Thoughts on Teaching & Learning
by
Philip Bigler
1998 National Teacher of the Year
On the Importance of Teaching
An old proverb asserts that "Civilization begins anew with each child." As an educator, I have found this statement to be both a vision of optimism as well as a dire warning. On one hand, our students are the intellectual heirs to Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Newton; the inheritors of a rich legacy of human progress traversing three millennia. Conversely, if we fail to successfully teach and educate our young people, we are just one generation removed from barbarism. I have always seen my role as a teacher to facilitate student learning in what will be a life-long quest for knowledge, to help ignite in them the spark of enlightenment, to motivate their interest, and to cultivate their minds.
My former principal once told me that to be a teacher is to forever remain an optimist. My educational philosophy is based upon this crucial fact and is grounded in the belief that all students can and should learn. I also have come to believe in an education system where excellence is expected and quality is the norm.
On Bringing New Teachers into the Profession
A school system's greatest asset is its teaching staff. Indeed, it is the classroom teacher who brings a curriculum to life, provides meaning to a subject matter, and inspires young people. As a result, the recruiting and retaining of quality educators has to become a major priority for all school jurisdictions.
It is imperative that all veteran teachers provide a strong support and mentorship system for their younger, more vulnerable colleagues and take a proactive interest in their well being.
Over the next decade, an entire generation of teachers will be retiring, resulting in countless school systems experiencing virtual turnovers in personnel. There is no more pressing responsibility for today's educator than ensuring that those new teachers currently entering the profession are well trained, competent and confident.
On the Accountability of the Profession
It is no mystery who the best teachers are in a school. Their reputation for excellence and their dedication is readily apparent and well known among parents, students, administrators and colleagues.
It is perfectly feasible and realistic to create an evaluation system that makes teachers accountable for their classroom performance. Teachers who are identified as having problems in the classroom should be given every opportunity to improve and the system should intercede with a strong support system. A deficient teacher should be given every opportunity to improve their skills and to modify his or her professional behavior, but if after a reasonable amount of time, they are incapable of effecting substantive change, they should be summarily dismissed.
In our society where a quality education is a basic prerequisite for success, there can and should be no excuse for poor teachers.
On the Schools of Today
After 19 years of teaching, I have learned that human progress is neither inevitable nor preordained. Civilization, as we know it, can quickly disappear and the very fate of our United States with its rich democratic history and ideals remains in our hands. Our survival as a nation is, ultimately, predicated upon the crucial decisions and choices that we will make in the near future.
The American public schools have become the modern day battleground with the classroom teacher engaged in a vital struggle to bring intellectual enlightenment and cultural enrichment to his students. In classrooms throughout the nation, thousands of dedicated teachers each day continue to find the courage to come to school with a renewed sense of hope and optimism, dedicated to making a better society.
In reality, our schools are just empty, impersonal places. It is the students, the teachers, and the principals who bring them to life and give them an identity. For a brief moment in time, these special people create a living, vibrant community of learners dedicated to the universal search for truth and, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "the illimitable freedom of the human mind."
