EDUCATION MATTERS: Teachers tell us why they teach

Their faces explain why I still teach

It has been my students who kept me working in the schools as a speech-language pathologist for 28 years. I love that I have been able to work with children from preschool through high school, and that I have had students with abilities in the gifted range to those with many challenges.

I have so many wonderful student memories that it is difficult to pick just one. Some stories make me laugh so hard that tears come to my eyes. Warm fuzzy feelings are evoked while remembering sweet comments that only children can make.

However, the best memories come from the facial expressions on students such as when nonverbal students with autism realized that they could communicate by giving someone a picture. One wonderful moment was when a nonverbal student with cerebral palsy used his new voice output system to create a joke and I got it. Their joy gives me such satisfaction and makes it all worth it!

SHELLY MILLER, Hickory Hills Elementary School

Classroom changed my perspective

For years I complained about the educational system in Georgia. I could only see what I thought were all of the things that the teachers were doing wrong. In my mind, the entire problem rested solely on the shoulders of the teachers. If they cared more, if they were smarter, if the government would just give them more funding, the list was never ending. Years later, when the HOPE Scholarship became available, I had my chance to go back to school and become certified to teach. This was my time to put up or shut up. How bad could teaching be? Teachers get the entire summer off and lots of holidays in between.

My tone quickly changed when I was thrust into a classroom with eager students waiting to learn what I had to offer. Not only was I expected to teach, I was expected to parent, counsel, mediate, clothe, discipline, encourage, motivate, protect, groom and much, much more.

But the most important lesson that I’ve learned is that we must, “teach them to know better so they can do better.” This is why I teach. A lot of our young people today have no guidance and direction and need someone to model what is seen as correct behavior in our society. It is up to me and all adults to show them the way. Our future depends on it.

DEBRA LARY

Newton High School

From science lab to lively classroom

I have always enjoyed the enterprise of learning, because, as we know, students teach and teachers learn just as often as not. I started my career in the laboratories of some of the top scientific research organizations in the nation. Five years ago, I decided to teach science full time. I bring a lot of what I know about the expectations and demands on scientists to my classroom and I expect the absolute best from my students because I am preparing them for competitive and challenging top-notch high schools and colleges.

When you believe that all students can learn and have the opportunity to prove it, a wonderful thing happens. You see a light come on, a face smiles, a quiet determination, a few tears —- from students, parents and even teachers. There is nothing else that touches you so profoundly as knowing that you are the one who made that difference.

LARRY HAMPTON

KIPP South Fulton Academy

Teachers stimulate and bail out kids

Why teach: As W.B. Yeats once said: “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”

Why teach: Offer a stimulus package to the brain to enhance the cogent process of experiencing, understanding, judging and deciding.

Why teach: Offer a bailout alternative to ignorance, media blather and TV-Internet bull.

GLEN LILLQUIST

McDonough

Despite changes, teaching still great

I am so glad that I chose teaching as my profession. I have retired, but the years I spent with children were some of the most rewarding times of my life. I loved the look on the children’s faces when they realized they had learned something new. Teaching has totally changed since I was in the classroom and I am not so sure I would enjoy it as much now.

The standardized testing that is now being demanded is ruining our educational system. I taught the curriculum and most children succeeded. Not all children come “packaged” with the same ingredients. Now teachers have to teach “to the tests.” At the end of my career, teachers were frowned upon for allowing students to have recess.

I was very worried about the social skills not being allowed to foster. All children want to be accepted and learn, not just from books, but from interaction with their peers and adults. Even with these concerns, there is no better profession than teaching children to love to learn. I would choose teaching again in a heartbeat.

DIANA YOUNG Canton

Kids and talent

Can’t force them into greatness

Regarding whether to “force” a child to continue something he or she might have a talent for, it was interesting that Maureen Downey’s article (“Parent’s passion can only push kid so far,” @issue, March 30) appeared the same day as the article about the Pinder family of musicians (“Musical talent repeats in this family,” Page One, March 30).

There is a difference between providing opportunities to learn many different things and creating an atmosphere that fosters interest in learning, and “forcing” a child to continue an activity he or she finds objectionable. A reasonable compromise is this: If a child agrees to sign up for an activity, that child should complete the commitment for that activity. (Admittedly this is easier in sports, which generally have “seasons” of a few months.)

If the child is undergoing a difficult phase, knowing that there is a future “re-enrollment” opportunity might allow a child to work through the problem. And even if he decides not to pursue the activity in the future, he will have a sense of accomplishment for completing the current season/year. As the Pinder article pointed out, the answer to the nature vs. nurture argument is that talent is comprised of both. Everyone has a natural aptitude for certain things, often very disparate ones. The truth is, most people aren’t Olympic athletes, first chair violinists and Rhodes scholars. The vast majority of people aren’t even one of those things.

Kids should explore things they enjoy. And parents should accept that having a child who loves learning things for the sake of knowing them is as important as having a kid who is famous. Because you can’t force a child into greatness. You can only provide the opportunity for him to achieve greatness. Like young James Pinder’s family did.

CAROLINE KNIGHT, Atlanta

Young musician needs guidance

My daughter struggles almost daily to get her 7-year-old son to practice the piano. He loves making his own music, and does show some talent, but he hates the enforced structure of daily practice. My daughter listens patiently to all sides of the argument presented to her by well-intentioned friends and family. She is, however, not giving in, because he is a musical child, but is too young to know it.

Maureen Downey’s suggestion that the turning point may be at around age 14, at which time he must make up his own mind, is sensible if not easy. So I will continue my encouragement and will endure the recitals. And as for Downey, you may not be able to sing, dance, or draw, but you certainly know how to write!

SUSAN JORIS, Eatonton