A friend of mine dropped a Lord of the Flies reference right
in the middle of a recent conversation about her working environment.
My pithy response was not forthcoming because I remembered
reading the book in 10th grade English, but I was bored to sleep. I
retained none of the book, which was my loss.
What I did remember was my teacher that year, his insistence
we read classic works like The Odyssey and The Iliad and that the Isle of Lesbos is how we now
have the term “lesbian.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t accurately spell his name.
The staff directory at Booker High School noted he was no
longer working at the school. Eventually an internet search revealed I did
spell Mr. Kulikowski’s surname properly.
That internet search led me to look at whether other
teachers I remembered were still working at the schools they taught me. Though
I hardly kept up with any of them, and it’s very likely they have forgotten
about me, it seemed like a fun exercise.
Teachers may be undervalued and underpaid, but they have
immense value in our society. It seems incomprehensible that the starting
teacher’s salary is just $35,672. What’s worse was the legislatures that
used the recession as cover to slash funding for schools, eliminate classroom
positions and devalue public education.
Not every teacher is a memorable one, or someone worth
exalting. There are parasites in every profession.
But as I looked back at the four public schools I attended I
saw many of the people who molded my life are still molding the lives of
others.
My fifth grade teacher, Dwana Washington, is still teaching
at Emma E. Booker Elementary as a data coach. My seventh grade Social Studies
teacher, who was the son of one of my Sunday School teachers, has probably been
teaching my entire life and is still at Booker Middle School. Mr. Kulikowski is
gone, but there are others who still remain at Booker High School. Meanwhile Skip
Arrich, the hilarious physics teacher and very accomplished soccer coach — who once
promised to let me start at striker if I aced his test — has been at Rockledge
High School for at least 35 years.
The 90s seem like an eternity ago to me. To those
professionals, it was probably back when they had fewer gray hairs and more
control over their classrooms, but I digress.
Thinking about spending a couple decades at the same place
is a bit mortifying. Though a handful of people have suggested I become a
teacher, I immediately respond I’m not mature enough to teach.
I like learning, but was not a great student. I like sharing
ideas and information, but abhor the prospect of teaching. Longtime journalist Bill
Moyers may have summed up my attitude earlier this week in a conversation he
had on “Charlie Rose” when he said “journalism has been a
continuing course in adult education.”
Not all of us can be, or want to be, journalists. But Moyers
struck a chord. Those of us who care to learn something every day should thank
those who initially made learning fun — teachers.
Laughs and liveliness,
-Wb
