The Galloway Teacher's Hierarchy of Being

(Not unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy -- Pyramid -- of Needs*)

At the lowest level of being a Galloway teacher is daily survival: maintaining a grade book; remembering the schedule; negotiating the press of adolescents in the West Wing Hall.

The next level relates to pedagogy and best teaching practice. Once a teacher has grown reasonably confident about day-to-day survival, he or she can focus on building a repertoire of lessons, refining classroom management skills, differentiating instruction, and generally improving teaching performance and effectiveness.

The penultimate level is the teacher-student relationship (also teacher-teacher). If students are to learn, and if teachers are to reap any of the rewards of their craft, there must be a social relationship based on mutual respect and acceptance.

The highest level – the pinnacle of Galloway being – is the Galloway Way. The Galloway Way that can be named is not the true Galloway Way. The Galloway Way draws children to learning without compulsion. The Galloway Way possesses children without holding them. Through the Galloway Way, children become who they are within a social matrix of children learning from adults and adults learning from children.


*Maslow’s hierarchy has as its lowest level the biological needs – air, water, and food. If these requirements are met, a human being can seek to satisfy safety needs – shelter from the storm, safety from physical and emotional harm or abuse. Once one is fed and safe, one can think about belonging – to families, friendships, partnerships, and societies. Belonging frees one to have a positive and relational image of one’s self. This, in turn, allows one to love fully and to be loved. At the peak of the pyramid is the striving of all human beings to complete themselves; to grow always; to know one’s self; to be fully human. In Maslow’s words, the highest level of humanness is to be “self-actualizing.”