RARE GEMS

Rare Gems ... you know ... those special people who come along occasionally and utterly amaze you with their kindness, generosity or capabilities of this kind or that. A RARE GEM crossed my path today! She's Turtle's Teacher, Ms. O'H.! The kids have been back to school for 5-6 weeks now, and not a day has passed that Turtle hasn't come home with glowing praise for this woman! I have been most pleased, of course, because we've never had a teacher, for Hoppy, Turtle or Fish, who has ranked this high in my children's minds (though admittedly a couple have come close in their estimation ... and one more in my estimation). But ... being a born skeptic, I have been only cautiously happy. After all, what person is really THAT PERFECT?

I did not escort Turtle to his classroom on the first day of school, as I have done in the past. Turtle and Fish attend separate schools ... and both transferred to new schools this year. Turtle's school handles 4th and 5th while Fish's school does 2nd and 3rd. The schools have different start times and in the past I have managed to take one to his class and then the second to his class in the different school. This year however, the schools they are attending have start times only 5 minutes apart. Since the schools are 3 miles from one another, there was no way I could do both kids this year. Father Monkey delayed going to work long enough that day to escort Turtle to school. So ... he met the teacher, briefly, but I did not.

I intended to stop by and introduce myself ... but the best of intentions often goes to the dogs ... and until today, I had not met her. Today I went for the obligatory mid-grading period conference (we get notices telling us when to show up ... NOT asking if we want to come!). I knew she must be pretty good because Turtle does not hand out compliments lightly ... you gotta deserve them in his book. But as I said ... I am a skeptic. To my surprise and delight, Ms. O'H. just exuded good naturedness, and COMPETENCE! She is one of those rare people who is doing what God made her to do ... teaching children! She appears to know kids well ... and how to deal with the often 20 very different personalities in any given class year. From what I can see, she does it with finesse! She's not an easy teacher ... Turtle comes home with a ton of homework daily. But, while some of it is straight (read: boring) book work, some is creative and fun! Most importantly, she requires them to use their brains! This should not be a novel concept, I know, but I have seen too many lackluster, do the minimum only, type teachers in my 8 years of experience with the school system. As such, I have little faith left, sad to say. But even with the homework load, and requirement to use his brain, Turtle comes home EVERY DAY talking about how great his teacher is (doesn't much care for all the homework ... but the teacher is fantastic!). As she and I talked, my confidence in her grew. She's bright, fun natured, and genuinely seems to love her job. What really hooked me was her comment "I don't teach to the FCAT (Florida Standardized Tests taken each year from 3rd -12th grade and required to pass/graduate). I teach the children using State Curriculum Guidelines, and focus on educating them! I do not let a child move on until he gets the current concept being taught. I do not believe in teaching kids how to take tests (many teachers spend the school year essentially making sure the kids can pass this test ... with the consequence that true understanding of given concepts often get left in the dust. For instance, what does it really matter if the child truly UNDERSTANDS how to write paragraphs, just so long as he can write something passable in the 45 minutes he is given. It is all a very formulaic theory that assumes that all kids are the same/learn the same way ... which is of course phooey!).

This "teaching to the test" concept (openly touted by many teachers and administrators alike) has always been a bug in my craw ... after all ... a person's success or failure in life is not going to be dependent on some stupid test score! And besides that, test scores do not always reflect the true abilities of the child. I know this personally. My standardized test scores as a kid always showed an average child with average abilities. Well ... I graduated 2nd in my highschool class of 180, and 1oth in my college class of 22o (Magna Cum Laude). I have a Master's Degree + (additional coursework beyond Master's Level, but not a complete degree), and, I can talk/discuss/debate intelligently on a wide variety of topics, including many outside my area of "expertise." All this from an "average" child! Some kids are not successful test takers no matter how much you "train" them ... I was one of those kids.

So ... Here's to you Ms. O'H! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!