Jun 5, 2008 12:22 PM
At business or social events I’ll mention that I spent a career teaching at James Madison HS and someone will perk up, “I went to Madison.”
I always ask, “Who was your best teacher?”
They almost always say “Mr. Greenman.”
Bob Greenman was an English teacher, and taught the journalism classes. In addition to being a superb teacher — using The New York Times as a textbook — Bob has written a number of books on journalism and on words, called “Words that Make a Difference.”
At one point the principal enticed the superintendent to observe Bob. It was, as always, a magnificent lesson, and the superintendent asked for Bob’s lesson plan. Bob explained that he was up well past midnight marking and commenting on student work and he knew what he was going to teach so he didn’t write a plan.
The superintendent said, “Wouldn’t it have been an even better lesson if you had written a lesson plan?”
Bob responded, “No, if I had stayed up another hour writing a lesson plan I probably would have been so exhausted that I would have called in sick.”
The principal commented on the lack of a lesson plan in his observation report and Bob, saying he couldn’t work for someone who didn’t appreciate him, transferred to a neighboring school.
A few years later the principal was moving on to another job. His acolytes were preparing a journal and asked staff members for comments about the principal’s “contributions.”
I wrote, “He’ll always be remembered for driving Bob Greenman out of Madison.”
As we look back on our days of schooling we don’t remember the principals or the superintendents or the chancellors, we remember the teachers, those iconic figures who change lives.
Once, when my wife, also a teaching “lifer,” was on a Lobby Day bus ride to Albany, a woman saw her and shrieked, “Mrs. Goodman, she taught me how to read!”
I tell those about to become teachers, “This is the hardest thing you will ever do.” And, sure enough, a few months into the job, haggard, bedraggled, they ask, “When will it get easier?”
For some, never. Some of us have the teaching gene, some acquire it and, unfortunately, some never do. We are the writers, actors, producers, directors and reviewers of a play with a run of one day. Each and every day we are back on that stage, those eager, or not so eager, faces smiling, or glaring, at us.
We wonder when we will get The Look, the ability to simply say, “Ladies and Gentleman” and have kids scramble into their seats.
The denizens of Tweed, many of whom have read “the research” but have never taught, are convinced they have an answer. Some policy or program or directive or press release that will improve the lives for those kids sitting in the seats.
If we’re lucky we work in schools where the principal always remembers to serve hot coffee and “comestibles” at every meeting. Where she or he makes sure the Teacher’s Room has Internet access and the duplicating machines have paper and are always working.
If we’re lucky, we work in schools where the principal listens to our frustrations, encourages, supports and truly leads.
If we’re lucky we worked with superintendents — until they faded away — who picked the right principals, hired the right support staff and understood that their primary job was to support teachers.
I hate to tell the chancellor but the conversation in Teacher Rooms is not about his latest initiative.
If only he had known Bob Greenman he might have understood a little better what teaching is really all about.
Now retired, Peter Goodman taught social studies for 33 years at James Madison HS. He was the UFT’s District 22 representative for 27 years.