Jon Stewart is signing off as the host of the Daily Show after an impressive 16 year run. The fake news show has become a cultural marker and gave voice to many concerned about media, politics, and the future of the country. Having watched the show for much of Stewart’s tenure, it has been fun to look back at some of the old clips of the show’s early days. It doesn’t get much better than Stewart, Colbert, and Carrell doing a comedy bit. What struck me most in looking at old clips was the evolution of the show and Stewart. I think Stewart’s transition can be instructive in thinking about teaching and how we develop our instructional personas in the classroom.
It is so funny to see how Jon Stewart looked and acted in the early days of the Daily Show. His suits didn’t quite fit right. He was clearly not very comfortable. Even the jokes didn’t flow very easily.
This is all such a difference from the host that you see today comfortable with his pulpit and prepared to use it in service of comedy or the more important point.
I’m glad that I can’t go back to see myself during my first couple of semesters of teaching. My suits didn’t quite fit right. I was not comfortable at times. Even my jokes didn’t flow very easily (but boy did I still try them).
The lesson here and a significant one for anyone in a teaching role is how critical it is to develop our instructional persona in the classroom.
Whenever anyone first starts teaching, there is a period of trying to figure out how you will act in the classroom. Are you going to be more formal? Funny? How will you manage class?
I used to think that I could create a persona and that’s who I would be in the classroom.
In reality, it is too hard to try to teach and maintain some artificial persona.
Eventually, I came to understand (and more importantly be comfortable with) being myself. That is what is most critical. Students will respond to the authenticity.
When you compare the Jon Stewart of today with the earlier version, I believe this is the major difference. Sure the show became more established, but ultimately I think Stewart became comfortable enough to be himself.
To me, there’s no better evidence of this than his killer impression of Glenn Beck (clip at the end of the post).
To the extend that I’m a better teacher today than when I first started, I attribute much of this to being more comfortable and understanding my role in the classroom.
It won’t be the same not having Stewart around to comment on the latest political silliness or national tragedy. But I think we’ve been treated to seeing the evolution of a host perhaps has dramatic as any in recent years.
As we start to turn toward planning fall classes, we should all take a minute to laugh one last time at the Daily Show. And take a page from Jon Stewart: just be ourselves.
Such simple advice, but yet so hard to do.
And if you’re not ready to tackle the fall yet, just watch Daily Show clips for a while!
