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An apple for the teacher© St. Petersburg Times published August 8, 2002 Florida public schools now educate 2.5-million students. One in two is poor. One in seven has a learning disability. One in 12 speaks little or no English. The schools they attend are the largest, in average enrollment, in the nation. The classrooms in which they sit have more students, per class, than 46 of the 50 states. The politics can be overwhelming: Every public school in Florida is now assigned a grade based on student scores on an annual state-issued standardized test. The grade is announced in a gubernatorial press conference, which is then followed by pointed fingers -- some politicians bemoaning the lack of "accountability" with others complaining that the results of the test are grossly distorted. Vouchers are caught up in a court fight. Schools districts are being told, in state law, the grading scale they must use in each classroom, how much money they can spend for administrative functions, the qualifications by which they must seek teachers. In the classrooms, though, the work is beginning again. Students throughout the Tampa Bay region are headed back to school, and the sight is consideringly more uplifting than the political clatter attending it. In the classrooms across this state, teachers have stapled construction-paper welcomes on their bulletin boards, scrawled their names across blackboards and helped tug uneasy 5-year-old children from the arms of their parents. A new school year means new opportunity, new hope and a new partnership -- one that has nothing to do with partisanship or politics. Albert Einstein once said that, "it is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge," and his point is worth remembering. The work of education is still quite human and decidedly individual, a wondrous endeavor that is built on the relationship between a competent and caring adult and an eager student. As the school bell rings in the midst of this election season, we can never forget the apple for the teacher.
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From the Times Opinion page Editorial Editorial Letters |
