Teaching and archaeology: surprising connections

A few days spent working alongside archaeologists curiously highlighted some principles that are common to the world of teaching.

An archaeologist is a field worker who combines keen observation and precise movements with a focus on preserving fragile objects. In the classroom, teachers cannot allow their minds to wander, as they are responsible for children and young people who require their full care and attention.

Paradoxically, archaeologists are focused on the future: what they uncover must be preserved and brought to light. Similarly, teachers pay close attention to their teaching, ensuring that it is not distorted, and they think about how to make it understandable to all students. The work that is passed on, which is based on the ‘former masters’, must respect both form and substance in order to become the guiding principle for reasoned and reasonable behaviour among learners.

Archaeology is primarily preventive: it involves investigating the site before digging. Similarly, teachers must understand their students' profiles in order to provide them with the most appropriate education.

Archaeologists use precise terminology in their specialised fields to describe a particular era, technique or human group. Unfortunately, we know that vocabulary has been declining dramatically for several decades, among both students and teachers. What kind of citizens will we have if they cannot name an emotion, follow a logical train of thought or methodically argue about an opinion? What if we cannot set an example? This is the price we pay for forging our independence, through training in critical thinking. Through my work with archaeologists, I have once again observed the accuracy of words that define both concepts and facts.

The professionals I have met leave the door open to questioning concepts as they conduct their research in a wide variety of fields. Indeed, a dogma, even if it is presented under the guise of noble values, must be substantiated and backed up by evidence and common sense, otherwise an excavation or research project may collapse, destroying the fragile objects or concepts it contains. At a time when successive education ministers are devising reforms that should not be questioned because of their institutional nature, this experience with people in the field, although this metaphor has its limitations, has once again shown me that the ground is everything.

Finally, these archaeologists also showed me how intense wonder and passion can be, especially since these feelings arise from difficult work that is so often carried out in mud and dust... Beneath the cobblestones of effort and the stones of perseverance, wonder sometimes awaits us and restores meaning and beauty to our labour.