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Written by: Gary Jones
It’s hard to believe that I am retiring after 32 years at New Plymouth High School. I came here in 1981, and I have been here ever since. I liked it here at NPHS and I saw no reason to try for greener pastures. I have learned a lot about life and teaching in 32 years, and I’d like to share some of them with you.
The first is the fallacy that teachers and students cannot be friends. When one uses the word friend in a negative way, I have a problem with that. I’m not advocating that I shoot whistle pigs with a student after school while drinking beer, because that is unquestionably wrong. However, there is more than one definition of the word friend. Here are a couple of definitions from the dictionary: 1) a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter. 2) a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.
In my career, I have made many life-long friends from my past students. I have had students cry on my shoulder because their parents never came to a game to watch them play. I had a girl tell me she was pregnant and she asked me if she should get an abortion. I told her no, and I taught her son in my class some 14 years later. We’ve had some tragedies through the years, and I have consoled students when their friends have died far too soon. Teachers and students often have special bonds that lasts a lifetime. I hunt with Derek and Jared Kovick, and I golf with their sister, Heather. I teach with one of my best friends, Kevin Barker, who I taught. Denise Oliver is my wife’s best friend and golf partner, and a good friend of mine. She is currently the A.D. at NPHS. And, of course, I am very good friends with the CEO of idahopsorts.com, Paul Kingsbury. He was not just a student of mine, but my TA who assisted me in teaching and coaching. So I would tell you that using the word friend in a negative way is a mistake.
For 32 years I have had to listen to politician after politician say that if they are elected they will fix the broken education system. Well, I have some news for them. Education is a three legged stool: parents, kids, and teachers. If the teacher is good, the student tries, and the parent disciplines their kids when they don’t care about school, the system works just fine. After all, those politicians who think they have the answers must think they are well educated, and guess which system got them there? The very one they say is broken. Look, I can be an excellent teacher who does everything right, but I cannot make a kid listen and study. So when he does poorly, it is not my fault and we are not a failing school. Kids that try succeed, while kids that don’t try fail.
Are there poor teachers out there? Yes, and they should be fired, but the whole concept of “no child left behind” is ridiculous. Not every kid studies and follows the rules. If a kid is disruptive and eventually is kicked out of the class or the school, he has left himself behind. If we are held accountable for our mistakes, some of us don’t make it to the finish line, and education is no different.
What has always amused me is how everyone tells me how to be a good teacher and what schools need to do to improve. It would be like me telling you what to do at your job even though I am never there and I don’t know what you actually do. I guess since we have all gone through high school as a student, we think we know what it is like to be a teacher, but think again. Unless you have walked in a teacher’s shoes, you do not know what the job is about.
I used to say that I would be a teacher in my next life but I don’t say that anymore, and that makes me sad. My classroom with kids has always been great, but the political side of teaching is horrific now. Kids are completely over tested and a test is the only tool we want to judge teachers by. Did you hear of the recent Idaho politician who misquoted history when he used Rosa Parks in the wrong context? The immediate reaction was to make a new resolution to make sure schools taught this. Did it ever occur to anyone that this guy learned it in school but forgot it some 20 years later? After all, I knew every amendment to the constitution at one time in high school, but I don’t remember them all now. Do they really expect us to always remember everything we learned in school, even after decades? And why do we assume that when someone doesn’t know an answer it is because the schools never taught it to them?
I’d like to make just one more point about education: test scores from around the world. Every single politician points outs how are scores are behind many countries. In Europe, Asia, and many other parts of the globe, their high schools are much different. In the USA, everyone gets to high school, even an 8th grader who failed all his classes. In the other countries, those students are weeded out and not allowed to attend high school. They are diverted into trade school areas for more common jobs. The more educated kids stay in school and become doctors, lawyers etc. You simply cannot compare test scores. I know this to be a fact because in 32 years I’ve had foreign exchange students from dozens of countries. I always ask them about this and they confirm it.
What would be more accurate is to compare the test scores of our A and B students here with the world. Here in America, we give a kid with an IQ of 50 the same test we give the kid who has a 160 IQ, and then were try and analyze the data. In fact, some ISAT’s are given two years after the students are taught the subject. Chemistry and Astronomy are on the Science ISAT their sophomore year. The problem is they don’t take Chemistry until their Junior or Senior year, and they had a little Astronomy and Chemistry back in Middle School. How would you like to take a test 2 years after learning it? What good is the data we analyze from it?
Enough of my philosophy of education. In spite of what you just read, I have no regrets about my career choice. I wouldn’t change a thing about my career and the path I took. I am extremely proud of the job I did and the reputation I have developed as a teacher. It’s been a great ride, and as I approach my last day, I know it will be filled with the joy of being free and the tears of sadness as I say goodbye to kids for the last time.
It was kids that gave me one of the greatest days of my life: the day my baseball team won a state championship. May 21, 1994 will be a day I never forget. We beat a very talented Homedale team 7-5. Their coach, Dan Tristan, was a marvelous coach and I felt fortunate to beat him. Teenagers gave me the greatest sports moment of my life, and if I am ever having a down day, I think of that day and a smile returns to my face.
To the administrators that guided me and the faculty that I taught with, I say thank you. It was a blast and I will miss you guys. But to my students that I taught, I have a special message. Like Dorothy said to the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, “I think I will miss you the most.” If I cry on my last day (and I’m pretty sure I will) it is because I will miss kids and I don’t want to say goodbye to them. Hanging around teenagers has always made me feel young. I have had many friends tell me they couldn’t do my job because they would end up killing the teenagers that drove them crazy. I just smile and tell them I never felt that way. Those crazy teens kept me alive and laughing. They gave me a championship ring from Jostens. They were the fuel for my fire, the gas for my engine, the wind for my wings, the spark for my life. They were the reason I became a teacher in the first place, and I worry and wonder who will replace them now that I am leaving them behind.
My grandfather was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and I take great pride in being Scottish. He taught me an old Scottish saying that he used so much we put it on his tombstone. You see, Scots don’t like saying goodbye, and neither do I. It is very fitting saying for me now that I close out my career. I love my students all dearly and as I leave you guys, I bid you all this Scottish saying: Not goodbye, kids, but so long. I will miss you will all of my heart.
P.S. The one thing I didn’t want to leave behind in my room is the bumper sticker I had made as a fundraiser for the pep club in the late 80’s: “My Two Favorite Teams Are The PILGRIMS And whoever Is Playing Fruitland.” It had been on the side of my file cabinet for over 20 years. Much to my surprise, it came off the cabinet without tearing, and it is now on the mirror in my office room at home. The perfect ending to a Pilgrim’s career! (And I’ll be picking them again next year, Paul!)
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