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Underwood: I'm a teacher, not an educator

My approach to life has been shaped by my profession as a teacher.








Robert Underwood, For PDN Published 12:24 p.m. ChT April 14, 2017 Robert Underwood(Photo: Courtesy of Robert Underwood)


I am a teacher. I am not an educator. Some may see this as a distinction without a difference, but I think there is a great difference between teachers and educators. When teachers are asked what their profession is, they reply teacher. When principals and ancillary professionals are asked what their profession is, they usually reply educator.

Donât rush to see if there is a dictionary distinction, listen to how professionals in the education business describe themselves.

In the excitement over my last column, I was comforted by one student I had as a first-year teacher in 1972. He posted that he was a proud GW graduate and that I was one of his favorite teachers. He was âafraid to come to class unprepared because you were so passionate about teaching.â

I enjoy the interaction, the disruption, the challenging of assumptions that I orchestrate and participate in as a teacher in order to promote learning and self-reflection. Sometimes, I do this through provocation and many times through humor.

My approach to teaching and learning is reflected in Piagetâs learning theory â in order to learn, you need to go through a period of disequilibrium in order to reach a new equilibrium. Our existing framework is challenged, provoked and engaged through the intervention of a teacher who plans those experiences through assignments, experiences and interaction.

Itâs like life experience, but with a guide. John Dewey did tell us that education is life. Anybody who says they learned without discomfort or aggravation never really learned anything.

My philosophy as a teacher is tied to learning theory. I believe that my responsibility is to move everybody further than they were when I first encountered them. This means everyone who comes to my class.

But I feel most responsible to those for whom my efforts will make a difference in their success. My passion is not to work with the best and brightest. They donât really need my intervention.

My personal challenge is to help those who most need it become better and brighter. This is a teaching philosophy that believes in the power of human intervention to improve the lives of others and who take this responsibility seriously in their everyday classroom activities. I learned this from my mother and her many stories as a teacher starting in pre-World War II Guam.

I experienced this with teachers like Mrs. Brisson (my fifth-grade teacher in California) who saw a slightly confused little boy who came from a faraway place. She assigned a classmate to be my guide and we compared our knowledge of Spanish and Chamorro. A few years ago, I found notes from a parent conference in which she discussed my âbilingualismâ and my religious intensity with my mother. She was interested in ensuring that her intervention contributed to my learning.

My approach to life has been shaped by my profession as a teacher. I took it with me to Congress, where I had over 400 students, most of whom seemed to suffer from attention-deficit issues. I use it in how I manage my staff, how I run institutions, how I chaired boards and commissions and even how I write columns. I experienced great successes and sometimes spectacular failures. But a good teacher learns as well as teaches.

Excellence in teaching is not based on excellent students. Excellence is educating the first college graduate in a family, providing opportunity to conduct research on a localized situation, prodding minds to challenge their assumptions while you enhance their aspirations. Depending on the day and the teacher, excellence in education is alive and well in institutions like JFK and GW as well as Father Duenas and the Academy of our Lady. When it comes to enhancing lifeâs chances in Guam, it is especially alive and well at GCC and UOG.

Robert Underwood is president of the University of Guam and Guamâs former delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.


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