President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 pick to serve as the secretary of the Department of Education is an unconventional one. Linda McMahon, who for more than 25 years held key executive positions with World Wrestling Entertainment, has little formal experience in education. She has not been a teacher, a school administrator, or an elected official with responsibility for schools (though she did serve for a little more than a year on the Connecticut state school board). What she does have, on the other hand, is extensive management and business-leadership experience, including as the head of the Small Business Administration in Trump鈥檚 first term.
As a former teacher who now helps lead an organization that supports educators worldwide, I have mixed feelings about this. Although McMahon and everyone reading these words will have spent many years in school, my experience teaching tells me that it鈥檚 hard to understand how education really works鈥攁nd, too often, doesn鈥檛 work鈥攚ithout knowing what it鈥檚 like to stand in front of a room of students or communicate with students鈥� families or balance the many competing demands that educators must juggle every single day. At the same time, and as I鈥檝e now learned the hard way, the skills required to lead complex organizations successfully are different from those required to teach effectively. The Education Department is a very complex bureaucracy, and it鈥檚 possible that McMahon鈥檚 business acumen may be what鈥檚 really needed to run it effectively.
There鈥檚 a reason we call watching TV 'mindless entertainment' and that 'brain rot' is the Oxford Dictionary鈥檚 word of 2024.
There is, however, one way in which I fear McMahon鈥檚 past success with professional wrestling in particular may fail to prepare her for the challenges that lie ahead. Education is not entertainment.
There are plenty of people who think that it is鈥攐r should be. When I trained to become a teacher, I was told quite clearly that my job was to put on a show. I should stand at the board every day and perform my lessons; the more entertaining I was, the more my students would engage and learn. Many of us have had teachers who double as brilliant entertainers. We like their classes because we know they鈥檒l keep us at the edge of our seats and when we think of great teachers, we remember Hilary Swank in 鈥淔reedom Writers鈥� or Edward James Olmos in 鈥淪tand and Deliver.鈥�
The theory is that if we can just make class as exciting as those movies鈥攐r, say, a professional wrestling match鈥攐ur students will learn. And you can find online courses today that attract students with the same message: 鈥淭ake our courses, because our lecturers are amazing.鈥�
It鈥檚 a compelling pitch. But there are three big problems with this conception of a great teacher as a captivating lecturer.
The first is that, sadly, most of us just aren鈥檛 that riveting. I know I鈥檓 not. This is what distinguishes actors like Swank and Olmos or pro wrestlers like The Rock in the first place: They can hold our attention in a way that most people simply can鈥檛. They also have the advantage of acting or performing with content and in settings that are designed to hold viewers鈥� attention, whereas teachers like me need to teach writing and math in classrooms. There鈥檚 no way we can compete.
Hard as we try, we also can鈥檛 compete with the multitude of entertainment options that are available to our students every day. And, frankly, I don鈥檛 think we should try鈥攁t least not on the level of entertainment. We can give our students meaningful, inspiring assignments and show them that solving challenging problems or writing poetry is ultimately far more rewarding than scrolling endlessly through TikTok. I鈥檓 all for that! But if we try to make our lessons into TikTok-style bites, we won鈥檛 be helping students gain the deep understanding and critical-thinking skills they deserve.
Finally, and most importantly, sitting and watching just isn鈥檛 a great way to learn anything. It may be easy and comfortable and it may be what many learners are accustomed to. But if you actually want to learn anything, you usually need to get your hands dirty. You need to solve problems or write or debate or anything else that activates your brain. There鈥檚 a reason we call watching TV 鈥渕indless entertainment鈥� and that 鈥渂rain rot鈥� is the Oxford Dictionary鈥檚 word of 2024. Learning can鈥檛 be a passive process.
If we want students to learn, we can鈥檛 just entertain them. We must engage them instead. We must provide every learner with content that is appropriately challenging and give each learner the supports they need to achieve mastery. We must connect the content we teach to the questions our young people care about. And we as educators must sit down with the young people we serve, get to know them as human beings, show them that we believe in them, and show them that if they apply themselves, there鈥檚 no limit to what they can achieve. Our students鈥� potential is infinite. We just need to help them unlock it.
Even the most entertaining lecture in the world can鈥檛 achieve that.
For our teachers鈥� and young people鈥檚 sakes, if McMahon is confirmed as education secretary, I wish her all the best. I hope she鈥檒l lead the Department of Education as effectively as she ran WWE. And I hope she鈥檒l remember that education and entertainment are fundamentally different endeavors.
