The Look

In her book that I read recently, Katherine Paterson tells the story of her short experience in teaching. When she had no problems with a class that had previously caused great difficulty to a strong authoritarian male teacher, one of the students gave this explanation, “She had this Look. When she fixed it on you, you knew to stop what you were doing and straighten up.”

I knew that story. My first acquaintance with The Look came from my father. With a visual handicap, he nevertheless never missed the slightest misbehavior from one of his four daughters while he was preaching. He could administer The Look without veering from his outline or missing a word of the scripture he was quoting. The object of The Look never failed to amend her behavior to the point that she could repeat the rest of the sermon when we got home.

My children and my students would tell you that I had The Look in my bag of strategies, little knowing that I had practiced it on my three younger sisters when I became the sister-sitter-in-chief when we were growing up. My daughter says it’s not just the eyes but the jutting jaw that has always gotten her attention. Teachers with consistent rules and The Look seldom have to resort to more strenuous measures. Principals – or Vice Principals since they are usually in charge of discipline problems – love having teachers who have mastered it.

Perhaps The Look needs to be added to Education 101. The syllabus could read: The Look – How to form it, How to aim it, How long to hold it, and How to move on smoothly when it has done its work. The Look, properly administered, saves time for real education to take place.