Famous people who used to be teachers

In classical myth, Janus is pictured as looking forward and looking back, at the same time. I don't have two faces, and I don't have much respect for those who do, but I am presently looking back to ’08 and forward to ’09. Much has happened in the past few months, and there is no small amount of uncertainty about the immediate future. Since I am not going to be in the classroom for winter quarter, I’ve been thinking about what to do with my free time. That is assuming I have some free time, of course. During the hiatus, I hope to accomplish some goals which have nothing to do with my on and off career as an English instructor. Teaching can be so consuming that I don’t get as much writing and editing done as I would like. I must remember that many teachers have found time to make their mark on the world.

While many scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and Issac Asimov were also professors, some teachers have achieved fame outside of the classroom. Here is an informal and no doubt incomplete list of celebrities who once made a living as a classroom teacher:

Anne Murray, one of my favorite singers, studied physical education and taught for one year prior to landing a job in television, which in turn launched her career in music. I’ve always enjoyed her songs, and I love her Christmas album.

Sting, who was formerly known as Gordon Sumner, taught for two years prior to making music his full time job.

Art Garfunkel, of Simon and Garfunkel taught at the Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut, during which time “Bridge Over Troubled Water” became a hit.

Andy Griffith graduated from UNC and taught at Goldsboro High School as a music teacher until 1951. He was working as a teacher when he recorded his famous “What It Was, Was Football” monologue, which was his first claim to fame.

Roberta Flack taught English in Maryland for several years prior to making music her career.

And, my all time favorite former English teacher is novelist Stephen King. He got a contract for Carrie, a yarn based on his observations of teenagers, and he has published many best sellers.

My novels have not yet brought me much fame, but perhaps I can dream a bit during the daytime, knowing that fame has sometimes followed an education career.

Flunking

“....brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value. Any human organization can be rendered useless, impotent, a danger to itself, by selectively removing its best minds while carefully leaving the stupid ones in place.” (Heinlein, Friday 37)

Working for the government has, in my experience, been both rewarding and frustrating. The public schools once attracted bright people, but that is no longer typical. One of my former student teachers was the valedictorian at her high school and became a wonderful teacher herself, but she was atypical as well. As the “old” teachers move on, there will be a dearth of talent in the classroom. The better teachers at my children’s school are in their 60’s and 70’s, and there are some talented ones who are a couple of decades behind. Among the younger ones, a great teacher is a rarity. A quick look at the average SAT’s for the college of education vs. the school of business at the University of Georgia will provide a quick confirmation of the lowering of intellectual standards in education.

Why are the better students shunning teaching careers? Many point to low salaries, but that is often not true. I just saw a full page ad for a local school system’s job fair, and the salary range was $37K to $80K, numbers that might not be attractive in some areas of the country, but those are not too bad in northeastern Georgia.

No, there are many forces that drive the better students away, and the number one deterrent may well be their experiences in high school. My own children have had a roller coaster ride, with fine teaching talent one class period, followed by a hack who is working harder on a graduate degree than teaching the next class period. (Additional degrees add some $7K here in Georgia, so there are plenty of doctors who don’t have any medical training.)

Modern classrooms are mine fields, with behavior and mentally challenged students sharing the same teachers and classrooms as regular ed students, due to government mandates. If you don’t believe me, just google “least restrictive environment” and read up on it. Some teachers refuse to administer tests, instead having students do “projects” which are casually awarded a grade based on an oral report. Essays are unread, leading to a big shock when the post-secondary instructor actually evaluates student work. One must postulate that the reason state and federal governments mandate tests is that teachers no longer use them. Smart students who have just endured four years of this treatment are not going to rush to gain teaching credentials.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote “Harrison Bergeron” as a not-so-subtle warning about government seeking to make everyone equal. In this story, intellectual equality equals stupidity. Mr. Vonnegut’s and Mr. Heinlein’s cautionary narratives certainly ring true when one contemplates the woes afflicting modern educational institutions.

Private schools and virtual schools may give concerned and better informed parents a way out of this morass, but many students will never understand what they missed by being born in an era when the public schools flunked.

Year Three

Have you noticed that people either go through life looking through the windshield, i.e. looking forward, or in the rear-view mirror, i.e. looking backward? One of my close relatives seems to have her eyes fixed upon that rear view, evidenced by her constantly talking about people I haven’t seen or heard from in thirty years. I find that somewhat irritating, so let me say that I won’t be looking backward at my blog. For that, just see the archives.

Looking forward, I know that I’ll be a guest at Sci Fi Summer Con, and that Chris Barber will be joining me for a promising panel topic, “How to Torment Your Characters” which should be entertaining for the audience and for us. I’ve been told that Living Jackson magazine has placed Trinity on Tylos on their book review calendar for later this year, and I hope that spurs some sales for local vendors who stock it.

I’m hoping that my career as adjunct instructor of English will continue, since I am enjoying that. One goal for 2007 is to brush up another manuscript or two and send out some queries. Sales of my current offerings have been slow, so I don’t feel much pressure to get something “out there.” My publisher has only a two year contract on Trinity on Tylos, so that book may be out of print by next February.

Our children are growing up, which will mean some changes in our household, including more financial pressures, which is another good reason to put publishing on the back burner and give more lucrative projects my attention for the next few months (or years.)

As for those of you who read Pam’s Pages from time to time, I appreciate your interest, and I do intend to keep posting on a regular basis. Due to these shifting priorites, the topics will probably venture beyond publishing with more frequency, but I am always reading books and trying to keep up with the publishing industry, so I won’t be abandoning either of those entirely. Science fiction is still one of my favorite genres in print or on the screen, so expect comments on that as well.

What you won’t read are more personal topics which might either bore or offend certain readers. One of my friends says I need to create an anonymous online persona for that, and I am quite intrigued with that idea. Just who will I become when I decide to start that more controversial, “tell all” exposé blogging experience?