Why I Teach | James Bullock

I teach because “it’s like singing … it makes me happy.” I teach because “it’s like singing … it makes me free.” That song is from a movie whose title I can’t remember, but when I first heard it, I took it on as my mantra for teaching. 

The method I use for teaching is the method in which I was taught as a kid. From my earliest days at Smother’s Elementary in far-northeast DC to the on-base military schools in Germany where my father was stationed, back to the Kelly Miller public junior high in DC as well as in an independent high school I attended in New Hampshire, I was able to participate and share my ideas within the parameters of class discussions. My teachers Robinson, Davis, Dilks, Levan, Cooke, Ghassoway, Liggins, and Stewart all allowed me to talk and engage in class. Then there was Herney, Fizpatrick, Marriott, and Cole who did the same in high school. They taught me in the Socratic style and that is how I teach here at Lab. 

Teaching is a profession where I believe using, copying, stealing (smile) if necessary is the highest compliment. I credit some of my best teachers for the teacher I am today. Every student deserves and should be afforded an opportunity to contribute to class debates and discussions. Either through open-ended or more direct questions, students should always be able to speak and share their ideas. My responsibility as a facilitator is to provide that intellectual space. My approach has always been to start the class with a question that requires introspection. It is what some call the “warm-up.” I just prefer to use a provocative question that ties back into what we have been reading. 

My goal for EVERY class is to have prepared one to three of these type of questions. EVERY class responds differently and moves in different directions, but my main teaching responsibility is to move the discussion toward the main point that I think the lesson requires. It is very important in that regard that you have only one, two, or three goals per class. Too many goals, too many off-point and off-topic digressions … not good. 

Whenever there are clubs or organizations that I facilitate like the Liberal and Conservative Issues and Answers Clubs, I use the same approach. The discussions we have can be heady; I am invariably impressed with the questions my students ask and the observations and connections they make. 

This past summer I traveled to Ghana, thanks to an Edith and Herbert Lehman Foundation Fellowship Award. It was life changing in every way possible. In the classroom, I teach with energy and emotion as well as brevity and compassion; in Ghana, I let in all the energy, emotion, and compassion of being there envelop me as a student. I wanted it ALL to come in so that I could bring that same intensity back to Lab in my teaching. 

At this stage of my career and life, I find that you need that intensity, that fire to keep each day you teach, as much as you can, an adventure. Ghana gave me that and more. Seeing the “point of no return,” where Africans were enslaved and never again to see their families and homes, made me whisper then shout, “I made it back. I made it back.” And now, unlike all those souls who did not make it back, I am able to return to my family and my home and my students and share that historical truth with them.

Written by James Bullock