"The Kids Are Alright"

Despite the title, this essay is not about the 1979 film by The Who; nor is it about
the 2010 film of the same name. On the anniversary of my first blog I decided
to write about today’s students and their teachers. Any praise of teachers by
me could be dismissed as self-serving, but it’s not as easy to dismiss such
praise coming from students whom I do not know. The editorial staff of a local
high school newspaper wrote a lengthy article several months ago – not for
National Teacher Appreciation Week recently – titled “The True Unsung Heroes.”

Instead of summarizing and paraphrasing the main points of the editorial, I decided to quote several key sentences:

"Teachers spend years of their lives and thousands upon thousands of their dollars acquiring the preliminary education necessary to spread their knowledge to others.”
"To say that teachers are underappreciated is a severe understatement.”

"Teachers are subject to some of the most intensive scrutiny of any profession.”

"When you hand education over to politicians and parents, you get a system in which 65% of children are unable to locate the United Kingdom on a map. According to geographic.com. the United States currently ranks 22^nd, 27^th,
and 33^rd in science, math, and reading respectively among civilized
nations.”

"Society needs to stop hindering teachers’ abilities to properly educate the youth, and the youth needs to stop blaming teachers for their failures.”

It is because of their tireless dedication to education that the youth is able to
achieve success."

My only contact with the students at this high school was as an observer in
several classes of each grade (9-12); these observations were made possible
because of my role as university supervisor of student teachers who were
completing their requirements for a degree and state certification. It was an
enjoyable and satisfying experience on several levels. The student teachers are
bright, idealistic young adults dedicated not only to improving the writing
skills of their students and fostering an appreciation of literature in them;
they consider it part of their work to educate responsible citizens as well.
The mentors of these student teachers, at various points in their careers, are
willing to pass on what they have learned to their future colleagues. Most of
the teenagers in the classes I observed were making an effort to learn
something, even if they had no plans to continue their education beyond high
school, and they were as well-behaved as most of the students in my classes
ten, twenty, thirty, forty years ago.

Which brings me back to the main theme of this essay: not only are the kids alright, but so are the adults who have chosen to teach them and set an example for them to follow.