I heard the following on Best of the Left podcast a couple of weeks ago, show number 644, and I absolutely must share it with you.
My mom was a career teacher before she retired. She taught business English and accounting, And my sister and I learned to speak properly as we learned to talk. Can you imagine baby-talk in correct English? We lived it.
When we took grammar and usage in school we had a horrible time because we knew how to do it all correctly without knowing a damn thing about what you call each part of speech.
I didn’t know the difference between an adjective and an adverb until college, when a style manual became one of my always-at-hand reference books. I also became a great fan of Grammar Rock. Being musically inclined, it was much easier to learn using songs.
We went to college when you still hand-wrote your research papers and typed them using a typewriter. Since Mom could type so much faster than we could, sometimes she would type our papers when we came home for a weekend. We received further editing, grammar, usage, and punctuation coaching; and we were finally thankful for it.
We went to public school and public college. I had many teachers as passionate as Taylor Mali, who inspired me to reach new heights and embrace mistakes as lessons. I’m saddened that so many kids today may never have the same experience.
It’s not because teachers are incompetent. It’s because all the testing, and teachers and schools being graded on students’ test scores that require teachers to tow the line and teach the test, or risk their jobs.
To hell with learning and thinking, learn this material and pass the test so we all won’t be fired and our school won’t be taken over by some state agency.
It’s time to throw out the standardized tests, school report cards, and student score-based teacher evaluations and let kids learn from teachers who are free to teach them.
Teachers like Taylor Mali show kids they can make their dreams come true. Teachers make a goddamn difference, if they’re allowed to.
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If you don’t listen to Best of the Left, I highly recommend you try it out for at least a few episodes.
The show is available online at the above website, and can be downloaded through iTunes, Stitcher, or as a plain mp3 file that will play in any audio player.
If you don’t have a portable device and still want to listen on the go, shows are timed so each one will fit on a single audio CD. Burn a copy for your car CD player, and then pass the CD’s on to others when you’re finished listening to them.
As always, I invite you to leave a comment and continue the conversation.
Def Poetry Jam, Education, teachers make a difference
October 9th, 2012 at 11:41 am
Dear Sherri -
I was pretty cocky about being a writer when I was in college.
For one thing, Sister Paulinus (4 Ph.D’s) made an announcement that you could not get an A in her English class unless you were eligible for sainthood in Rome.
I got an A.
Then, she put me in my place. “You are a good writer for 18 years old – but you will not be a mature good writer until you have life experiences.”
Wow. Was she right.
Teachers change lives. Even when they are not aware of it.
That statement haunted me for years. Still does.
Corinne Edwards´s last [type] ..JUST SHUT UP FOR A WHILE – from Sales, Lies and Naked Truths
October 9th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Wow Corinne, or is it St. Corinne now?
I was pretty cocky about everything in high school, not just writing. I never thought I’d do much writing outside of lab reports, project proposals and procedures, but here I am.
College knocked me off my pedestal the first time I got a western civ paper back that had so much red ink that I could no longer read what I had typed. It didn’t just take me down a notch, it took me down a whole floor. I got a B on that paper, but I could barely see how with so many mistakes. It turns out I had leas red ink then some of my classmates. I didn’t think that was possible.
Last evening, I went to the local MeetUp Writers’ Workshop that meets every other Monday. I really enjoyed it, and learned I’m more well-read than I thought, though my writing needs their critiquing to make it to the next level. I haven’t looked on the message board to find out what the assignment for the next meeting is.
I think teachers know they change lives or they wouldn’t be teachers. The pay and working conditions certainly aren’t keeping them there. What they may not know is which students’ lives they changed if those students don’t become famous or don’t come back and tell them.
When I work with my own students, they tell me the same kinds of things I said at their ages. I tell them to ease off on pressuring themselves so much, that they have plenty of time to figure things out in college and early adulthood. I even tell them they may remake themselves in mid-life. I remind them that if the path they’ve taken doesn’t seem to fit, it’s okay to change directions and do something else. Nothing is set in stone except your past, and you can still change your present and future.
Some of us went back later, talked to our former teachers and told them what they meant to us far beyond what material they taught us. They made us think for ourselves, and in so doing, we learned to think critically. That’s something too many adults seem to be unwilling or unable to do today.
I’m glad I got to do that for most of my senior and junior year teachers because most have passed on since I was in high school 32 years ago.