It's pretty easy for me to say that Mr. Callahan was the best teacher I ever had. Much more difficult is the task of explaining what exactly makes that so. The stakes for making such a claim seem rather high right now, too, as many of the prevailing education reform narratives involve teacher assessment -- the identification and rewarding of great teachers and concomitantly, the elimination of the bad ones.
Many of these calls for "teacher accountability" tie teacher assessment to student assessment. And that's where I balk. There are no standardized tests by which you can assess Mr. Callahan's impact on me or on any of the thousands of junior high school students that took his Latin classes. It was Latin, after all, not a subject currently tracked as part of the litany of government-mandated examinations.
I did get an A's in Mr. Callahan's Latin classes, don't get me wrong. But I'm not sure you can make too much of that assessment either. I got A's in everything.
I can still rattle off Latin verb conjugations, and with a little brushing up, I imagine I could decline nouns quite handily. I don't know how much we want to make of 25 some-odd years of Latin retention, but it counts for something, I'd wager. More importantly, perhaps, the solid foundation Mr. Callahan gave me in Latin helped me easily learn French, Italian, and Russian. But that's not on "the test" either, is it?
Then again, the rules of grammar (English grammar, that is) probably are on some test -- somewhere. So thank you, Mr. Callahan, for the lessons in the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases. And a little Latin knowledge does wonders for your vocabulary as well. That's bound to come in handy on multiple choice tests, so again, thanks.
Understanding language's infrastructure is important (I'm a writer, so what do you expect me to say), but Mr. Callahan's Latin class involved much more than teaching these fundamentals. He taught us about Roman history and culture -- all in a way that was compelling, interactive and memorable. "Salvete!" his booming voice would begin class. "Salve!" we would stand and answer in unison.
He was a large man -- tall, balding, and round. So when he would lead the class on field trips, all of us dressed in our Roman togas and stollas (everyone was required to make one), I have no doubt we made quite a sight. This was Casper, Wyoming, I should add -- not exactly a place where you would expect to find a classroom re-enacting Saturnalian rituals. But we did. I can still recite the chants.
It feels incredibly corny to say, "He made a dead language come alive." And yes, that's part of what made him such a gifted teacher. But that's not quite the crux of it. At such a crucial age in a teenager's development -- eighth and ninth grade -- I'd say that Mr. Callahan's Latin class made a lot of us come alive.
There's a memorial page on Facebook dedicated to Mr. Callahan, who died of leukemia in 1998. The comments of former students echo mine here: "Mr. Callahan was the best teacher I ever had." "Of all the teachers I encountered during my public education, none had the impact upon me that Mr. Callahan had." "Hands down, the best teacher I ever had...at any level. All at once he was demanding, inspiring, funny, courageous, compassionate, intelligent, witty, silly, and human." "He made class interesting and fun. He inspired us to dream."
That last sentence speaks volumes, I think. Mr. Callahan encouraged -- demanded, even -- his students embrace learning, find and hone our minds and our skills. Dream.
For me, this involved writing. I wrote two plays that our Latin Club performed for the school. He urged me to submit a collection of poetry to the State Young Authors Contest. He wasn't my English teacher, and now that I think of it, I wonder if he even got the "official" credit when I won. A poet and a playwright -- those are wild dreams for a ninth-grader from Wyoming. As a writer now, I am living those dreams, thanks to his support all those years ago.
I have a lot of great memories about Latin class, funny since I tend otherwise to shudder about junior high being so awful. But here's one that perhaps crystallizes why I remember him so fondly. Some background first: My ninth-grade year was rough. Things really sucked at home. This was 1986 -- the height of the Reagan era, (yet another) bust in the oil industry, a weakened Wyoming economy. My family's business -- a local grocery store -- closed its doors. Our dog died. My great-grandma died. I came to class one day to find a handwritten note from Mr. Callahan on my desk. It was a card offering his condolences; even more, it was one recognizing that I was struggling, and offering his support and encouragement as I moved forward.
A gesture like that is impossible to quantify if you're assessing a teacher solely based on students' performance, test scores, and grades. And while I don't know how you'd tie something like that card to graduation rates or future personal or career successes, it may be precisely the thing that matters and precisely what makes a teacher great. Gratias, Mr. Callahan.
