Deep Thinking

Alan Chiupka is a teacher at MAP Academcy, an
alternative school in Lebanon, Tennessee, guest blogs
today with his deep thoughts about schools and their
perceptions in the media:

I recently read an article about another outstanding
teacher who had gone out of his way to see to the
success of an at risk student. It was a heart-warming
article full of extra steps that a concerned teacher
took to get to know the student and how the extra
attention was responded to and how it made a
difference in the students life. It began with the
teacher trying to obtain a higher degree and been
given an assignment to improve the writing skills of
five students. One of the students he chose was the
at-risk student and he then goes in-depth about the
needs of the student and how his assistance was vital
in the growth of this student. The article ends with
the moral to teach the students and not the subject.
Good advice and a good article showing a dedicated
teacher and his impact on a student.

Articles like these, I think, are responsible in part
for the low esteem the teaching profession has amongst
many of the public. You see this teacher was not a
stand-out in his profession because of the work he did
with the student. He was typical of most teachers and
the jobs they do in the classroom. To hold this
particular teacher out as an example and not admit
that he is more typical than outstanding is fodder to
those who would criticize public education as
ineffective. Most who would criticize public education
from without are self-styled experts on the subject by
virtue of their once having attended a public school.
They feel that this experience makes them an authority
on education and in large part, for whatever reason,
these people remember the negative aspects of their
own education more than the positive ones. Through the
fog of years the positive memories are pushed out by
the negative ones and in their minds school becomes
nothing but negative memories and a place in dire need
of reform. An in-depth look of most outside critics of
education I’m sure would reveal that they are
generally disagreeable people in all aspects of their
life with little good to say about anything. Articles
about teachers going the extra mile often reinforce
these peoples opinions.

One way to remedy this would be to stop publishing
articles about teachers successes. This would be
throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We all like
to hear about how others in our profession have done
well. Instead, when we write about effective teachers
doing their jobs well, let’s include acknowledgments
that most teachers are also doing their jobs well in
similar fashions. Make it clear that the teacher the
article is discussing is representative of the
profession as a whole and not a lonely traveller in
the desert. By doing this we may help to eliminate
some of the vitriol thrown out by people who have yet
to overcome their own deficiencies in life and find it
easier to blame the school systems for these
deficiencies than it is to look in the mirror.