Green’s school levy passed this past month along with Springfield’s and many other local levies. Having spent well over 40 years associated with public education at all levels, I believe I have encountered just about all the reasons…pro and con…why levees pass and why they fail.
However, notwithstanding the critical role that finances play in contributing to an effective public education system, that is not the topic of this article.
Rather, I would like to reflect on two concepts - ”The good teacher” and the legal notion of “in loco parentis” - and how I believe in some large way the relationship of the two contributes to why some students are able to succeed in spite of the financial struggles of their school system.
The term, “in loco parentis,” is from the Latin that means “in the place of a parent.” Perhaps the most common usage of the term relates to teachers and students. For hundreds of years the English common-law concept shaped the rights and responsibilities of public school teachers; and, until the late nineteenth century, a teacher’s legal authority over students in the public schools was as broad as that of parents.
In one of the earliest cases, State v. Pendergrass (1837) the courts ruled that the teacher is a “substitute” for the parent.
You might be asking…how does this “in loco parentis” notion relate to defining or identifying the “good teacher?”
I happened across an interesting collection of essays written by recent Carnegie Professors of the Year, entitled “Inspiring Teaching: Carnegie Professors of the Year Speak, edited by John K. Roth. In Chapter one, entitled “What Makes a Good Teacher,” there is a list of ten qualities that represents one person’s view which I happen to share, and which I believe draws into focus the relationship between “in loco parentis” and a “good teacher.” While his essay elaborates fully on each of the ten qualities, the following is the author’s succinct summary of the qualities, and some excerpts from his essay which I believe are most instructive:
“…Good teachers are those who want to be good teachers, who take risks, who have a positive attitude, who never have enough time, who think of teaching as a form of parenting, who try to give students confidence at the same time that they push them off balance, who motivate by working within the students' incentive systems, who do not trust student evaluations, and who listen to students...
But good teachers seem to find that the caring that goes into their teaching feels a lot like the caring that goes into parenting. It means knowing when to stand firm on a deadline or a standard of excellence, and when to bend or apologize. It means knowing when to give students someone to talk with, when to be the rock that students can test themselves by trying to move out of the way, when to protect students from the ugly evils of the world, and when to let them face those evils in all of their ugliness. It means knowing the difference between soft caring and tough caring. It means recognizing that students are adults, sort of, but children, sort of.
Looking back, I know that as a student I found several father and mother figures among my teachers. And now, at a time in my life when all four of my own children are in graduate school, I know that they are finding replacement parents out there, teachers who are continuing and in some ways correcting the job my wife and I did as parents…” [emphasis added]
[“Inspiring Teaching: Carnegie Professors of the Year Speak by John K. Roth, Editor (1977)]
This past year, I had the personal privilege of being inducted into Akron’s South High School’s Hall of Fame, along with 12 other alumni of our now decommissioned Akron high school.
During the induction ceremony at South High, I was humbled as my fellow graduates of years ago, before and after my attendance, had their accomplishments recounted. Among the inductees were corporate executives, several attorneys, a judge, a former Summit County Prosecutor, a gospel singer, and many others who had excelled in their personal and professional achievements. None of the inductees boasted their wealth or position, but rather expressed gratitude for their public school experience and for the influence their individual teachers and counselors had made upon their life.
During that short ceremony, I came to realize what I already knew, but which many of us probably take for granted. Over and over again, each of the inductees recounted the influence and support that a particular teacher or teachers or counselors had made on their career, their profession, and their future.
These are difficult economic times for Ohio, and for its citizens.
Yet, these are exactly the times that students, whether in first grade or twelfth, look to their teachers for guidance, advice and direction.
Parents and governmental leaders would do well to recognize and embrace the role of our teachers and their influence on the future of our children. Clearly, the most distinctive competitive advantage of any good school system is having good teachers…that is, good teachers that are not only competent professionally, but who approach their position with common sense and an appropriate “in loco parentis” attitude of their role.
