President No Match for Teachers

By Greg Wilson

Editor/Publisher, Anderson Observer

    I watched the president's address yesterday with a bunch of third graders. Lights down, television on one of those raised brackets up in one corner. In the dim room, the volume was just right, the kids quiet and well-behaved.
    At the end of the speech, the teacher asked if there were any questions. There were three:
What is our math homework again?
Can I go to the bathroom?
Is it time to go?
    At least one boy finished his math homework during the short address, safe since all eyes were on the screen.
    I asked one girl, who appeared totally tuned in to the president's entire talk, what she thought of what he said and she replied: "I got kind of sleepy when they turned out the lights."
    Recognizing there is place for debate in all that is politics, and the right of parents to choose - and at least in this county, all parents were allowed to opt their youngsters out of viewing the speech - I walked away with a renewed belief that not much has changed since I sat in an old wooden desk in Mrs. Medlock's room back in the mid-sixties.
    We still had prayer in school back then, at least at my school. But the most passionate displays of prayer were those silent ones before math tests. So not much has changed there. My teacher worked hard to engage the classroom, much as the third grade teacher I witnessed yesterday, and we paid attention - to her. When anyone else, a substitute, the principal, a parent, anybody else talked, our eyes glazed over pretty fast. We didn't have television in the schools in those days, but we had film strip projectors, which more often than not would overheat and burn a spot on the film. When the lights went down and the scratchy record on the old hi-fi was synced to filmstrip, they all seemed to be about Bolivia in my memory for some reason, we got drowsy and our attention drifted to recess and lunch and going home to get out and play.
    I saw that same look in the eyes of those third graders yesterday. Which is why we need to worry more about making sure our teachers have the time they need to engage their students rather than getting a little too worked up about guest speakers in the classroom, whatever their political stripe.
    After the speech, I witnessed a teacher who had the captive attention of her classroom, a teaching assistant who they actually paid attention to, as if a brain switch had clicked "on" after the television was turned off.
    I can't help but wish the president had a video of that to show folks next time, one which shows how education is supposed to work.

Comments

[charlene king]

Great article! Made me smile...how true...it is the teacher who has the greatest impact on our kids!