I'm not that big a Kathleen Parker fan--I have referred to her as "our side's Maureen Dowd" more than once and apparently the Pulitzer Committee agrees, bestowing this year's prize for commentary upon her.
That said, this is a lovely column, evoking many memories in me of great teachers I had who challenged and inspired me. Art Sharon. Jack Kunz. Jim Forrest. John Jenks. Sam Evangelista. Men of great wit and learning, men of superb intellect and poise. Marianne Brindisi belongs on any list of great and influential teachers in my life, branding me with a love of the German language that persists to this day.
I come down on teacher unions hard in this column, but my goodness, how I respect teachers....ironic, and perhaps inconsistent. But it is what it is.
H/T: NRO
Friday, April 16, 2010
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4 comments:
Isn't it?
Loved Jim Forrest in the classroom. Not so much love on the baseball diamond. Knew and greatly respected (and had fun drinking with) Jack Kunz but never had class with him. Mr. E was a peach. I didn't know John Jenks. I heard great things about Art Sharon but never had him as a teacher. Gerald Scofield was the man for me.
Nothing at all inconsistent about loving teachers but hating teachers' unions. I'm in the same boat. I still believe the best two actions we could take to improve education (and unleash educators to educate) in this country is to eliminate teachers' unions (hell, eliminate all unions) and eliminate the Department of Education. Neither has done anything but contribute, at great expense to taxpayers and, in the case of unions, the teachers themselves, to the decline of education in our country. If you love teachers, I don't know how you can do anything BUT come down hard on the unions and the Department.
Well at least she mentioned William Faulkner. As any educated person knows, Southerners are the ONLY real American contributors to world literature. And please don't bore me with Emily Dickinson. All she was was some mad Yankee shutin who never left her yard for 40 years and wrote a little "passable" poetry. And I'm aware of Thoreau and Emerson and yes I agree they were great men but I don't consider what they wrote as literature. They were more in the realm of philosophy and politics. Samuel Clemmons, Flannery O'Connor, O'Henry, Tom Wolfe (and Faulkner); those folks are the cream.
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