Education Month

To all kids, adult students and teachers and other educators returning to school, my wishes for a great school year. America's greatest investment in its future is in public education. A much maligned system but the system that has made America great through access to a pathway to the American dream. It is your bridge to being a life long learner and the most valuable of intergenerational gifts. If there is a teacher that lit this fire, try to figure out how to pay homage to their legacy.

So it's just easier to multitask and start with my Facebook post but being that it's September and the beginning of school, I just wanted to reflect on education for a couple of minutes. Now, as I said I work in education so I usually steer away from it so this is more of a tribute to school.

I'm a man of many words who is enchanted by the sound of his own voice. I'm intellectually arrogant and very thankful for those who have brought me down this path, because, my friends once you get into middle age, there is nothing more annoying than a dumb@ss, ignorant, f#ck. I'd rather have someone says something crazy that they made up instead of just parroting something idiotic that they heard somewhere else.

So just a couple teachers to think of. Not necessarily the best but memorable nonetheless. There was a series of teachers in junior high and high school who seemed more concerned with some weird code of discipline than if any learning was taking place, organizing kids, sorting them out, sometimes by academic achievement, sometimes by sports talents or who their parents were. Wanting you to memorize prepositions or some other nonsense instead of spending time on learning and critically thinking. But good or bad, these are experiences that build us and if you can reflect critically and clearly can help you to figure alot out, the greatest gift of age is reflection.

First from Maury Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, Mrs. Smith, I can barely remember her but I remember being pulled out of Elementary school classes for something called CLC. So instead of Mrs. Gill making you hold a trashcan over your head in punishment (because I guess that's what they do in Korea) we interviewed people, got to make announcements for Black History month over the loudspeaker (where I learned about Harriet Tubman)and put together a newspaper. And read whole books, not just little kid crap.

Next I can think of Mrs. Francis, famous in Harwich Public Schools as the meanest teacher ever. Fireball Francis scared the hell outta kids, she would throw the classes papers onto the ground if they were unalphabetized, and generally just make kids lives hell. However once when I asked her why some Indian slums had television attennas, she said to me "well Nyal, some people would rather have a hot dog on a silver platter than a piece of roast beef on a chipped plate". Stuff like that just sticks with you.

High school is a mess. For us boys, we seemed more concerned with throwing stuff at each other and general horseplay and mischief than anything else. We went through 4 9th grade earth science teachers including a green beret reservist before they find someone who could actually make it, and that was a 22 year old female UMass grad. I admired the former Ms. Farrell who left being a nun to teach English to us, Mr. Lynch who handed me one of my favorite books Man's Search for Meaning as a 13 year old 9th grader (which is difficult to reconcile with the same kids who were tossing wax peeled off from lab tables at each other)but ultimately it was Mr. Larson, a 12th grade government teacher who inspired all. I'm not sure how he ended up there at Harwich HS. Hippie, Deadhead graduate of Berkley who just blew everyone's mind by making you think and learn. Read 1984 and discuss current world politics, there are few kids you'll meet who weren't completely blown away by this man, no matter where you were in this highly tracked system, his NEED TO KNOW tests were stoppages in time, where every senior would actually study, this in a high school where few needed to bring home books, and homework was usually done on the bus, during study hall or wherever you could crib and cram quickly.

There's people I have to thank on the College level, Sally Polito at CCCC who told me I didn't really know how to write and then remarkably, taught me how to do it. Roberta Roberts at Framingham who taught me how to research, Catherine Walsh at UMassBoston who taught me about teaching and ultimately Sonia Nieto at UMass Amherst who exemplified what it was to be a Latino educator.

It's difficult to illustrate what a great educator is, our educational experiences are the sum of these educators, the books and other media we consume, the students we study with and those self-guided explorations of life and education outside the schoolhouse. Much of what I think we learn is in the context of those life experiences, work, love, friendships, travails, etc. But in the exploration of our common experiences, particularly those of us in public education we must appreciate the gift that we were given. It is the best investment we will ever make as a society.

Generations of Americans have come here searching for this opportunity. In fact, in the greatest of repressions against African Americans, during and after slavery, education, even the most functional literacy education was denied to African Americans. It is so shameful to see those that today will push those opportunities away after so many have suffered and struggled.

So, in my few last attempts to be serious before I start haranguing on the Republican clown car. Thanks, teachers. Thanks for everything.