Atlanta Journal-Constitution education columnist Maureen Downey recently wrote, “A strong national curriculum is only half the battle; the other challenge is creating a teaching force capable of teaching to those higher standards.” This conclusion is echoed by elected officials who believe teachers are ultimately responsible for whether, in fact, we win the race to the top.
Jaime Escalante, the award-winning educator whose accomplishments were celebrated in the film “Stand and Deliver,” might disagree. “We are all concerned about the future of American education. But as I tell my students, you do not enter the future — you create the future. The future is created through hard work,” he said.
What Escalante understood is that students are ultimately responsible for their success. Teachers have a responsibility to teach the material, but success is ultimately a choice and, in order to succeed, students need to do the hard work that is synonymous with true success.
Would we pay our doctors based on the health of their patients? Would we pay our lawyers based on the innocence of their clients? We recognize that whether we live healthy and law-abiding lives is our responsibility and not someone else’s.
And yet there are those who seriously believe that linking teacher pay to student performance on a battery of standardized assessments is the key to providing a quality education.
Like Escalante, I have seen that students will rise to the level of expectations set by a teacher who cares about them. They will do so, however, only if they perceive that failure has tangible consequences and that hard work is therefore its own reward.
To make it, Escalante often said you need ganas, a Spanish word for desire and drive. Ganas was Escalante’s battlecry because he understood that success involved sweat and hard work, not only on the part of dedicated teachers, but — more importantly — on the part of their students.
In the debate over how to improve America’s system of public education, we’ve forgotten this fundamental fact. Our governor said that our best teachers should receive the same rewards as our championship coaches. But when athletes work out and practice, they do most of the work themselves in order to improve their strength and skills. When we deny our students the opportunity to sweat and struggle, we deny ourselves the opportunity to compete against other societies where hard work is expected of each and every individual.
I am reminded of a note from a former student: “I have sincerely enjoyed taking your class. You have inspired me to go above and beyond in my studies and for that I thank you. Not only have your jokes been funny, but your course workload has been strenuous and stimulating. You find out what you’re made of when the going gets tough and, when I took a look at your assignments, I found out that I was made of tougher stuff than I thought. You have inspired me not only in World History, but in my other classes as well. You take your job seriously and pull the best out of your students and that is why you are my favorite teacher.”
It is time to understand that the fault lies not with today’s teachers. As Escalante told a student, “You only see the turn, you don’t see the road ahead.”
It is time to reframe our national debate by talking about how we can encourage our students to push themselves to become better because they are, in fact, made of tougher stuff than we think. As Escalante reminded his boss, “Students will rise to the level of expectation, Señor Molina.”
Dr. Anthony Pattiz teaches world history at Sandy Creek High School in Fayette County.
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