town’s schools.  After visiting schools and businesses all around the country, we thought we had a fool-proof plan.  We, again, became the learners when we presented our plan to the coal mining town.  A woman stood up and said, “If what we have been doing was good enough for my father and my husband, why do you think you know what is best for my son?  You aren’t even from here.”  Ouch!  Change is difficult and takes time.  We forgot to be teachers.

While I was serving on the think tank, another member and I saw a need to work with others in education, businesses, and communities, so we created workshops that dealt with consensus building, critical thinking, and team building.  We hoped to share techniques that were effective and avoid those that were not.                          

Never Stop Teaching and Learning

When I moved to Utah, I knew immediately that I could again use my educational skills.  I began teaching college courses to better understand the culture by asking questions learned in courses about higher cognitive questioning. Ask college students and they will tell you like it is and more!  I learned to listen, and it wasn’t always easy.  Diversity in any form did not seem to exist here.  Teachers must be learners too.

And so it goes. As I live in a community and visit places around the world, I can teach but I must be the learner first.  Politics and common sense are for the next chapter!

Editor’s Note:  Please refer to the recent post Class of 1960 Aces with Careers in Education  for more information on Carolyn’s teaching career.  Other positions she held were in the Turner, KS,  School District in Wyandotte County, teaching college credit courses in English at the high school level; serving as District Supervisor of Language Arts and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction; and working as an instructor at Kansas City Community College.