You Only Get Out What You Put In? How Nutri-Grain Lied to Us.
No, I am not talking about the sugar content of cereal. I am only concerned with their slogans and how it affects teachers. For years we have been told by Nutri-Grain ads, “You only get out what you put in!” But, this statement is completely untrue. Below is the image that I wanted to place at the beginning. It’s not attention grabbing, but it breaks down the issue into hard science.
As we can see, energy goes in and energy comes out. However, there is a loss of energy from that original input. Keep this diagram in your head as you read the rest of this post.
As a teacher, it is my job (as I see it) to impart knowledge on the fresh young minds of today. My goal is to give them as much information as I possibly can with the hope that some of it sticks to the mushy business above their shoulders. And when it comes to teaching, unlike Nutri-Grain, I do not expect to get back exactly what I deposited. (And if you can do a magic trick where Nutri-Grain goes in and comes out exactly the same, I am going to be a little impressed).
My expectation is that students will take the information I feed them, discard the chunks that don’t apply to them, and create new chunks of relative information to be stored away for a rainy day. The issue is that little bit of information, that they chucked away, meant something to me.
What they don’t teach you at university, is that teaching is draining. I’m not talking about the fact that you are tired at the end of each day because you have been running around fuelled by only a banana and some biscuits. I mean draining in the sense that every time you teach something to a student, you give them a little piece of you.
Every day we give and give and give to these humans who rely on us for information. Every day we wrap up a small piece of ourselves and gift it to the students, hoping that they may be able to re-gift it in the future.
Don’t get me wrong, this article is not about teaching being hard and draining. I love the fact that I get to share a piece of myself on a daily basis. It may be a little narcissistic, but it works for me. I want to share me with the world. We should all want to share ourselves with the world. What I am aiming to do with this article is to raise awareness for, and tip my hat (literally/metaphorically/symbolically) to, teachers everywhere.
I think that a common perception of teachers is that we just learn a whole lot of content and deliver it to our students in neat, regurgitable packages. That we teach from the textbook each day to make sure that our students achieve top marks on standardised tests. That our educational interaction with students is a give and take scenario. I am sorry to break it to you, but this is not how (good) teaching goes down.
A teacher learns their content through years of studying and then has to figure out the best way to get it from their head to the student’s head. A teacher takes a class on an educational journey to work out the answers and the questions. A teacher turns up to class each day working as hard as they can to achieve a give and give relationship. Because a good teacher is also a good student, learning every day of their life.
It is hard sometimes, watching that little bit of energy get lost in the conversion (remember the science above). Seeing that small piece of yourself float away, maybe to never return. However, it is also one of the most exciting parts of teaching. Which information will stick? What is important to this group of students? What will they teach me next?
I suggest an ammendment to the ancient Nutri-Grain slogan. “You never get out exactly what you put in, and that’s great!”
Never expect that what goes in will come out exactly the same. Because teaching is about transformation. Transformation of knowledge, of self, and of content.
They should really call us Transformers.
