In one class that Doug observed, the teacher spent several minutes debating a student about why he didn’t have a pencil. Another divided her students into two groups to practice multiplication together, only to watch them turn to the more interesting work of chatting. A single quiet student soldiered on with the problems, alone. The teacher looked the other way, and Doug couldn’t watch the rest. He walked out the door. Teaching did not have to feel that way, like suffocating slowly.
