From Tallahassee, Florida

[QCao009@aol.com]

Posted on Fri, Mar. 05, 2004
 




Terrorists in the classroom, and why we need more

By Bill Berlow

ASSOCIATE EDITOR


Tonight I'm planning to consort with terrorists. I'm going with my wife to 
her middle-school faculty party.
She and several of her fellow teachers are dangerous subversives. Their 
mission, their passion, is to encourage critical thinking among their adolescent 
charges. To challenge conventional wisdom. To get them to consider ideas 
different from their own.
Don't tell anyone, though. You never know who may be watching or listening.
U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige's recent reference to the National 
Education Association as a "terrorist organization" caused a furor among teachers and 
their supporters.
Paige immediately acknowledged his remark as inappropriate, and I'm certain 
he knows it was an incredibly impolitic thing to say. Calling someone a 
terrorist these days is akin to calling a person a communist during the McCarthy era.
It's libelous - unless true.
So let's examine Paige's remark - not for its lack of tact or political 
correctness, but for its truth without the baggage that "terrorist" carries in 
today's context.
The best teachers are like terrorists, and if anything, there are too few of 
them.
No, they don't kill people or blow up buildings. But the best teachers 
relentlessly challenge their students and keep them from becoming too intellectually 
smug or comfortable. In other words, they keep them guessing.
It's a form of fear, but simultaneously an act of tough love. That strategy 
always managed to motivate me. Still does.
The college professor who had the most influence on me was a woman who evoked 
extremely strong feelings, both positive and negative, among her University 
of Florida journalism students.
She had little patience with those she decided weren't talented enough, a 
luxury that K-12 teachers can't afford. She undoubtedly suggested to many of them 
that they switch majors, because they wouldn't be able to hack it in a real 
newsroom.
Those who pursued other professions are probably thankful for her blunt 
advice. She saved them from a more difficult decision later on, and they've 
probably made a lot more money doing something else.
But my professor had all the time in the world for students she decided had 
potential to succeed as journalists. She was encouraging and funny, but 
consistently demanding. No matter how good my overall work was, she never hesitated 
to tell me when my performance fell short.
As friendly as she and I became, I never assumed that I'd get a break. She 
might even have been harder on me.
Great teachers inspire not only those eager to learn, but also those whose 
fuse hasn't yet been lit. Some will never be motivated, and teachers can't let 
those students drag the rest down. They become casualties in the education war 
- their loss deeply regrettable, but ultimately less important than the 
broader objective.
The public education bureaucracy's worst crime isn't intellectual terrorism, 
but complacency. Too often, rather than push kids to think for themselves, our 
public schools have been factories for the status quo.
The result is too many citizens who believe that "question" and "doubt" are 
dirty words. They're not. They're building blocks of freedom.
But I'm happy to report that many of the teachers I know see their most 
important job as stimulating students' creative juices and getting them to 
appreciate the value of open-minded inquiry.
Terrorists, every one of 'em.


Quan