Learning and teaching: where does Einstein's concept of learning about "service of our fellow man" enter into our discussions about student achievement?

My work as an instructional leader was transformed by an "Aha!" that sprang to my consciousness while a student in Carolyn Downey's walkthrough workshop. When I attempt to explain this transformation I'm embarrassed, because it seems now so patently obvious. It was simply, and profoundly, this: concentrate on the students, not the teacher, when observing in classrooms. Which, with my apologies to the editor, is why I must opine that the theme of this month's Leadership is backwards. We should stop using the phrase "Teaching and learning" and start using the phrase "Learning and teaching."

Having confessed that I used to put the teacher's actions ahead of the students' learnings, I might as well reveal another personal lack of insight. In October or November of my first year of teaching, I summoned the courage to ask a colleague, "What should the students be learning?" I really had very little idea, even though I'd been teaching away and everything, basically, seemed to be going pretty well.

In 2005, of course, there's a pretty easy answer to that question, "What should students be learning?" We can just point to the state content standards, neatly arranged by content and grade level: those are what students should be learning! And, they are, but are the standards what ought to come first?

Albert Einstein wrote in 1954 of what he considered an evil of modern life--that the "individual feels more than ever dependent on society, but it is not felt in the positive sense, as an organic connectivity or a sense of security, but rather more as a type of endangerment to his natural rights, or even his economic existence."

And he suggested an antidote: namely, an "education geared toward social goals. Alongside the development of individual abilities, the education of the individual aspires to revive an ideal that is geared toward the service of our fellow man, and that needs to take the place of the glorification of power and outer success."

Where does learning about "service of our fellow man" enter into our discussions about learning and teaching? Is it a topic discussed at collaborative curricular meetings or in our discussions of test score results--I mean, student achievement? Although it may be considered a radical thought in this age of accountability, it only takes a cursory glance at history to see how the origins of American education center on the concept of service.

"The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are ... a very high goal: free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind" (Einstein, 1954). Such an idea provides an expanded context to the phrase, no child left behind.

Aha!

Einstein quotes from: Einstein, Albert, 1954, "An Ideal of Service to Mankind," retrieved from the "This I Believe" Web site maintained by National Public Radio.

George Manthey is a professional learning executive for ACSA.