Yesterday I spent a pleasant morning guest lecturing on a wide range of topics for a few high school classes taught by some friends of mine. For me it was a particularly enjoyable experience as a result of having not been in front of a classroom for quite a while. There are few experiences as satisfying in life as the look in a student’s eyes when a concept finally clicks for them. Anybody who has ever been a teacher knows that look and no matter how much you may enjoy whatever it is you moved on from teaching to pursue, you will always find yourself missing that feeling once you no longer get to see it on a regular basis.
Hello and welcome to the first installment of my monthly series of posts on education. Unlike some of the other monthly series on this site where I simply jumped right in to the subject matter at hand; I feel like “The Silver Bullet” is important enough to warrant its own introduction and overview. And that begins by explaining why I decided to call the series “The Silver Bullet.” It comes from one of my all-time favorite TV shows The West Wing and is actually used many times by many characters but the most quoted usage is from the episode Six Meetings Before Lunch: “Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don’t need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven’t figured out how to do it yet.” Education is how we solve crime, poverty, bureaucracy, healthcare, social security, even war. A well-educated electorate is essential to the survival of any democracy (or in our case republic). This is a sentiment that is burned into my marrow.
I was a teacher. I was raised by a teacher. I’ve lived with teachers. Some of my oldest friends are teachers. I believe teaching to be one of the greatest callings any of us can have. But just deciding to be a teacher doesn’t get you a free pass with me. You need to be a good at it. Because there is nothing so destructive in this world as a bad teacher. This belief means I tend to be rather tough on teachers. I set the bar high.
To be a teacher you have to live and die with your student’s successes, day in and day out never allowing yourself the luxury of “just” making it to the bell. You have to love each of your students as if they were your own child and be willing to take a bullet for each and every one of them. You have to go over the same material year after year and never tire of it, remembering that it is new to everyone but you. You have to be willing to be absolutely despised. You have to be willing to give up almost all of your free time and a good chunk of your extra money for absolutely nothing in return, often not even a thanks. You have to balance personalities and needs with the skill of any CEO and handle their personal problems with the patience and wisdom of a thrice blessed saint. To be a teacher you have to do all of that and then you have to do your actual job. Educate the children placed in your care.
As I delve into this series I will be talking about curriculum approaches, classroom management techniques, and specific issues affecting education in America but I thought it best to first put forth the perspective from which these posts will be written. Teaching borders on a holy endeavor for me and I believe that anyone who stands in front of a classroom should feel the same way.