INTERESTING FIRST PERSON EDUCATION STORY – taken from HuffPost – ker<\/p>\n
I graduated from high school as a failed student. When I describe the state of my education\u00a0from that time I borrow a line from the Woody Allen film Love and Death<\/em> because “I\u00a0couldn’t write my name in the ground with a stick.” Now I could tell a story about all the\u00a0teachers who let me down, which is something I hear all the time at hearings from people\u00a0speaking up for high standards, common core and the test prep factories of charter schools.They talk about their resentment at arriving in college unprepared, with deficient skills and\u00a0in need of remediation. \u00a0But I’m not going to tell that story.<\/p>\n I grew up with a constellation of learning disabilities and was labeled an underachiever in\u00a0the third grade. In reality, given my resistance, my inattentiveness, my issues with executive\u00a0function which dog me to this day, I was unteachable. Many will say that’s an impossibility,\u00a0but to this day, nothing has ever convinced me that I was present and able to be educated\u00a0beyond what I was willing to take in. The expectations of school were all avoidance for me. I\u00a0simply saw no value in it and I couldn’t marshal the personal resources to force myself to fit in.<\/p>\n One afternoon, in ninth grade, I was stranded at school because I missed the bus home, andI was waiting for a ride with a friend. He was on the stage crew for The Sound of Music<\/em>, the spring musical that was being staged at school. He asked me to tag along and help him, so I did. \u00a0I was small so I could hide under the stage of the outdoor amphitheater, and when the lights went down I’d race out to place props and move sets around. I had a lot of fun doing\u00a0this, it was exciting, with the music, the singing and everyone taking it all very seriously.<\/p>\n At\u00a0the end of the night I was standing up on the stage waiting for my friend to drive me home\u00a0when a teacher, Eileen Daniel Riddle walked up to me and asked what I was doing. I\u00a0mumbled something about waiting for my ride, and she looked at me, then walked away. \u00a0Moments later she came back with a broom and handing it to me, asked if I would sweep the stage.<\/p>\n She handed me a broom.<\/p>\n From that night on I worked on every play until I graduated. I rarely had time to hang out\u00a0with my old friends who spent their time rearranging their body chemistry on a molecular\u00a0level. I couldn’t get enough theater. I had never seen a professional production; I had no\u00a0aspirations of being involved in theater. I just loved the connection, and belonging to\u00a0something bigger than myself. I loved building sets, hanging lights, moving flats, and\u00a0everything that had anything to do with putting on plays and musicals. Fortunately for me, I\u00a0went to a school that could provide the experience of mounting theatrical productions four\u00a0or five times a year. My life revolved around that schedule. Eileen was a tough taskmaster\u00a0and the expectations were high, but she nurtured the desire in me and gave my life shape.<\/p>\n That desire propelled me into college, because it was the only place where I could continue\u00a0working in the community of theater. Once in college I learned to write because I needed the\u00a0skills in order to develop a real grasp of how stories are told, how the design of a production\u00a0is lifted from the pages of a script, and how to analyze the themes, the plot, the characters\u00a0and demands needed to transform a play on paper into a production on a stage, or in a film.<\/p>\n I had a teacher in high school who handed me a broom and in doing so, inspired me to\u00a0harness my intelligence to service my passion. She was a dedicated high school Theater Arts\u00a0teacher, and she saved my life. This is what I take away from my failed educational\u00a0experience, immense gratitude for a teacher who showed me something I’d never seen\u00a0before, and it became the guiding force in my life.<\/p>\n We live in a time where the teaching profession is so maligned and education budgets have\u00a0been stripped bare. The Arts have been eliminated in favor of a dirt dry, common core\u00a0aligned test prep curriculum. So in order to remind parents about the need for solid creative\u00a0programs in public education and in gratitude to teachers who give so much to our kids, in\u00a0November I’m shooting a short documentary, interviewing former students and their\u00a0mentor teachers about the ways in which teachers impact the lives of their students. I’m\u00a0offering a group of adults the chance to thank the teacher who had such a powerful influence\u00a0on the shape of their life, and share the story of how it unfolded. Over the years so many\u00a0people have told me stories about a teacher who changed their life. It may not be the\u00a0idealized version of some teacher we dream of for our children. For me, this was a tough\u00a0relationship, born of adversity and failure, where I was lucky enough to encounter a teacher\u00a0who could meet me where I was, without judgment, but with the inspiration that I needed.<\/p>\n All it took was one. If you have a story, and want to share it with that former teacher, visit\u00a0my Facebook page, Shoot4Education and leave me a message.<\/p>\n Follow Michael Elliot on Twitter: www.twitter.com\/shoot4education<\/p>\n Tags: \u00a0Education ReformCorporate Education ReformCommon CoreStandardized TestingVisual and Performing Arts