My Learning Story
Kevin McCann
Washington, DC
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An homage to the teachers I remember most:To Mr. McCarthy, who told me once that I was "a great observer of the obvious." We debated together and as a class on whether this was a compliment or not. To this day I remember that debate, and I firmly believe it is a compliment. The obvious is paradoxically elusive -- a great deal of the time.
To Mrs. Conway, who taught Macbeth with such vigor that I reread it now, in my 30s, every couple of years. "Lay on, MacDuff!" she would shriek, and make the most uninterested student pay attention. This, after all, was a sword fight, and deserved attention, even if you had to learn.
To Mr. Neary, who had the demeanor of a lamp post but the passion of a martyr when it came to physics. I remember learning about waves and the distortion of light, sitting in the dark while each desk glowed with the tools of our experiments, learning through Neary's force of will, despite our best efforts not to.
To Mrs. Chisolm, who taught me how to play saxophone and made me understand the phrase "force of nature", and who believed I had enough talent to teach the kids in Grade 5 when I was just in Grade 10. You cared so much about what we did that you made us care about how we did it, and molded us so well that disappointing you would become an unthinkable act.
To Mr. Dawe, who spent a week in 1994 on Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path", and that week changed my life. How you taught was gripping, but what you taught changed how I appreciated literature, and caused me to think again about how observing the obvious wasn't all that easy after all.
It seems so clear that the most gifted and compelling educators practice their art with passion, verve, creativity and hard work. Yet at the same time, characteristics like these are hard to nurture and cultivate in an underpaid, stressful profession. My hope for my own children is to find schools where the balance has been struck; where great teachers work and thrive because they've been given the opportunity to really practice what they do, and not struggle as cogs in an impersonal student-assessment machine.