A Teacher’s Smile
Swen Nater

I’d like to introduce you to my ninth-grade English teacher. She was about 5’7”, not  a pound overweight, had dark hair that was pulled up neatly and secured with an expensive pin, dressed sharply but not to draw attention, was cultured, and had that “librarian look” complete with the small glasses low on the nose.

Class always started on time and was packed with learning, guided by a carefully-organized lesson plan. Her class was a safe place, a place where every student felt freedom to share ideas and even think out of the box. For example, some of us questioned traditional punctuation and were complimented for it.

You might be surprised when you learn about her most effective teaching tool. Oh, she had the standard blackboard, charts, and books, but her most powerful teaching tool was her smile. One smile from her and I was transformed from a simple English student to a thinker, researcher, and future genius. Here’s an example.

One day I came to class early. She was sitting at her desk doing work. When she saw me walk in, she put down her pen, turned, looked at me, smiled, and said, “Hello, Swen.” I reciprocated as I put my books down on my desk and walked over to her.

“I’ve got something exciting to tell you,” I said.

“Then tell me,” she replied.

“Well,” I continued, “Remember that vocabulary word, ‘incredulous?’ I used it yesterday.”

She got a huge smile on her face as she looked me right in the eye. Then she said, “Well done. Use a word three times and it’s yours.”  I have remembered that ever since and it works.

What happened in that magical moment was, a connection was made between my teacher and me through a smile. I bragged about something I did and wanted her to be proud of me. Her smile told me she was proud of me and believe in me. The old adage is true,

“The shortest distance between two people is a smile.”

There is not enough room in this article to present every situation where her smile motivated and energized her students, but I will present three that any teacher can apply every day. Those that already use them have experienced the power. Those that don’t, will.

Before Class (The Smile for Greeting)
My college basketball coach, John Wooden, was always the first at practice. Every day, he made sure to stand by the ball rack so that, when any player stepped on the court, he would smile and say, “Hello” and call us by name. My English teacher did the same. No matter what was going on in my life at the time and no matter if I didn’t really want to be there that day, her smile told me, “I’m so glad to see you. I’m so pleased you came to class today.” I felt important in her life and, because of that, she gave me the confirmation, I was worth something and had value. 

To fully see the importance of the before-class smile, consider if it didn’t happen. She could have communicated, “This is a job and I have to be here.” Instead I heard her say, “This is where I want to be.”

During Class (The Smile for Learning)
On the board, my teacher wrote, “The boy kicked the ball with his foot.” Then she asked us to take two minutes and break it down into its grammatical parts. For me, everything was easy except those last three words. I knew the word, “with,” was a preposition and it seemed the three words composed a prepositional phrase. When she asked us to stop and tell her the parts, hands raised for the articles, subject, verb, and direct object. But, as we offered what we thought the other three words were, one-by-one, she said, “Wrong.” Then it hit me. The phrase modified the verb, “kicked,” and had to be an adverbial phrase. I raised my hand and gave my answer. My teacher didn’t say a word; she just smiled and wrote on the board. The feeling I had then was so intense, I thought, ‘I’ll work ten hours for another one of those smiles.’ For that situation, no verbal compliment would have had near the impact.

End of Class (The Smile for Parting)
My English teacher always watched the clock carefully. With one minute remaining, after we packed our books and sat looking at the front, she would always smile and say something positive.

I don’t remember any of her words, but I do remember that her smile said, “Thank you for today. I had a wonderful time with you. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

Think if she had not smiled at the end of class. I may have heard, “This hour is over. I’ve done my job. Have a nice day. Please leave and make room for my next class.” 

Conclusion
About to change the battery in my car the other day, I realized I didn’t have the proper wrench and had to go to the hardware store to by a set. No toolbox is complete without a set of wrenches. A teacher has many motivational tools in her pedagogical toolbox but it’s not complete if a “set” of smiles is not in it. In the set are as many types of smiles as there are situations that occur while teaching, three of which are: The Smile for Greeting, The Smile for Learning, and the Smile for Parting.

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” Mark Twain