In Wednesday’s New York Times, author Marie Myung-Ok Lee shares her experiences as a student at Hibbing High School 30 years ago. An essay on the often unheralded value of good teachers, this is a loving tribute to two teachers who made an enormous difference in her life. Though I’m separated from her experiences by a few years and attended a different Range school, her words deeply resonated with me as well.
Countless students from Minnesota’s Iron Range received truly innovative educations from public school teachers allowed to work freely because, until recently, our immigrant culture valued education above all else. Today’s students still receive a good education, but the value that Lee recognized in her time is slipping, gently but more quickly each year.
She writes:
If we want to understand how much teachers are worth, we should remember how much we were formed by our own schooldays. Good teaching helps make productive and fully realized adults — a result that won’t show up in each semester’s test scores and statistics.
Lee’s entire piece is well worth your time this morning.
(h/t Fred Borgen)
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