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UNSPOKEN THANKS
What a teacher should be
We'd like to congratulate Cindy Didawick
of Shelburne Middle School for being chosen Staunton's Teacher of the
Year. We hope she will do well in regional competition and will
eventually make it to state level. Even if that is not to be, she has
received a great honor and deserves praise.
Didawick is not alone in deserving praise. Most educators, public or
private, deserve it as well, but rarely get it. Most labor in obscurity,
gaining little and giving much. As Didawick said in the story about her
in Saturday's edition, “That's not just me ... all the teachers (at
Shelburne) teach life.” It's important to recall that, if only to keep
things in perspective.
There has been much bad news about educators in our area of late. How
these stories will eventually play out remains to be seen, and we will
not try them on the editorial page. We can safely say that none of the
individuals involved will be singled out for honors anytime soon,
though.
It is unfortunate that the handful of
teachers who let our children down by harming them in some fashion,
failing to educate them properly or by setting a bad example get so much
attention and give education a bad name. These individuals play into the
hands of education's foes and are the root cause of so many of the
albatrosses that good teachers must wear around their necks: Teaching to
tests, rote learning, No Child Left Behind and so forth.
We expect so much of the people who educate our children, as we must. We
trust they will nurture them, praise them when they do well, correct
them gently when they do wrong. We expect them to pass down knowledge of
the right sort. In other words, we expect them to be better than most
parents. When teachers fail, we are betrayed. Trust is broken then, and
broken trust does not mend quickly.
While those who break that trust must be held accountable, it's
important to remember that these failures are the exception, not the
rule.
Editorial in The News Leader
10 May 2005
http://www.newsleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050510/OPINION01/505100315/1014/NEWS01
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