Teaching Well
TEACHING AND TEACHERS PLAY PIVOTAL ROLES AS WE OPEN THE DOORS TO A NEW CENTURY
I don't really know if Bonnie Loufek and Nancy Sager were excellent teachers.
I do know that they had a powerful influence on me as I muddled through high school in the mid-sixties. They encouraged debate over issues of the day: from civil rights and the war in Vietnam to school dress codes and the Beatles. They asked their students to explore the world, rather than turn their backs on it. They helped us to think critically, judge sparingly, and act compassionately.
They were, by my reckoning, fine teachers who understood their kids and the radical changes they were confronting in themselves and society. They were transitional teachers, bridges between the passivity of the '50s and the activism of the '60s. They were strong influences on my later decisions to go to college and pursue a career in writing and education. I hope they continue to teach, because I believe they would still be good teachers—engaging, entertaining, and encouraging students to explore, to think, and to do.
Most people I talk with have similar tales about teachers. The ones they loved, and the ones they despised. Teachers are, after all, pivotal people in our lives. They can spark creativity, or they can douse it. They can open our minds to fresh ideas, or they can close them. They can nudge us toward newer heights, or they can hold us back.
Teaching and society are again at a crossroads. Rapid advances in technology have created vast new opportunities for teachers to network, to learn, and to teach. Educational research has helped teachers better understand the needs of students and provided strategies to address the individual learning styles of diverse student populations. And parents, business, labor, and others are increasingly involved in schools and education.
But these opportunities also create pressures for increased professional development, broader understanding of cultures, improved schools of education, and a willingness on the part of teachers to learn and grow professionally.
To be sure, the status quo no longer serves the needs of students and communities. "Today's society has little room for those who cannot read, write, and compute proficiently; find and use resources; frame and solve problems; and continually learn new technologies, skills, and occupations," notes the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. "America's future depends now, as never before, on our ability to teach."
In this issue of Northwest Education, we visit a school of education, talk with teachers recognized as among the best in the country, and hear about a faculty mentoring program in Montana.
Writing at the turn of the last century, educator W.E.B. DuBois noted, "Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental." Today, the right to learn is intimately linked to the ability to teach well, to reach all students, and to instill a lifelong love of learning in young people. Teachers touch all of us sometime in our lives. And the ways in which teachers reach students will help shape society and steer all of us into the 21st century.
—Tony Kneidek
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