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But I also had a really BAD algebra teacher (I won't name her--let's call her "Mrs. D"). Just horrendous--when she realized her method of teaching wasn't getting through my brain, she resorted to belittling me in front of the class. Bullying, we'd call it nowadays. Back then I just thought she had perpetual PMS or a mental condition.
She inspired me to become a teacher, because I knew--even if I was the least talented teacher on a faculty--I'd be a better teacher than she'd ever be. Because I'd be kind to my students, and if I couldn't help them, I'd find someone who could. 20 years later, I'll still have students that make me want to bang my head on my desk, but I'll think of Mrs. D and go: No, no. I'm going to work on this kid--my ego stays out of it. It's the opposite of what Mrs. D would have done.
Thanks, Ms. B, L, (and D). :-)
(but also--re declining nouns, how about, 'G.O.P. majority'? of 'Fox NEWS broadcast'? heh, heh)
It’s been almost 25 years since I failed a semester of Looney’s class—I didn’t write the term paper—giving him the perfect first line for my college recommendation: “Although Jason failed . . . .” By then both of us were on our way out of Dodge. I was off to college a year early, degree-less, prom-less, in dire need of something, anything, different. Looney’s story—he didn’t play well with others—I’m less sure about. Fired? Counseled out? Couldn’t run far or fast enough?
http://learnmeproject.com/2011/01/14/unity-coherence/
A sorely needed thank-you not only Mr. Callahan but to all the teachers who happen to read this. It's a deeply bruising affair to be a teacher these days.
It absolutely astonishes me that our version of accountability in education policy seemingly ignores the importance of teachers such as these. I'm all about holding the education system accountable for its students, but we must do so in a way that allows teachers to be creative and responsive to the needs of their students, not merely players in a numbers game.
One Republican said a teacher should be able to have 60 kids in a class. Let him do it!
Give him 60, 8th graders, every 55 minutes 5 times a day. 30 minute lunch but 15 min of that is lunch duty or bus-duty. Take roll, give each child individual attention, stop fights, help that little quit girl who is being abused at home, know a child is cutting himself, point out the learning disabilities, bullies, and get that done in 55 minutes!
No amount of Money will make teachers more "accountable". We need to test at first of year, then test subject at end of year. If all things are equal, I.Q., culture, english speaking, non-migrantory children. A teacher with no more than 28 students should be able to hit beyond the benchmarks!
We are not all equal! Educate the educable, train the trainable, and care for the rest!
"You were the best teacher I ever had because you helped me reach the Xth percentile!"
As teachers, our financial compensation isn't what keeps us in the profession. When we get students who return and let us know how they have been able to use what we taught that gives us pure reward. It's the shy girl who goes into the education profession and is now a school principal, and credits you with inspiring her. It's the boy who has been abused at home who is now an aeronautics engineer because he says you helped him believe in himself. It's the summer school students who proclaim, at the end of summer, "you taught us to love learning!" Those are the bonus payments.
So as we nationalize our education system, and the funding comes from the disconnected central government, when the performance fails, the only way they can manage effectively is to institute standards.
So here is the irony. Libs claim to want more flexibility and less standards on education, and yet they are supportive of a large and powerful Dep of Ed. So if you want education to improve, you have to localize it again, both funding and control and in the end, reconnect the student, teacher, parent paradigm. The cost of this is that certain districts are going to continue to fail - is that acceptable? Do we then go to welfare for failing districts, thereby promoting failure?
It's complex, but contrary to what libs want, the charter school system that is still in its infancy stage, is probably the best hybrid system out there. Oh sure it is a threat to the embedded unions, and is contrary to the "federal control" of education (as it offers local choice). But by and large, the education that is emerging in these schools is incredible compared to the adolescent, drug infested day-care we are providing at our main public educational institutions.
Everything needs to change. Not just the standards, everything. Standardization, doing away with unions and going the charter school route are simply more quick, cheap, and easy fixes politicians and those who don't work with real, live, actual students every day are now using as their latest fad. About 15 years ago, it was A Nation at Risk, 8 years ago--NCLB, today: charters and get rid of the unions. In another 10 years, when charters fail and bad teachers are still teaching (even though tenure and unions are gone), some other easy fad will come along and we'll be having these same type of conversations again.
The whole thing needs to be changed. Scrapped. Trashed. Started over, from the bottom up. Everything.
Union-bashing and charterizing are just sticking more band-aids on a bleeding, gaping wound.