Talking Like a Teacher

On October 13, 2021, I co-presented a lecture for Third Age Learning Guelph on Finding Trusted Sources and Evaluating Information. 

My fellow speaker and I rehearsed quite a few times prior to our talk, and one thing she recommended to me was not to "talk like a teacher". 

"This isn't an audience of educators; these aren't your students", she cautioned me.

What exactly does that mean? I had a discussion with my husband about the concept and he had a lot of insightful points to make. Technically, he should get "co-authorship credit" for today's blog post.

"Talking like a teacher" can be either an insult or compliment. The comment might reflect more on the speaker than the recipient. 

Teacher Talk Seen As a Bad Thing

My husband theorizes that if someone has had a bad experience conversing with an educator, or a negative opinion of school, then saying someone talks like a teacher is meant to be bad. It suggests that the speaker is condescending, or speaks with excessive authority or from a position "on high". When my siblings were younger and I was in teacher's college, they used to complain that I sounded like a teacher when I talked. I never asked them to elaborate; I just ignored their griping. (After all, my goal was to become a teacher and if I sounded like one, that was good, right?)

The negative connotation of "speaking like a teacher" can even be conveyed from educator to educator, especially if the teaching location is considered. Secondary school teachers sometimes look down on elementary school teachers. High school teachers may judge the way their counterparts communicate as being too juvenile or simplistic, scoffing at the terms or turns of phrases used. (e.g. "boys and girls" / "friends" / "1-2-3, eyes on me!" / "Time to tidy up!") This week I had two separate conversations with colleagues about secondary school teachers dismissing elementary teacher expertise and spoken words because of the panel they taught in was considered "less than" rigorous. (This isn't true of all secondary school teachers; when I had the privilege this past summer of working with a cross-division team of teacher-librarians to revise a board document on school librarianship, there was such an incredible new appreciation of the challenges each type of teacher-librarian dealt with and increased respect on all sides. We are still in touch with each other and so appreciate the time we spent learning from and with each other.)

Teacher talk may also be seen as too exclusive and elitist. I recall my husband asking me to "tone down" the amount of edu-jargon he predicted I would use when I went to our children's parent-teacher interviews when they were in public school. He didn't want me asking about specific examples of "learning goals and success criteria" or "diverse assessment tools". I can't say how successful I was at eliminating my educator vocabulary. It's hard, but not impossible, to "turn off" your "teacher brain". I know that teaching is a significant part of my identity, but our notions of self can evolve over time, as it will probably do when I (eventually) retire. 

Teacher Talk Seen As a Good Thing

Ironically enough, one of the compliments that my co-presenter and I received after our lecture was that someone said they could tell we were teachers. This was intended positively. I think the participant meant that Nina and I were able to convey our message in an understandable fashion, and were able to clearly articulate complex ideas in a way that made sense. We sounded like experts, even though we began our lecture by reminding our listeners that we were not experts on the topic and were only sharing things we had learned ourselves and from others over time.

Talking like a teacher also seems to convey a level of confidence. When I first volunteered for Maker Festival Toronto (before I joined the organization team), I was asked to take a leader-like position on my first day, because it sounded like I knew what I was doing. (The secret, of course, is that educators can fake this kind of assertiveness and knowledge quite well. If our students or the community don't believe we know what we are talking about, they might be less likely to listen.) 

Final Thoughts

I wonder if other professions are ever commented on in similar ways. Has anyone ever said to someone "You talk too much like a doctor" or "You sound like a lawyer"? I was curious if anyone had searched this, so I wanted to see what came up when I typed "talk like ..." into a search engine. I saw "talk like a pirate", "talk like a baby" and "talk like Yoda" - so much for that line of investigation!