Teaching is one of the most important and influential professions around. It’s the job of teachers to bring knowledge, understanding, and betterment to the people around them, to mold minds and characters.
In this regard, the nature of teaching must always be questioned and held to a high standard. Is teaching an art, or a craft? Can it be both?
What is Teaching?
There are dozens if not hundreds of different ways to define teaching, depending on who you ask. However, most of them have to do in one way or another with imparting knowledge, values, and understanding to others within the bounds of personalized instruction.
This means even from the most basic definitions, teaching seems to involve both aspects of the art-versus-craft debate. Broadly speaking, teaching requires a high level of creativity, tools, communication skills, and decision-making on the same level as that of an artist. It also requires skills like an eye for detail, technical knowledge, and patience, which are all associated with craftsmanship.
Trying to figure out whether teaching as a whole is an art or a craft becomes especially difficult when viewed through this duality.
Teaching as an Art
Some might point to the creativity and breadth of thinking involved in teaching, and the personal relationships established between teachers and students, arguing that teaching is more of an art than it is a craft. All too often in this day and age teaching is treated as a mere technical skill rather than a relationship-driven art form and can suffer when reduced to pure sufficiency.
For example, individualized instruction is of utmost importance when it comes to teaching, particularly when it comes to elementary education. Each student is different, and a teacher must be able to recognize the personal details of each student and help them the best they can. This is an art.
It calls not just for courses and textbooks, but a deeper understanding between two people, the teacher and the student. Teachers must be able to communicate their knowledge in a way that is both engaging and enlightening, able to make their students think about the material in new and interesting ways. If a teacher can manage this and personalize this process for each student even better, then they have a far great chance of success.
Teaching as a Craft
At the same time, teaching is also a craft. It requires a trained eye for detail and the ability to take enormous amounts of information, both concrete and abstract, and distill them into useful lessons.
It also requires a certain amount of technical knowledge and experience in order to make those lessons work. Without this knowledge and experience, a teacher has no base from which to work, regardless of how creative they are. The craft of teaching also involves the ability to effectively lead a classroom and manage the behavior of students in order to maximize the learning experience.
This is especially true in the upper grades, where students are able to express themselves with more freedom, powerful insight, and personality. No matter how creative a teacher can be, they will be unable to fully empower their students with the right tools if they cannot manage the behavior of those same students. Finally, no matter how creative a teacher is, they will simply lack the knowledge required to teach well if they do not understand the material they are teaching.
Every teacher needs a base knowledge of the materials and subjects they are teaching in order to form the framework for their lessons and be able to convey them effectively to their students.
Conclusion
When taken as a whole, teaching seems to be firmly situated somewhere between an art and a craft. It is a process that requires far more than creativity or technical skill to be successful.
It requires a fusion of both, and a prepared and focused understanding of both art and craft in order to be any good. Qualified and creative teachers are often the lifeblood of any educational system, and without them, their students will be unable to fully understand the topic. Ultimately, it is up to each individual teacher to determine whether teaching is an art or a craft for them.