A teacher is a gardener, carefully weeding and feeding or fertilizing the garden that is a student. A teacher is a guide to show the students the way through the jungles of academia. A teacher is the wind beneath the wings of students, giving them the support and force they need to soar to the high places. A teacher is a sculptor, a lighthouse keeper, an orchestra conductor, a flying buttress. Teachers can be compared to many things as one considers a teacher’s relationship to students. All of these metaphors highlight a different aspect of the teacher/student relationship. The very fact that a teacher can be compared effectively to so many things is a testament to the many roles that a teacher and does play in the life and development of the student.
It may be slightly unconventional (that’s actually what I am going for) but I imagine myself as a hairstylist and my students are my clients. Without exception, everyone can benefit from a hairstylist. Even those who are exceptionally talented and can dye, curl, cut, and style their own hair will benefit from the perspective and help of a trained professional. Some people are very aware of their hair needs and visit their stylist on a regular basis. Others are pitiably unaware of their need of help; perhaps they don’t even know where to turn for help. It’s the same with students. Some students are incredibly capable, but still benefit from the perspective and guidance of a trained professional teacher. Others desperately need such help, but don’t know they need it or don’t know how to get it.
The services of one type of hairstylist or another are available to virtually everyone. Some who live in the right place, have the right family background, and the money to do so can access the best of the best. They can go to the designer salons with brand name, high-end products and highest quality tools and facilities. These people are truly blessed. They love their hairstylists and feel confident about their own hair. There are others, however, who do not have such opportunities. They may not have the know-how, or money, or location to be able to access such great resources. They may receive cheap cuts from students in training or try to do it themselves. They are often frustrated with their hair and have a keen sense of its inadequacy. The sad reality is that education often follows a similar pattern. I believe that it shouldn’t, but things like family situation, education of parents, physical location, and wealth all effect the quality of education that students receive. Those who do not have access to the best of the best in education are often frustrated and dissatisfied with their experience. I want everyone to have beautiful hair, quality products, and top-of-the-line resources available to them.
Hairstylists must work with whatever they are given. Clients come from different situations with different hair histories and hair types. Hairstylists must take the raw material they are given and make something beautiful out of it. A client with healthy, untreated hair has the potential for a different kind of outcome that a client with damaged, stringy, over-treated hair. It’s the same in teaching. Students come with different backgrounds, histories, and readiness for learning. Teachers must take what they are given and make something beautiful of it. Sometimes the resulting beauty is best appreciated when one knows intimately the raw material and can appreciate how far the student, or hair, has come.
What a hairstylist can do with a client is determined in large measure by the goals that the client has for his or her particular hair and image. Again, I see a parallel with teaching. Teachers may have goals for their students that will never be realized if those goals aren’t shared by the students. A good teacher works with the students to set and reach goals. The teacher should give input, but will, ultimately, be most successful as the teacher helps the student reach goals the student has set for him or herself. A hairstylist may do something innovative and impressive with a client’s hair, but the client is not likely to be pleased if this new look is not what the client wanted. Similarly, a teacher may coerce students into producing a good product, reading a good book, or developing a certain skill, but the students will not be pleased with the experience if that’s not what they wanted in the first place. Teachers and hairstylists will both be more successful as they work together with students and clients to help them achieve the goals and objectives they desire.
A final point of similarity: hairstylists, like teachers, want their clients to be able to reproduce the style at home and on their own. A good stylist will help clients find the look they want and then teach them how to reproduce that look at home. The stylist will show the clients how to use the tools and maybe even allow them to practice. The stylist will be sure clients are familiar with products and what they do. If the stylist is genuinely caring about clients and teaches them to be successful with their hair at home, the clients will feel good about themselves and will continue to return to that stylist for advice, teaching, and maintenance. A good teacher is no different. A good teacher will help students develop the skills they need to meet their goals. The teacher will model the skill and then allow students to practice the skill while receiving helpful and appropriate feedback. The teacher will be sure students are familiar with resources available to them, what those resources do, and how to use them. A genuinely caring teacher will want students to be able to use skills acquired in the classroom in novel settings. These teachers help students feel confident about their skills. Their students will feel successful and return to their teachers when they need further instruction, training, and advice.
I want to be a good hairstylist. I need to continue to develop myself as a teacher, perfecting my skills and staying up with current trends, thinking, and discoveries in my field. Even if I do not work in a posh salon, I don’t want my teaching to be the caliber of a student in training, or worse, a beauty school drop-out. My students deserve better than that. Like Frankie Avalon so poignantly put it, “Beauty school drop-out, no one wants their hair done by a fool.”
I guess I could say I espouse a belief in Equal Opportunity Cosmetology. My teaching philosophy: Beautiful Hair for Everyone! Because We’re Worth It!
