The English Teacher

As the teacher stood before the classroom for the first time, there was no indication that he was the one who would be the compass guiding so many of the students forward through the maze of education toward enlightenment and helping each gain the essential skills of reasoned thought. Certainly, his reputation as the English teacher hinted at the unique experience that awaited, but there also were the eloquent detractors saying that other teachers provided a more fruitful experience and that this teacher’s reputation was built upon exaggeration. In the end, the truth was in the individual's progress and the outcome.

The teacher was not impressive visually. His small physical stature, thinning black hair and not-new suit and tie did not telegraph the intelligent passion and wit that would be displayed as one lesson followed the next throughout the year. Similarly, the students, having just awoken from the summer vacation in which their minds were put to little use other than the search for pleasure and entertainment, to the casual observer were not perched on the precipice of knowledge and exponential mental expansion. But, to the teacher, each student was fertile ground and he was the gardener granted the privilege (some would say the job, but to him it was much more than employment) to delicately plant the seeds, to nurture the seedlings with care, and to foster their growth into whatever plants would result.

At the outset, the teacher proceeded slowly and with guarded optimism knowing that sharing his entire plan and fully describing the path that stretched ahead could be counterproductive. Rather, he gave but a glimpse of the galaxy that was in their sky and described them as transient meteors that were being given the chance to gain a degree of control over their orbits. Those words elicited raised eyebrows from the students and internal questions about whether they had wandered into a science class by mistake. The verbal syllabus that followed assured the students that they were indeed in English I. The words that floated by enumerated the way stations along the road . . . Dickens, Shakespeare, Austen, Fitzgerald, Conrad, Golding, Crane, and their works A Tale of Two Cities, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, Lord Jim, Lord of the Flies and The Red Badge of Courage . . . but, although there was a ring of familiarity for some, for most the names and titles could have been in a foreign language. Then there was the teacher’s promise that was in the native tongue of the students . . . writing, grammar and diagramming. Like The Tale of Two Cities, the year would prove to me the best of times and the worst of times.

What followed were the teacher’s questions – “Are you ready to learn? Are you ready to challenge yourselves? Are you ready to be internally transformed? Are you ready to overcome the discomfort that comes as part of change? Thankfully, the questions were rhetorical for they were met with resounding silence. Yet, the teacher had seen the deer in the headlights response before and knew that the vulnerabilities of the nascent learners could be utilized to develop the passionate and intelligent graduates that he hoped to help develop.

And so, the teacher utilized all of the tricks of his trade teaching to each student according to the student’s needs and setting expectations for each student according to the student’s abilities. The teacher taught intelligently with a combination and balance of passion and compassion, seriousness and giddiness, urging and coercing. He taught with a crisp clarity and impelling style. He introduced the essential skills of analysis and refinement of ideas, the art of clear, concise written expression, and the ways to expand one’s self intellectually. He rarely, if ever, used his position or superior knowledge to dominate the classroom or to diminish the individual.

The teacher enjoyed the daily experiences and did not want to be alone in that enjoyment, and thus he viewed himself and the students as part of a bonded effort. He taught the students to recognize and appreciate the symbolism and the allusions, the subtleness of appearance versus reality, the fallibility of both characters and writers, the tensions within the text and that the text created in the reader, the balance between the rational and the irrational. During the year, even the occasional observer could recognize the creation of beginning thought and rational discourse as the teacher challenged the students to stretch beyond their self-imposed limits.

In the end, as he bid the class farewell, the teacher knew that although some were further along the path than others, each was well beyond the starting point and was closer to whatever endpoint awaited each. And, as he did every year after he watched the last of the students leave the classroom for the start of another summer, he sat back in his chair, lifted his feet onto his desk exposing the holes in his soles, reached down into his ever present well-worn leather briefcase, removed a tattered copy of Mr. Chips and, with a knowing Cheshire cat smile on his face, started once again with Chapter 1 and thought to himself, “all will be well”.

This entry was inspired by my high school English teacher, Dan Daly, who taught and inspired students for many years, and I was fortunate to be in his class for two years. In addition to teaching us English as described above, Mr. Daly was a role model for us and when I later taught grade school and middle school English, I often thought of Mr. Daly. For me, he was the special one who moves a student forward, beyond expectations, and for that, I am thankful. I also am thankful for Mr. Daly making detentions so enjoyable, and explaining to some of us (boys) that Little Red Riding Hood really is a sexual allegory.