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I'm obsessed with the question:

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"What makes a good teacher great?"

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I've collected 26,000 responses
to this question,

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in eight different schools,

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from the poorest schools in Los Angeles,

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to suburban schools in Texas,
to elite private schools abroad.

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And after 24 years of teaching students,

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I'm still perplexed by this question.

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Today, I'm going to teach you

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the lessons I learned
from those thousands of students,

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and learn what I found out from them
if we just listen to students.

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The thing about it is

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that during my time
of asking kids this question,

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I realized that we don't ask this question
for a particular reason:

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schools are afraid.

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Based on fear, they don't really
want to know what kids think.

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Partially because they don't think
kids will take it serious.

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I'm going to share with you
one of the most profound quotes,

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answers to this question
that I've ever received.

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[A great teacher eats apples]

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(Laughter)

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Now, I know what you're thinking.

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Doesn't this prove my point?

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"Great teachers eat apples."

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When I first saw this,
I dismissed it as silliness,

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but it appeared again and again.

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So I thought,

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"There's got to be something to this,
but what are they trying to tell me?"

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So one day, I decided
I would start eating apples.

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I ate them in the morning, at lunch,
during class, in the hall.

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Kids began to give me apples.

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The'd see me eating them
and say, "You're eating an apple!"

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"I know!"

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They would smile, and I would smile back.

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It wasn't until I understood
that kids wanted to see me

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as somebody who is willing
to receive a gift from them,

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that the apple was a symbol
for our relationship.

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There was goodness in that, and trust.

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But for a long time, I wasn't listening
and I hadn't understood this.

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[A great teacher is chill]

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They have their own language.

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When they say, "A great teacher is chill,"

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what they really mean is:
"Don't take it too serious.

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Be calm in all situations.
Don't get overwhelmed."

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(Laughter)

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They have a way of speaking to us
about what they really want to tell us,

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but we have to listen.

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Right?

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I'm the father of two grown kids.

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They're out of school now and in college.

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But when they were at home
and they were teenagers,

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I had to learn a whole new language.

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When they would come home
from school, I might ask them:

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"How was your day?"
and they would say, "Fine,"

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which usually meant:
"It was not bad. It was pretty good.

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Nothing happened eventful.

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I probably learned something.
Maybe I didn't."

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But if they came home
and said, "Fine," what they meant was:

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"It wasn't really great, but don't ask me,
because you wouldn't understand anyways."

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If I asked them how their day was
and they said "OK,"

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what they were trying to tell me was:
"It wasn't good at at all,

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and you should probably
ask me more questions,

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but don't expect me to answer."

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(Laughter)

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Kids have their own language;
they have their own way of thinking.

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They want us to think like them

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and understand
what's inside of their head.

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They have so many ways
of thinking that things are great.

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They want us to see
their world inside of them.

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But they don't want us to act like them;

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they want us to be calm
and protect them and keep them safe.

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Kids have a way of communicating,

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and adults just haven't spent
the time listening.

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But what if we did?

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What if we really listen
deeply to students?

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One of the things I noticed

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after all the years
of collecting these responses

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is that there is patterns that emerge.

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When I asked the question
of what makes a good teacher great,

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oftentimes I heard,
"A great teacher loves to teach."

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70 percent of the time, the quote
or the answer that followed was:

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"A great teacher loves to learn."

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The reason this is significant
is they don't see this happening.

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They don't see teachers
learning in front of them.

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They see them teaching,

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but they wish they would learn
along with them.

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Think about it.

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Principals hire teachers
to be content experts,

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to have all of the knowledge,
not to be learners.

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But what if they did?

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What if you showed up in the classroom,
and the teacher had something prepared,

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said, "I don't know exactly
what we're going to do today,

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but I can't wait to learn with you."

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Or that they saw their teacher struggle

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through something
they didn't actually know

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and then eventually discover the answer.

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Kids want to be inspired by this idea
that learning is important.

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But they don't see it in schools.

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[A great teacher isn't a teacher]

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When I saw this quote:
"A great teacher isn't a teacher,"

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I actually was a little bit offended.

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"What do you mean?! I'm a teacher!"

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They're like, "We know."

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What they were trying to tell me is:

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a great teacher isn't in the classroom.

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Think about it.

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Think about a time that you have
some enduring understanding,

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a time when you learned something

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that you still remember
and you use to this day,

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like throwing a baseball or riding a bike.

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I remember learning
to ride a bike from my mom

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when I was five years old.

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She took off the training
wheels of my bike,

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she got behind me, and began to push.

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And we ran, and we ran,

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until she finally let go,
and I began to ride a bike.

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That's what I did;
that's how I learned to ride a bike.

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I can still ride a bike to this day
from that moment.

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But can you imagine if I tried to learn
to bike from my mom in a classroom,

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what it would look like?

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[Copy this
Bike riding 101]

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(Laughter)

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"Son, first, you need to learn
all the parts of a bike.

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There's the pedals and the crank,
and there's a chain that turns the wheel.

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You have to have a significant force;

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once the force has enough momentum,
you can keep your balance.

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That's how a bike works.

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I want you to learn all the parts,
be able to label them and draw them.

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Then you're going to learn
and write a research paper

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about the history of bike riding.

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(Laughter)

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All the important elements,
the adventure, the development of bikes.

