First off, let us be clear, power and authority are not the same. Authority is awarded and legitimate in its influence on students. It is dependent upon the students for its existence and demands a moral component for its distinction. As a teacher, authority’s acceptance by students is often based on a superiority of knowledge, experience and overall status. Authority’s foundation is in the seriousness they convey accomplished as easily through humor as it is through discipline. Power, on the other hand, is not awarded by students, it is demanded by the enforcer. Though power is also based on superiority, it is not a well-accepted superiority by both parties. Rather than a superiority of knowledge and experience, power’s foundation is often a superiority of stature, size, age, or exertion of force to command a student’s actions. Power is often sustained by fear, while authority is sustained by respect.

Although authority is not a given, teachers must seek to gain it. It is not something that can plant its root halfway through a class; it is often early in the teacher/student relationship when its foundation is made. Teacher’s must create a distinction early with students and should not be lead to expect that authority can be gained by befriending a student. A teacher must remain unbiased and display equal attentiveness to all students. Distinction between students can be accomplished as purposely as dress attire, desk placement, or vocalization or it can be attain by means that seem natural, such as a teacher’s insight in a topic or life experiences, though this natural insight demands a mastery of the given subject.

In order to sustain authority, a teacher should avoid flaunting it or insisting upon it. In fact, declaring your authority among student ironically strips it from you, replacing it with power. Genuine authority is often unspoken of, it is the sense of power that drives a teacher to verbally acknowledge themselves as authorities. Teachers should avoid the appearance of dictatorship in their class and should encourage students to participate in the functioning of the class and create their own environment under your close watch and guidelines. This is what creates a learning environment.

Recently, the phrase “infectious learning” has captivated my teaching paradigm. I considered the implications that infectious learning has on us as teachers. I believe it to mean that we never stop being students. We will hear over and over again that we are to be role models for students because they are always watching us. A sobering thought for teacher is “do I model a thirst for knowledge and what it means to be studious?”

A teacher’s thirst for knowledge in a subject is often more captivating that the subject itself. What are we telling students when our shelves are free of textbooks or when we only become enthusiastic when the subject of sports comes up in conversation? We are saying that the information we have learned and that they are learning is dull and not captivating, and to be certain, boredom is every bit as infectious as enthusiasm. However, it is not just enthusiasm that drives learning.

Learning is only accomplished when the teacher knows what they are teaching. This statement seems pretty obvious yet often overlooked by educators who fail to learn the material beyond what they are lecturing on. For example, a teacher may fulfill curriculum requirements by teaching the Ideal Gas Law is pv=nRT but fails to heighten the learning process if they do not know its implications on everyday events. Mastering a subject means you are able to reveal its relevance to students. Often, students have no interest in learning unless they understand its relevance to them. After all, what good is knowing how to tell time unless you know its relevance to recess break.