For All The Good Things You’ve Done For My Children, Thanks

We delivered our youngest daughter to Whitman College recently. It was a bittersweet experience.

It was also a time to reminisce. As we sat through hours of parent-orientation classes that seemed designed to prevent buyer’s remorse, I realized a couple of things.

First, what they were telling us was true. They had a right to be proud of shaping an exceptional institution and molding outstanding graduates. The best of America’s higher education is the best in the world.

Second, I realized that despite all the grousing about secondary education in America, we parents can be thankful for the teachers who have shaped our children’s interests.

OK, so my daughters don’t spell as well as I do. Don’t mistake rote memorization skills with thinking skills or even knowledge base. Students today understand more about DNA and genetics than most of us will ever know - unless we did graduate-level science work.

I recently heard a middle-aged doctor talking about his study of fruit flies in college. He couldn’t remember whether it was his final year of college or his first year of med school. Our daughter - and hundreds of Spokane students - did the same research in high school last year.

High school students face a knowledge base many times larger than our generation faced in college. The teacher who taught her in that biology class greatly affected her hopes for the future. His love of science infected her.

In her words, he demanded that she know more than the answers. She had to know what the answers meant. His class was tough but she loved it and learned to love science. Thanks, Bill Wagstaff, for being a positive role model for our daughter.

Our youngest daughter’s other great love is music. She reluctantly joined the Northwood Junior High Choir in seventh grade. Soon, she wanted private voice lessons. She struggled through stage fright to perform at the Spokane Allied Arts Festival.

In her freshman year, she even competed in the jazz solo competition at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. All because one teacher shared his love of music in a way that affected hundreds of students.

Thanks, Shawn Wright. She will never lose the gift of loving music.

Likewise, our oldest daughter had two teachers who shaped her academically. A history teacher at Mead High School who’s legendary for his college-type lectures and tough essay tests taught her the skills she needed to succeed in college. He provided affirmation of her ability to succeed academically.

Thanks, Greg Schultz. She still uses the note-taking and essay-writing skills you taught her.

Her toughest subject is still math. But one exceptional teacher nurtured her through the maze of hypotenuses and Euclidean algorithms. Long before studies were published on the subject, this teacher intuitively knew that Mozart could improve math learning skills. So she played it in the classroom while students worked. She holds a doctorate and is in demand nationwide as a consultant. But her first love is teaching students. They, in turn, love her. My daughter went to her for help long after leaving her class.

Thanks, Cheryl Mockel, for always being there and sharing your love of math.

Other good teachers nurtured our daughters through school. Brock Taylor took lots of flak for giving his students too much freedom; but in that freedom, many learned responsibility.

Likewise, the administration people in the Mead School District deserve credit. If you doubt that their first priority is students, drive by the administration offices - they rival Quonset huts - then drive by the new high school.

Great teachers will continue to help this year’s students, despite the bad press today’s schools receive. Most of us can remember a couple of exceptional teachers who molded our lives. Rest assured, they still exist.

I suspect most of them would agree education reform is needed; but they’re already practicing the most important element of good education.

It’s an element some parents are missing themselves: direct involvement in a student’s life by sharing a love of learning.

Maybe - at the start of the school year - it’s a good time to remember these exceptional teachers and thank them.

xxxx