Aside from my parents, the greatest influences in my life have been the teachers who took the time and provided the effort to try to help mold me into something resembling a productive member of society.
I remember a brief, casual conversation I had with a teacher and coach about 30 years ago. It took place about four years after I graduated from Stevenson High School at a time when I was an assistant basketball coach at my alma mater.
Some of us coaches were in the locker room before practice was to start after school and somehow the topic of a movie came up. I believe the movie was Vision Quest, but it was 30 years ago so I can’t guarantee that.
One of the assistant wrestling coaches, who I had as a football coach when I was a freshman in high school, asked me what I thought of the movie, which featured a high school wrestler. I replied that I felt the movie was nothing more than average, but I found the relationship between the wrestler and his coach to be compelling. The coach I was in the conversation with looked at me without hesitation and said, “that’s what you’re about, those kinds of relationships.’’
I was still a relatively young and immature adult, so I can’t say that I had become all that retrospective at that point in my life. I just smiled in agreement, but as I headed out to the gym to basketball practice I thought to myself that the assessment by the coach was pretty accurate.
My formative years were littered with experiences from relationships I had with my educators, both teachers and coaches. My middle school principal Jerry Shepard encouraged me to run for ASB president because he thought he saw leadership skills in me. My freshman English teacher Denny Agar was the first to pull me aside and suggest that I find a suitable career to use my writing skills.
I could name a long list of others who either encouraged me to develop my skills and strengths and an equally long, if not longer, list of those who attempted to address my considerable flaws and weaknesses. I stay in touch with as many as possible, but I find myself almost continually thinking of so many of them on a regular basis and I still use so many of their life lessons today.
So, what I am trying to say is I hold so many of the educators I came into contact with in my lifetime in very high esteem. And, it’s why I praised the teachers in the Battle Ground, La Center and Ridgefield school districts for not participating in the one-day walkout on May 13 that included teachers from the Hockinson, Evergreen, Camas and Washougal districts.
The public dialogue about funding education continues to become more and more passionate. On the day of the walkout, I found myself at a busy intersection in Vancouver and there were protesting teachers at every corner of the intersection, dressed in their red shirts, holding signs with statements about COLA (cost-of-living adjustment). They were yelling into the opening windows and begging for drivers to honk their horns in support. I have to say, it’s not the vision I hold of the many educators who formed my life.
I do support funding for public education. If we could find a way for educators to be paid like athletes or rock stars, I would have no problem with that. We want the best of the best teaching our sons and daughters. But, a dramatic raise in salary that will attract the cream of the crop away from other professions is not going to happen. There is no funding mechanism that will support exorbitantly higher salaries for teachers. Maybe I am naive, but I am comforted by the fact that I believe those who become teachers do so for more than just the numbers on their paycheck.
I don’t believe educators are underpaid or overworked. And, I don’t believe that’s what this conversation should be about. This conversation should be about funding for facilities, teaching tools, classroom materials, curriculum, continuing education and training and support staff. It should be about what do we need to do to create the best learning environment possible for our children. I’m not sure a couple of percent more in salary is anywhere near the top of that list.
Teachers in the Battle Ground School District picketed on Main Street in Battle Ground on Wednesday of last week. It was reported that only about a dozen showed up to hold signs and wave signs at cars passing by. That’s their choice, their right. But, I think the hundreds who didn’t show up made better use of their time.
Ken Vance
Editor
