#04 Halt! Who goes there?

My (apparent) secrets about how, as a former teacher, I can remember student names years later. Is it because of total involvement?

Image by freepik

One of my former students asked a question in the follow up comments to the first piece I published. Read it here.

This is the question he posed: My question is, finally, … you have had possibly 20 years of teaching, perhaps more. So, about a 1,000 boys, and yet you are still able to remember so many of them. How do you do it? Is it training, is it because we were a memorable year group, and do you still remember the people from later batches?

This got me thinking and I’m just going to jot down the thoughts in bullets as they occur.

• Each batch of students numbered between 40-45. We taught different subjects in multiple classes. We had a few weeks, maybe days to try and remember names. Many teachers resorted to using “Roll numbers” without getting into names. Some of us decided that we were teaching human beings with identities and therefore we needed to know much more about them than their ID Cards. Personally, I would carry a “grid card” into the classroom. This had a drawing of all the desks from the teacher’s point of view and the names of the students pencilled in. We ran the risk of smarties changing places to confuse the teacher, but I was lucky and managed to connect face and name fairly quickly. I carried one grid card for each batch that I taught.

• Since all students were dressed in the same uniform the only distinguishing factor would be some obvious physical feature or even a behaviour, a smile or something that gave that person an identity. Observation was my tool of choice.

• My classes were, reportedly, quite a lot of fun. This was brought in through humour, shared jokes, stories and anecdotes which connected names to people. Also, talents were aplenty. This gave one the option of recalling someone by their special talent displayed. We had karate champs, magicians, singers, dancers, debaters, sportsmen, track stars, poets and superbrains. Nicknames quickly floated around, aiding memory. Decades later I can still recall the nicknames and why they were there in the first place. I am sure the students had nicknames for their teachers too.

• Projects and exhibitions were also a means to learn names quickly and remember them for life. Working cheek by jowl with your students you can’t avoid a little joke or some yelling to get some task completed. One of the biggest ‘projects’ I had, was more of a lifestyle. I ran the Scout troop for several years. Boys would go camping with the troop and would literally learn to live together, contribute to the camp and earn their space. You never forget these people or even their parents who take the risk of leaving their kids in your hands.

• I think, for some teachers, involvement would be the key to remembering names. I was fortunate to have a few other skills so I was always involved - the football team, the Scouts, the school newspaper, the annual dramatic production, inter-school festivals, music performances. In another piece of writing I will put down how some of our best teachers were jacks-of-all-trades! But it really helped to remember the students as persons and not just names or numbers.

And no, it was not because a particular batch was memorable. Each group of students had some dynamic that defined them. All batches tend to think they were the last of the best batches. But that’s not true. Every batch had its fair share of outstanding characters - for good or bad - that helped one to remember them way into the future. And vice versa, you know you made a difference when you get an invitation to someone’s wedding, or their child’s christening, or just a catch-up coffee invite when that former student drops into your city.