Guiding Students Makes All The Difference

Guiding Students Makes All The Difference

By Tom Northrup

“It is my hope that, even in these sharply polarized times, we can agree that the purpose of schools is to help grow American citizens (who will become) good parents and neighbors, thoughtful (people), reliable workers.”

John Merrow, in the introduction to Addicted Reform: A 12 Step Program to Rescue Public Education

Kendall was the boy in our neighborhood who everyone feared. Angry and aggressive, he always seemed eager to start a fight, and he was tough. When he walked down our street, my friends and I would go indoors. We weren’t about to take him on.

It was a major relief when his family moved. Our play could now proceed undisturbed.

Several years later when I began high school, I spotted Kendall (he was a year ahead of me) in the hallway. Head down, I tried to avoid him, but he came over, smiled, and asked how I was doing. He was a different person.

Stunned, but relieved, I was clueless about the reason for this transformation. It took me about a decade to understand.

The high school wrestling coach who also was Kendall’s science teacher recognized that his aggressive nature needed to be and could be productively channeled. He encouraged Kendall to join the wrestling team.

Mr. D, this legendary teacher-coach, was an important mentor to hundreds throughout his career.

He was renowned for his ability to not only develop outstanding wrestlers, but more important, to develop meaningful relationships with his student-athletes and to set them on a path to become healthy and mature adults.

In his book, Addicted to Reform, John Merrow, an award-winning journalist, analyzes why the multiple educational reforms, despite their laudable intentions, over the past 30-40 years have not succeeded as hoped.

He argues that instead of blaming “the inevitable failures of school reform on teachers, students, underresourced public schools,” political and educational leaders need to rethink and to reimagine the primary goal of a school. That is to be the partner with parents to guide children on their journey to become competent, psychologically healthy, and engaged adults. His proposed 12 Step Program offers, in my opinion, a comprehensive framework to consider.

In his chapter, “Step Five: Make Connections,” Morrow writes, “Most children don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care… When they don’t feel connected to their school and the adults therein, they will look elsewhere.”

In her book, The Importance of Being Little, Erika Christakis asserts, “It’s really very simple: young children…need to be known.”

Every student deserves to have at least one adult in the school who knows them well, and can serve as a mentor, advisor, listener, supporter. I believe this should be the most important priority for school leaders to communicate to and expect of their faculty and staff.

A connected, caring community is the first step in developing academically competent students and responsible citizens.

Over half a century ago, when Mr. D was operating, he was highly respected in his community. His worth as a teacher was not being measured by the standardized test scores of his students or the success of his wrestling teams. Those parents of the students he taught and coached understood that his guidance, his expectations and his respect for their children would be sufficient.

Recently I saw Kendall for the first time since high school. He had retired after a highly successful career—at the same high school—as a teacher-coach. He had followed in the footsteps of his beloved mentor.