We all have teachers who have impacted our lives, whether we want to admit it or not. And today is a day we should admit it because without great teachers many of us would be in a far different place than we are today.
I remember my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lundgren. She was at the end of her career and, in fact, just a couple of years after she taught me she retired. But she still had the drive and passion even in the twilight of her career to give me the fundamentals I needed to be successful.
I was having trouble in math. Yes, in the first grade. And yes, with simple addition. In fact, Mrs. Lundgren called my mother in and told her that it was a serious problem. My mother was a single mom working full time and my math problems were probably the last thing she needed in her life. She pledged to work with me but the reality was that she was gone by 5:30 in the morning every day and not home until about 4:30 in the afternoon when she and my Grandmother would begin to prepare dinner. She didn’t have much left by about 8pm much less the energy to drill me on addition and get me over the hurdle on my basic understanding.
I think Mrs. Lundgren must have realized this because shortly thereafter she asked me to stay after school a half hour every day and she began to work with me. I remember as a first grader hating the fact that I had to stay after school but I also remember the sting of being made fun of because I couldn’t add two plus two.
But Mrs. Lundgren kept at it. I don’t remember the magic or the “aha” moment or what she did to get me to finally understand. But she did it. And I’m confident that had she not taken that extra time and cared enough about me I would have ended up on a slower track that might have affected my abilities in mathematics for years to come.
So let’s honor all of our teachers across America who are truly making a difference. And let’s push for all parents and their children to be accountable for behavior, performance and accept real consequences for failure. Parents must stop asking teachers to become the parents of their children.
Let’s also strive to get as many education dollars as we can directly into the classroom so that teachers have the resources to be effective in their jobs. Currently, in the state of Arizona, only one third of the per student expenditure goes to teachers in the classroom. The rest goes to the cost of bureaucracy. This ratio needs to flip.
We also need to have the best teachers we can have. The primary variable for student success is the quality of the teacher. We must create incentives for the best and brightest to enter the teaching field and not handicap that entrance with archaic teaching certification requirements. We must recruit and retain the best teaching talent we can by recruiting from the top five percent of graduating classes, focusing on compensating these teachers with high salaries for high-achievement tied to student performance by finally giving them control over the educational environment.
Most of all, we need to continually show our gratitude and support to those teachers who are truly building the foundation of our future.
Today is as good a time as any to appreciate our teachers so let’s all go and do just that.
