Do Teachers Have Eyes in the Back of their Heads?

Do Teachers Have Eyes in the Back of their Heads?

Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #115 – March 1, 2013

 

    Is this seemingly miraculous phenomenon a truly inexplicable anomaly, or is it something else entirely? As a third grader, it seemed very real to me one day, when I was very inconspicuously whispering to a friend while the teacher’s back was turned. I thought I had gotten away with it because she turned back to face the class and continued the lesson without any reproach to me.  My smile soon faded, however, when just before the bell rang, she asked me to stay after class. Needless to say, she knew exactly what I had done, and I got to spend the next two recess periods in the classroom. How could she possibly have known? It could have been those famous rear view eyes; or maybe she had some help.

    Teachers do have eyes in the back of their heads; well, sort of. If having eyes in the back of one’s head means being able to see all kinds of shenanigans going on in the classroom, while the teacher’s back is facing the class, then yes, it’s true. If being able to turn around, look directly at the leader of the “everybody cough on my signal,” just as the coughing subsides, then yes. If while facing the board, the teacher says, “Amy, please bring the note that was just passed to you and place it on my desk,” then without question the teacher must have eyes in the back of her head, right?

    Any teacher worth their salt must develop keen senses and almost superhuman awareness of what is going on in and around the classroom at all times. Good teachers get to know their students better than they know themselves. The perceptive teacher watches, listens and observes, usually when the students aren’t even aware of the observation.  The observant teacher learns to recognize each student’s voice, even when it is a mere whisper. She sees eye contact and hand signals as students communicate, thinking the teacher is oblivious to all this student interaction.

    As a high school teacher, these skills became my “sixth sense,” and proved to be an important and effective tool in creating the mystique of “don’t even try to get away with anything in Dr. Ghiora’s class.”  Let’s just say, on numerous occasions, I would appear to be engrossed in checking a student’s paper, or meeting with a student about his work, while in reality, at least 50% of my sense awareness was honed in on someone that was “up to something, or planning to be up to something,” in the classroom.  When the opportune moment presented itself, (or so they thought), the plotter(s) would attempt the stunt as I was writing on the board, with my back to them. I would hear where and from whom the disturbance generated, at which point I would foil the prank with surprising calm, catching the culprit with his proverbial hand in the cookie jar.

    I only had to do this two or three times throughout the year. The effect seemed to be very powerful and almost paranormal to the students. They just couldn’t figure out how I did it. When I told them, “All teachers are given an extra set of eyes for the back of their heads along with receipt of their teaching credential,” they would chuckle and smile. However, I noticed several of them actually exhibited a ponderous look as their smiles faded and a few heads shook gently from side to side . . .