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And at the end of that,
you're going to take a final examination.

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If you pass and get an A,
you can ride a bike.

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(laughter)

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At five years old,
I think I would've said,

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"Never mind, I'll just walk."

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(Laughter)

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This is exactly what we do to children.

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We put them in a classroom and tell them,

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"This is what I want you to learn.
It's important. Do it."

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And kids know that it's not true,

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that we don't really value
learning this way.

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So no wonder they're disruptive,
or bored, or disengaged.

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Kids want us to be teachers
that aren't teachers.

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I want to tell you a story about Yvette.


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"A great teacher understands
that they have a life outside of school."

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They really do.

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They want us to know
that their life in school

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is way more different
than the life outside of school.

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I just thought, "Well,
how hard is your life?

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Your job is to do school;
my job is to teach."

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Yvette was a tough student,


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She was feisty, and she had
an infamous reputation.

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She walked around
with a jacket to prove it.

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Whenever she walked around,
the kids would follow.

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She would come in and sit
in the front row and lean

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just so that she can have
eye contact to intimidate me.

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She would call me "mister"
and not even use my full name.

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When she'd get up to go to the bathroom,
all the girls would follow.

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Eventually, I learnt from Yvette
what she needed to learn.

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And I thought I became
pretty good at what I was doing.

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I noticed one day, she stopped
turning in her homework.

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She had become a great leader
in the classroom:

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she turned in her homework,
she participated in class;

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she actually was quite good.

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So when this happened,
I was surprised.

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So I went up to her and said,
"Yvette, I'm very disappointed in you."

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She said, "I know mister; I'm sorry."

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"I expect it turned in tomorrow."

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Tomorrow came, and just a few sheets
of unfinished work were turned in.

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I also went up to her and said,
"Yvette, this is disappointing."

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She said, "I normally do
my homework in the bathroom

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because it's the quietest
place in my house,

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but this week the electricity
was turned off, and it's dark in there.

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I had a candle, but it burned out.

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And I'm sorry."

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She gazed down, not her prideful self.

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I had missed the point.


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I had not listened when she said,
"I'm trying, mister."

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I heard the words, but I didn't listen.

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Great teachers notice
when there's a struggle.

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They don't make assumptions
about what kids can and cannot do.

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They wait and watch,
and they rescue them when they're stuck.

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Good teachers hear them,
but they don't listen.

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I'll never forget Yvette,
and I'm grateful

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because whenever I see
an answer of a student like that,

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I remember her, and I listen.

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[A great teacher sings]

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This was the most perplexing answer
I think I ever received.

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It happened every year for ten years;
at least one student would put this.

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"A great teacher sings."

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What are they talking about?

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I can't sing.

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So I started thinking,
"Wait a second. What do they mean?"

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It wasn't until Danny turned it in
as one of his responses.

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He was the class clown.

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You know he was the one
that when we took the class picture,

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he put ear fingers behind your head.

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He would make faces
at me during lectures

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so I would laugh.

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Everything was a joke to Danny.

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So, when he turned in his responses,

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and they were all serious
and actually really good,

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I was surprised when this
showed up in the middle.

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But I knew there was something to it;
I just didn't know what.

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So the next day,
I put the agenda on the board,

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listing all the activities of the day,
the expectations, and the homework.

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And instead of actually reading them,
very seriously, I sang,

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(Laughter)

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in an operatic style, big as I could.

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The eyes of the students were wide,
their mouths dropped.

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(Laughter)

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But you know what happened
at the end of that?

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I expected pointing and laughing.

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But the classroom erupted
in cheers and applause.

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There was a standing ovation.

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I could not believe it.

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At the end of class, they walked out,
gave me high fives and handshakes,

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and here came Danny.

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He walked in, and he leaned in,
and patted me on the shoulder, and said,

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"I told you a great teacher sings."

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Great teachers make themselves
humble before their students.

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They take risks.

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They put aside their fear to try.

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They trust that they are going
to be supported if they fail.

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But they don't see this;
they see experts, remember?

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Content experts.

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What if we hire teachers

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not to be deep understanders
of content, knowledge keepers,

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but deep understanders of students?

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How our schools
would change and transform?

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But it's no wonder students don't care
or that teachers don't really listen.

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Because they have never been taught.

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But what if we did listen?

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You see, we spend three years
of a student's life,

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teaching students to read.

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About 12 years of those students' lives,
teaching them to write.

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Maybe if they're lucky,
they get a semester or half a year

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learning to public speak.

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But they get virtual zero years
of formal listening instruction.

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Zero.

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Think about it.

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When was the last time
you were at a dinner party,

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and someone asked a question:
"So what do you do for a living?"

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and the response was,
"Oh, I'm a listening teacher.

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I teach advanced listening
at the high school events,

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listening communications,
or beginning listener for elementary?"

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We don't hear this.

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Because we just don't believe
that in schools it's important,

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though in the world,

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listening is one of the number one skills
essential for business and life.

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And we just don't teach it.

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We need to listen to our students.

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In our classrooms are the future.

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The Maya Angelous, the Mother Theresas,
the Elon Musks of the world.

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And can you imagine


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if we took the time to ask those students,
"What would make a good teacher great?"

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and then we actually listened,

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we could transform schools and education.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)