Thankfulness

I am writing this blog on Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day, and like many of you, I am trying to finish all the chores related to Thanksgiving and leave time to rest in order to enjoy Thursday. I am not sure this will happen. I wonder how we have digressed to the place in our culture that we dread days that should be filled with happiness, celebration, and contentment. As a teacher, the Thanksgiving break was not much of a break. I was often too busy grading student assignments that were turned in before the break. However, I think as teachers we have often missed the opportunity to make this attitude of “thankfulness” a significant part of our teaching and learning experience with our students.

I want to tell you a story that forever made thankfulness a significant part of my life. My first-grade teacher was Ms. Presley. She and her husband were not from the East Tennessee region. I do know that her husband was a scientist at the Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory during World War II. They chose not to live in Oak Ridge and ended up in a rural area of Loudon County. By the time I became a senior in high school I had long realized that she had been a significant part of my educational experience. I didn’t know what made her better than most other teachers, but I knew that she was. Consequently, in the spring of 1967 when I graduated from Loudon High School, I sent four “thank you notes”--two were sent to individuals who I felt had made a significant difference in my life. One of those was Ms. Presley, my first-grade teacher.

She did not teach the next year because her children were entering high school, and she wanted to be able to spend time with them in their activities. After her husband died and with serious health issues, she moved to Maryland to live with one of her daughters.

I came to Maryville College in the fall of 1990 and began my 28 years in teacher education at the College. In the mid-1990s, while we were living on the family farm in Loudon County, I received a phone call from Carl who lived not far from our home. When I answered the phone he asked, “Can you come over to my house; there is someone here that wants to see you?” As I drove to his house, I had no idea who this individual was.

As I walked into the home, I saw an older lady sitting by the kitchen table. Carl asked, ”You don’t know who this is, do you?” I suppose all I did was nod because I did not know who she was. With a big smile on his face, Carl said, “This is Ms. Presley, your first-grade teacher.”

Ms. Presley also smiled and said, “Terry, I cannot really see you because I am almost totally blind. I can see the outline of your body but not your face or any physical feature. However, I wanted to come and see you.” She went on to tell me that I was the only student that she taught who came back to say “thank you” for being my teacher. She was nearly 90 years-old. She shared with me that one of the reasons she had to make this trip to Tennessee from Maryland was to say “thank you” to me--her student.

I always told this story to my teacher licensure students right before the Thanksgiving break or at the close of the semester. I would tell them to think of that teacher that made a difference in their lives, to write the “thank you letter,” and to give specific reasons as to why that teacher made a difference.

Have you ever been thankful for your students? Have you told them? You still have time before the close of the semester.

Bless You My Children, 
TLS

After This Bitter Election, What Do I Expect of Our Schools?

As I start writing this blog, I am sitting at my desk on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Yes, it is election day, and Deborah and I plan to vote this afternoon. I am ready to see the end of this campaigning season. We have experienced everything from hateful name-calling to the massacre of 11 Americans who were worshiping in their Jewish synagogue. As a history teacher, this massacre greatly troubles my soul. Are we no better than the Nazis during the 1930s?

We are historically incorrect and politically naïve if we think elections in this country were much more civil in the past. As a native of Tennessee, I have often read the story of the election of Andrew Jackson as the 7th President of the United States. Jackson made bitter enemies throughout his lifetime, and they wanted to prevent him from becoming president of the United States. However, it was next to impossible to shake the confidence of Jackson, so they went after Rachel, his wife. She was called the epitome of a profligate woman: a bigamist, an adulteress, and a whore. Their accusations were so hurtful and vicious that she died between election day and the day that Jackson was to take the office of President of the United States. Jackson became so depressed that many of his supporters feared that he would not go to Washington to take the oath of office. Jackson blamed her death on his political enemies, especially Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. They were Jackson’s bitter enemies until the day he died.

Another presidential election that was filled with name-calling was the election in which Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate. Although he had been a friend, Roosevelt grew to despise his hand-picked successor in the Republican Party, William Howard Taft, toward whom he directed his hate-filled speech and name-calling.

To add to our pain, in 2018 we live with the power of technology, especially the Internet and 24-hour news cycles. This means that we cannot get away from the hateful speech and name-calling, as well as the senseless acts of violence.

Regardless, we cannot stand by and not do nothing. We owe our children a response to the civic and political climate in which they are being raised. Yes, I do have a few suggestions for schools.

Suggestion one: Students will be able to define stereotype and give a current example of a group being unfairly judged through stereotype. 

It is unethical to stereotype an entire group of people based on the knowledge one has of a single individual or a few individuals in that particular group. The group could be a religious group, ethnic group or any group different from the dominant group to which I belong. I learned in the early elementary grades at Davis Elementary School that it was not fair to judge an entire group based on this limited knowledge of the entire group.

Suggestion two: Students will be able to define ad hominem and give several current examples of individuals or groups on the receiving end of ad hominem attacks. 

One of the most rejected attacks in academic debate is an ad hominem attack, which can take the form of overtly attacking someone or casting doubt on their character as a way to discredit their argument through personal abuse, personal attacks by name-calling, or refutation by caricature of the person. In a formal academic debate this type of attack would get you an “F”. Too bad that we could not give many of our political candidates an “F” during this past election cycle. This will only be stopped when we refuse to listen to a politician that resorts to attacking the person rather than the ideas of that person.

The National Institute for Civil Discourse has as a purpose to revive civility in our civil discourse. They state that making fun of a political opponent, making disrespectful or demeaning statements, refusing to listen to arguments of different points of view, and making exaggerated statements that misrepresent the truth must be rejected in our civil discourse.

As a teacher in middle school, high school, and at the college level I have concluded that we must rediscover that in our democratic republic all citizens have the right to express their views in the marketplace of ideas. I am required to respect all people even those who have views which I reject. 

As John Dewey argued many years ago, the school classroom should operate as a miniature democracy. In other words, students need to practice civil discourse. If this does not become a priority in our schools, both public and private, I fear the end result for our country.


Bless you my children, 
tls

Dr. Terry L. Simpson,
Professor Emeritus 
Maryville College Educator Preparation Program

Image Source: [Onlin image/logo]. Retrieved November 8, 2018 from https://www.revivecivility.org/