A Passion for Learning Drives National Teacher of the Year

Marilyn Jachetti Whirry, a teacher of Advanced Placement English in Manhattan Beach who today will be named National Teacher of the Year, never intended to spend her life in front of a classroom. A more exotic line of work, she felt, would better suit her adventurous spirit.

“I saw teachers as boring people,” the 65-year-old dynamo said recently in her classroom at Mira Costa High School. “I had no desire to be like them.”

In the four decades since she grudgingly entered a classroom and was bowled over by the experience, her boundless energy, infectious enthusiasm and tireless devotion to improving instruction have ensured that no one would label her a yawn-inducing pedagogue.

Whirry embodies the sort of passionate, knowledgeable instructor for whom schools are hungering as the public clamors for improved student achievement.

“I wish she could be cloned,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian who serves with Whirry on the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for national tests in reading, math and other subjects.

“She’s a throwback to the type of teacher people wish there were more of,” Ravitch added. “She loves teaching, she loves kids, she loves literature.”

At her 7 a.m. literature class Whirry fires off questions to rev things up. “How did this character get her name?” “Is there anybody else like her?” “This novel is existential. How?”

Wandering around the room, she picks up a book here, a book there, praising students who have made notations on numerous Post-its stuck to the pages. She urges students to mark up their books, making note of writing techniques and examples of symbolism. During the 50-minute class she uses her own high energy to draw every student into the conversation.

At an age when many teachers would happily retire, this grandmother of four maintains a punishing pace. A night person, she reluctantly agreed to teach back-to-back 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Advanced Placement classes this year at Mira Costa.

After teaching, she spends an hour grading papers and planning lessons. As head of the 20-member English department at Mira Costa, she also oversees 90 sections of English instruction and mentors other teachers.

She works three hours a day for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, coordinating the development of standards and assessments in several subjects. She also teaches at Loyola Marymount University and serves on the state panel overseeing development of the high school exit exam.

For all this, she was named National Teacher of the Year, the fifth Californian to be honored since the program was launched in 1952 and the first since 1994.

Whirry, who pronounces her first name Marlyn, moved from New Jersey to California when she was 18 because she has asthma and the climate was more healthful. While a graduate student at the former Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles in the 1950s, Whirry was less than thrilled to learn that teaching a college class would be a condition of her scholarship.

Although she planned for the assignment unenthusiastically, it took one meeting with students in Literary Criticism I to realize that she had found her calling.

“It was my epiphany,” she wrote in the application for the National Teacher of the Year contest, co-sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers and Scholastic Inc., a children’s publishing and media company.

After receiving her doctorate in contemporary literature from International College in Los Angeles, she dived into high school teaching in Massachusetts. She earned her California teaching credential and, in 1967, began teaching English at Mira Costa.

By her estimate, she has taught more than 4,000 students and been a mentor to countless other teachers. She is outspoken in her view that teachers should get more involved in matters that affect them, notably standards, assessment and accountability--even if that means missing an occasional day or two of school.

“We can’t sit back and complain, as some of us love to do, about the state of education and stay in our classroom,” she said.

Whirry often presents workshops for peers. Last summer she offered 28 sessions on reading and writing strategies. All told, she has given more than 350 workshops for teachers on reading, writing, standards and assessment, and collaborative learning.

She is a strong proponent of setting benchmarks for achievement and devising reliable ways to measure it. In recent years, she has devoted countless hours to the job of developing standards in everything from English and writing to mathematics, social studies and science.

Whirry said she is “fighting my tail off” to ensure that California’s high school exit exam gets properly off the ground. However, she is worried that the test is being devised too quickly because of the need to satisfy a legislative mandate. The exam must be ready for students by next spring because next year’s ninth-graders, the Class of 2004, must pass the test to qualify for diplomas.

“It’s outlandish to even expect this [so quickly],” she said.

Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, described Whirry as a stellar representative of the teaching profession.

Students past and present credit Whirry with turning them into fans of great literature. Each term, her students read two dozen books and plays--from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon”--and write more than 30 essays. They also analyze and write poetry.

“She expects a lot out of you,” said student June Kim, 17, who added that “it’s really hard to get a good grade in her class.”

“The thing that differentiates her from most of my other teachers is, she’s very enthusiastic,” said Eric Schmale, 18, who plans to study history or economics at Princeton next year. “Most teachers just aren’t that excited about teaching.”

Motherly in her approach, Whirry perches on a stool in front of her 7 a.m. class, cheerful despite the early hour.

As bleary-eyed students wade into a discussion of novelist Morrison’s characters, Whirry sprinkles her comments with terms of endearment. “Explain that, dear,” she tells one student.

Whirry conducts her classes in what students describe as a “Socratic seminar.” Everyone is encouraged to speak, and every opinion is valued.

“We teach each other all the time,” Whirry said.

Six years ago, while receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer, Whirry continued to teach. When she showed up bald in class, students volunteered to buy her groceries and carry her books.

As she learned several years ago, her influence is lasting. She was invited by Stanford University to help honor Jim Hugunin, a 1988 graduate of Mira Costa who was among the top 12 graduates at Stanford’s School of Engineering. Hugunin and his top-ranked peers had each been asked to invite one teacher who had been most influential. Whirry was the only teacher in the bunch who did not teach science or math.

Now a developer of programming languages, Hugunin thanked Whirry for helping him to develop an ability to express ideas clearly in his writing. The skill, he said, benefits him daily.

The year ahead promises to be a whirlwind for Whirry, beginning with a round of splashy media events in Washington. At a Thursday reception, President Clinton will present her with a crystal apple.

One thing she won’t be allowed to do is take the parachute jump one of her two sons gave her for her birthday.

“They’re afraid I might break a leg and won’t be able to fulfill my duties,” she said.