Learning From the Redemptive Moxie of Excellent Teachers

This chapter describes the concept of “Central Tendency of Standardization” to explain why many excellent teachers feel so disenfranchised by the system. Additionally, it describes the teaching practice of four excellent teachers to illustrate what excellent teaching looks like and to argue for why instructional resistance through excellent teaching is the most effective way for teachers to improve the system. The purpose of this chapter is to give teachers a way to resist the worst tendencies of the system through their teaching practice to better serve the students in their care. This chapter helps readers understand how instructional resistance flows from teaching excellence and how excellent teaching is a distillation of a small number of dispositional qualities and pedagogical principles all truly great teachers share.