Mira Costa Teacher Is Honored for 20 Years of Top-Grade Work

It’s unlikely that the fictional Ferris Bueller, the free-spirited truant in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” would play hooky from Marilyn Whirry’s English class.

Then again, one suspects Whirry would not rap his knuckles too hard if he did. To hear the Mira Costa High School teacher tell it, some students are a little too strait-laced these days anyhow.

“I’d like to see some rebellious spirit now and then,” the Manhattan Beach teacher said.

Dual Honors

Whirry was recently honored by the Southland affiliate of the California Assn. of Teachers of English as its outstanding English teacher for 1987. The Manhattan Beach City Council last month presented her with a certificate of commendation.

The 1,000-member affiliate selects its annual winner after culling through nominations received from a teacher’s colleagues and former students. No particular type of teacher has an inside track to the winner’s circle. One year, only elementary school teachers are eligible; the next, only high school teachers; the next, only college teachers.

As for Whirry, the award comes after 20 years of teaching English. During that time, she has earned a statewide reputation as an exemplary teacher.

“She is able to work with students and get the very best out of them without them being aware of what she is doing,” said L’Cena Rice, an assistant superintendent for the South Bay Union High School District, which operates Mira Costa.

Unlike some English teachers, Whirry does not stand in front of her classes droning on about this or that famous author. Nor does she spend endless hours instructing students on how to diagram sentences.

What she does is practice a teaching method known as “collaborative learning.” Essentially, students are divided into small groups, and, under her direction and through interaction with one another, learn language arts skills. As part of the method, for example, students critique each other’s essays for content, spelling, punctuation and grammar before they are handed in.

“She’s improved my writing at least 200%,” said 16-year-old Ben Cornner. The best part about being in one of Whirry’s classes, the honors student said, is that “it’s not the same thing every day.” Whirry said she does not believe she is doing her job unless her students are stimulated enough to take an interest in what is happening outside the classroom. For example, some of her students recently joined her in Los Angeles for an anti-apartheid demonstration after she told them about the event.

“If they are going to be readers but not action people, then I haven’t done my job,” she said.

Whirry concedes that the students who would prefer to nod off or daydream during class probably would not want her as their teacher. Her teaching method demands that students come to class prepared and willing to participate, she said.

More Work

The drawback to her teaching method, she said, is that it means more work for her. Because students have so much input, lesson plans change frequently, and she constantly has to revise them.

Nevertheless, Whirry said the pluses of her method far outweigh the minuses. And besides the professional satisfaction she gets from watching her students learn by working together, there is another benefit. Her pupils seldom give her any grief.

“I don’t have any discipline problems in any of my classes because they are so busy,” she said.