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CAT Tracks for October 4, 2009
TO TOUCH A LIFE |
From the Journal Sentinel...
Good educators all differ
Alan J. Borsuk
A Milwaukee-area middle school. Two boys playing around, nothing terrible, but things get a bit too rough. One of them tears the sleeve of the other one's shirt. Not such a big deal - except the shirt belonged to the boy's late father. It carried a lot of emotion for him.
The boy goes to pieces. He ends up in front of the principal.
The principal has an idea: Save the shirt. Convert it to short sleeves.
The principal goes to the school's family and consumer education teacher (OK, they were called home economics teachers in my day). She's only in the building part of the day, she doesn't teach sewing, she doesn't have the boy in class or even know him. But maybe she'll do it.
She does it - that evening, on her own time, the way lots of teachers do out-of-the-way things for their kids, or even for kids they don't directly teach.
The shirt is saved. The emotions are treated with dignity. By the next day, the boy again has this renewed memento of his father.
Because of the confidential nature of the situation, I can't tell you the names of the people involved or the school. But it's a true story from several weeks ago.
And it's more than a touching anecdote. It's a good example of what it takes to be a successful principal and a successful teacher.
What course teaches you to think of a way to take control of an emotional roller coaster like this student was on and guide it to a smooth landing? Maybe some of what the principal did comes from experience, but who has experience thinking of turning torn long-sleeve shirts into presentable short-sleeve ones?
As for the teacher, did she get anything out of doing this? Some emotional satisfaction, let's say. But certainly nothing tangible. It's just what you do as part of your understanding of your job.
Everyday savvy
Some of the most valuable skills of an education professional are never learned in a class or seminar. Some of the most effective actions have nothing to do with academic skills, grades or anything that can be measured. They're just things you do because you understand what works, how kids think, what can turn a mess into something good. Because you've got the knack for running a classroom or a school well. Because you really can be a role model.
I've seen some really good principals in the last decade or so as I've visited a lot of schools in the Milwaukee area. I'm struck by how much they didn't have in common.
I think of one whose biggest asset is the gift of gab. Another isn't much of a talker or visionary, but is great at focusing on what needs to be done to allow all the other people in the building to do their jobs. Another is a visionary, a maverick, whose key accomplishment is getting just about everyone in the school on board with his vision. Another is just totally unrelenting in pursuit of building up her school.
What they have in common is mastery of the intangibles of their jobs. A terrific work ethic is part of that, but there's more to it. It's the ability to be both idealistic and realistic simultaneously - not to be deterred by the grim or grimy sides of daily school life, yet to be deeply in touch with everything going on in the building. The ability to stick to a grand plan at the same time you improvise every day. The ability to inspire, not only with words but with the way you lead. And the creativity to turn problems around.
And I've walked into classrooms where I was stopped in my tracks by how good the teacher was. A kindergarten teacher on the south side leading kids in letter recognition, an English teacher drawing his high school students out on the themes in a story, a history teacher whose vivid and demanding classes defied the assumption that no one in a school like this would care about such stuff.
Everyone involved in education spends a lot of time dealing with the tangibles of daily life - grades, test scores, budgets, attendance, schedules, gritty stuff.
Those tangibles are important. A successful teacher, a successful principal, a successful school - the measurable things matter and specific, high standards really do need to be met.
But consider this one time to say that a lot of what really counts in a school and a lot of what really makes someone stand out as an educator are things you can't measure. If there were an education hall of fame, those enshrined would each have a great grasp of things you can't quantify.
Find the role models
How do you get more people with those intangible strengths into schools?
Maybe part of the answer is for parents, other teachers, school administrators and anyone else to really pay attention when they come across people who are models. To value them, praise them, learn from them, recount what they do.
We need more of their wisdom in education. We need to put in front of kids everyone we can who knows how to take a torn child and go the extra steps that just might nudge that child toward a better path, who knows how to look at a torn sleeve and see it as a special short-sleeve shirt in the making.
Alan J. Borsuk is a longtime education reporter in Milwaukee. His pieces on education will run regularly in the Sunday Journal Sentinel. Borsuk can be reached at alanjborsuk@gmail.com.
