Dear Mr. Gaumont
Categories: Léo’s Insights 2024-2025
I have never been a fan of standardized testing or evaluations, as I simply refuse to believe there is such a thing as a standard or average person. I was a successful teacher, well liked by most students, respected by my colleagues and despised by my enemies. I took professional and personal development very seriously, as I do today. I was completely in favour of having my students evaluate me and my teaching, but I found the standard evaluation form my school had all but totally useless. So, I came up with an alternative idea that my colleagues refused to follow.
At the end of every semester, once exams were completed and final marks awarded, I would ask my students to do one more assignment. I reminded them that marks were already finalized and submitted so this last exercise would not affect their mark at all. I would then ask them to write me a “Dear Mr. Gaumont” letter. I told them to let fly: praise me, curse me, offer advice for improvements, whatever they wished to communicate. This proved to be a very good way to get insight on my techniques as well as encouragement to improve.
Those who say teaching is a thankless job have not walked in my shoes. I received thousands of Dear Mr. Gaumont letters as well as a host of other accolades for having done a good job. Of them all, the most common thing I was thanked for was for having taught my students how to learn. Although I should have delighted in such a sentiment, it actually broke my heart for two reasons. When did learning have to be taught? This is an ability we are all born with, not something that has to be taught. To learn how to learn makes no sense. I chalked this common error to not understanding how natural learning is and to missing the fact that I had only provided them with opportunity to exercise their God-given ability to be able to learn.
The biggest reason this accolade disturbed me was that these students were in grades 10, 11 and 12, and I was being thanked for something that should have been happening all along. What had occurred, or rather not occurred, in the previous 10 to 12 years? Something was definitely wrong with the system.
One more thing I learned from this exercise was that the student I had poured the most time and energy into usually gave me the harshest evaluation. I have come to learn this is normal, even if hard to accept.
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