Teaching is like a pizza

Teaching is like a pizza. It is shaped like a circle, so it has no beginning and no end, it is continuous. It is easy to slice into as many pieces you need so you can share with everyone, and everyone gets the same thing, some crust, and some center. It is made up of layers, and you can add as many toppings as the class needs, or wants.

First you start with the crust, the bare bones of the curriculum. Crust is good. A strong base to build on, filling, tasty-like bread and you can survive on it. Of course if all you have is bread and water, it starts to feel like you are in prison. You can survive, but it is not very fun.

So you add sauce. You can add tomato sauce (the expected), or you can surprise everyone by putting on a garlic white sauce, or a tomato sauce filled with spices, or with chunks of tomatoes in the sauce. Then you add cheese. Mmmm… cheese. Many kids love just plain cheese pizza. They thrive on it. They could eat it every day and never get tired of it. Of course, they may not know any different. You could add other cheese, maybe sprinkle in some parmesan with the mozzarella cheese, or add some cheddar, just a little bit to see if they like that.

Of course you can add pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, olives, peppers, onions, pineapple, tomatoes, chicken, or a variety of other ingredients. Let them try a taste. Maybe they will decide they love it, or hate it. Maybe they will pick everything off, look at it, sniff it, leave it on the plate and just eat the cheese pizza. Maybe next time though, instead of just sniffing it, they may try a taste, or maybe not. Perhaps they will see their friends eating their pizza with anchovies on it and think, if John likes it, maybe I should try it.

Teaching is like making that pizza. You have a plain curriculum you are given. It is good, basic, filling, but can get boring after awhile. You start to add things to your curriculum, and make it more appealing, more nutritionally diverse, and more tasty. You find a program that almost everyone likes and is happy with, like that plain cheese pizza. Then you can try to add more. You don’t have to, but you can. Like the pizza toppings, not everyone will embrace everything you do. They may pick and choose what you offer, look at them, put them aside, and maybe think about them. Sometimes they will learn something new right away and really like it, other times it may take them a couple of times experiencing it, looking at it, trying it out, before they will understand it and learn it. Sometimes they will ignore it until they see a friend enjoying it, then decide they want to try it out too. Sometimes they will never like it, but at least you have opened up the door for them to be able to explore, to experience something new.

Of course it is also possible to pile too many things on a pizza, where it just is overwhelming and looks unappealing, and tastes gross too. If a teacher has too many things piled on, they all get lost in the pile, and the students are overwhelmed and give up on learning anything. While individually or in small groups these toppings may work well together, too many spoil the plan. The trick it to try out different combinations to find the combination that works the best for the group of kids you have, with the realization that what toppings everyone likes this year, may not be the favorites for next years kids. This year’s class might love pizza with pepperoni and olives, while next year’s class is more Canadian bacon and pineapple. You just never know until you let them try it out.