Not Once but Twice

I watched the Emmys tonight (surprisingly entertaining but I had taped it). Not once but twice two of the Emmy winners said thank you to teachers.

The first was a director from Glee who said the show was about the arts and he wanted to thank all the arts and music teachers. (Irony, of course, is that at the rate we are going, there might not be room in the day for those things. Think about it. If they want to cut every other Friday to a half-day, what do you think might go?)

The second time was another winner (I'm thinking it was an actor) who said thank you to teachers who helped him learn something.

I note that in most awards shows after people get thru thanking their agent, their parents, their director and their wives/families, the next people in line tend to be teachers.

So thank you, teachers, for inspiring others.

Comments

Eric M said…
You can also thank us teachers for becoming the unwitting and undeserving scapegoats of every social ill in the United States.

We take the role of scapegoat seriously, and are now willing to give up, well, everything: working conditions, class size, self-determination, professionalism, etc.

We pledge to ignore research and stand aside while rich smart guys experiment on kids.

To the extent that we teachers have stood in the way of the rich unmined entrepreneurial opportunities that exist in public education, we apologize.
seattle citizen said…
Here's a link to a fun little ditty about how art and music will no longer be part of the curriculum:

http://www.myspace.com/
notonthetest

But as Eric writes, I'm sure teachers are ready to support the work of those hedge fund operators, test companies, and charter school salivators: I think teachers are ready to accept their responsibility for standing in the way of progress (efficiency) and let all that "extra" stuff like music and art fall by the wayside.
Eric M said…
I'm sure the Superintendent's NWEA company can come up with some standardized tests that measure art. :)
seattle citizen said…
Yes. Art is, of course, just that that has been done before: students will study the past masters and emulate them. If they get creative, if they create something different, of course their RIT score will decrease, as the program has no knowledge of this new thing.

Students who memorize and copy the past will get high scores.
Teachermom said…
The man who played Temple Grandin's teacher in Temple Grandin talked about how honored he was to be able to play a teacher who believed in a unique child with unique gifts. That was a nice moment.
karyn king said…
Why is it I wonder that creative people often recognize the role of teachers in their lives, while those in the business sector do not? Bill Gates spends a lot of time telling us how teaching needs to be "fixed," but I have been unable to find where he acknowledges that teachers helped him become the mega-millionaire that we see today.
Josh Hayes said…
Karyn, you just jogged my memory - in Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, he goes on at some length about the "practice effect" -- that people get really really good at things only after putting in thousands of hours of practice. Examples he used included the Beatles (legendary endless gigs in Germany before they were noticed) and Bill Gates, who got the opportunity to program on a time-sharing terminal at Lakeside because a teacher there wangled it from a friend of his. I wonder if Bill credits that teacher with his (Gates's) success?
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