McDONALD: The best teachers show a lot of heart

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October 21, 2009

By TIM MCDONALD The News and Tribune Wed Oct 21, 2009, 01:44 AM EDT

I am primarily a teacher. It was what I trained to do and is where my heart lies. While I have been involved in business for many years and am involved in business endeavors and board work, I still consider myself a teacher.

I find myself fortunate to teach in a small school where I get to know many of the students before I have them in my classes. I am also fortunate to work with fellow teachers who are dedicated to their students and to their profession. I constantly learn from them.

In this day and age of standardized testing, data-driven goals and the need to quantify everything, the heart of a teacher is qualitative and difficult at best to quantify. How do you quantify the characteristics of teachers who despite the circumstances can still find an encouraging word for even the most difficult or challenging student? It is no easier to quantify a teacher’s heart than it is to look into the future of each student and predict outcomes.

I can remember many years ago a few teachers who made a lasting impression on me. I was one of those rare students who was a news junkie, loved history and politics, loved to write and read literature.

In junior high school, I was really small for my age and did not hit a growth spurt until my junior year of high school. For my high interest in the aforementioned areas, I lacked self confidence and still do to this day. I was lucky to have teachers who recognized that and encouraged me and helped me build my confidence in my work.

Two of the finest teacher I believe I ever had were Marie Vass and Teresa Fleshman, who both taught me at Hazelwood Junior High School. These two women not only inspired me and encouraged me, but listened to me after class when I am quite sure they had other things to do. They also were authentic humans with the ability to use humor in their teaching and both were able to laugh at themselves.

Leadership gurus James Kouzes and Barry Posner have written books on leadership credibility. The Latin root of the word “credible” means “to believe.” A credible person is someone we believe in. Credibility is earned through consistency and doing what you say you will do.

With credibility as the essential ingredient of leadership, the five practices of what Kouzes and Posner call “exemplary leadership” are:

• Model the Way;

• Inspire a Shared Vision;

• Challenge the Process;

• Enable Others to Act; and

• Encourage the Heart.

Along with my cousin, Dennis — also a teacher who was my inspiration to pursue the profession — Miss Vass and Mrs. Fleshman exhibited the leadership characteristics described by Kouzes and Posner.

I also remember Mr. Delbert Graves. Mr. Graves was my eighth-grade woodshop teacher. I am quite sure that by watching me for only a week or so, he realized that Tim McDonald and woodshop was really an oxymoron.

He could easily tell that my adult future did not include a workshop in my home. However, he did recognize that I worked earnestly on my assignments and to the best of my limited ability. I passed his class with a B-. I labored on projects, including a bookshelf, that only a mother would accept. Mr. Graves realized that I had talents elsewhere and gave me a bit of latitude in my work.

I believe that most teachers truly exhibit what I recall in the teachers that I remember fondly. However, actions and words can sting negatively. I recall a Latin teacher I had that was more concerned with the neatness of her room than with helping students.

I still get a twitch thinking about her. She was really concerned if your desk exceeded the allotted floor tile space she assigned. She would come to your desk with a ruler and smack the desk and say “your desk is out of line, straighten up.”

I am cognizant of my actions daily and of what I say to students. Am I human and slip up occasionally? Yes, I am but a human being.

However, I do search for the good in each student. When students ask for letters of recommendation, I do not refuse. I try to find something of value in each and find their strengths of which I can emphasize truthfully.

More than the subjects that are taught and more valuable than the standardized tests are the values that are modeled in the classroom. I offer these belated thanks to those teachers whom I mentioned and my admiration of my colleagues at the school where I teach. My colleagues are among the best of the best.

Former Pepsico and Apple CEO John Sculley said, “We expect teachers to handle teenage pregnancy, substance abuse and the failings of the family. Then we expect them to educate our children.”

If it weren’t for the hearts of teachers, I personally do not think this country would be as great as she has become.

Tim McDonald is the author of “Water Torture: A Hoosier in Hong Kong.” He can be reached at timothy.mcdonald@agsfaculty.indwes.edu

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