A Model Teacher Requires Daily Miracles

Supermodel Linda Evangelista recently remarked, “It was God who made me so beautiful. If I weren’t, then I’d be a teacher.” Now, I have never strolled down a runway and so may be quite mistaken, but it seems to me that teaching requires a great deal more divine intervention than posing. Some days imparting even one thing to one child feels like a minor miracle.

That is why Gov. Pete Wilson’s plan for a ballot initiative next November requiring teacher evaluations to be based on students’ test scores troubles me. Teachers should be held accountable for student performance, but there is no simple formula for equating teaching with learning.

All I have to do is compare two of my own classes to illustrate the problem. In my honors class, all but three or four students have made significant gains since September. Each of these teenagers has read eight books, written six essays and taken part in daily class discussions about literature. As a result, I can demonstrate with papers from their portfolios that their writing has improved dramatically. Though we have no comparative test scores for these students, I believe their ability to read challenging texts also has increased. They certainly have had plenty of practice.

During this same interval in my regular English class, all but three or four students have made little progress. Those few students who have aren’t necessarily smarter than the rest, nor were they privy to a magic formula for pleasing Mrs. Jago. They simply paid attention in class, completed their homework, studied for tests and read the assigned books. The others did not.

Rating my performance as a teacher on the basis of student growth from the honors class would make me look like a superteacher. Using the regular class as a measure makes me seem barely adequate. Same teacher, different results.

Not all low student test scores are the products of poor instruction. If teachers are to be held accountable, and I believe they should be, so must others. School principals must be held accountable for providing a safe environment for teaching and learning. They need to find alternatives for disruptive students so that those who want to learn are able to work. They also must keep administrivial distractions to a minimum and consider classroom time sacred.

Students must be held accountable, too. Though many by necessity work in the evening to support their families and have limited time for school work after 3 p.m., too many waste the learning time they have. Every day I see students in class doing anything but what their teacher has asked: flipping through Bride magazine, writing notes, chucking sticks of gum across the room, staring off into space. This behavior is rarely seen in an honors class.

I accept responsibility for students who do not engage as I would hope and I will continue to try the best I can to find ways to motivate them. Test scores depend on it. What I refuse to do is turn my lessons into games and pretend that learning does not require determined student effort.

I suppose it’s possible that supermodels have special insight into how to teach children and that education would benefit enormously from their contribution were they not so beautiful. For the time being, however, I would advise Linda Evangelista to keep her day job.