qm_winter

irginia

apitol

onnections

, W

inter

2016

When Jesse Stuart, the

Kentucky writer and educator,

was a young teacher in a one-

teacher rural high school in

Kentucky in the 20s or 30s, he

believed that he could hike over

the mountains to his parent’s

home in the dead of winter. He

wanted to do two things. First,

he needed to bring back more

books for his students whose

intellectual skills were stretching

both his abilities and resources. Also, he felt their

academic performance was so impressive that he believed

they could compete academically with the big flagship

county high school. He had a proposal to make about such

a competition to the school superintendent whom he knew

he could find in his office on Saturday morning. Stuart

didn’t anticipate getting lost on top of the mountains in

a blizzard with sub-zero temperatures. Had it not been

for the dry clothes he was carrying in his suitcase and the

shelter of several fodder shocks he found in a deserted

corn field, he might have frozen to death. Ah, the hubris

of youth.

This story is one of the many anecdotes that Stuart

included in his bestselling, award-winning book

The

Thread that Runs So True

that was published in 1949. I

was fifteen when I first read this book. I was impressed

with the sacrifices Stuart was willing to make to help his

students, and I was thrilled that his risk paid off. When I

finished the book, I committed myself, in prayer, to a life

of service and teaching, particularly in the Appalachian

region. I achieved my goal. The world of teaching and

learning that I saw myself going into at that time, is harder

to find these days, but young people still go into teaching

believing they see and feel the commitment that I saw so

many years ago.

In order to help our committed teachers continue

their good work, they need help from everyone

in the

neighborhood:

parents, students, and politicians. There

are many things in schools—e.g., the emphasis on that

which is mundane, repetitive, and routine driven by high stakes

testing— that need to change. But for sure, we must communicate

to all students that though learning can be difficult, it can also be

joyful and thrilling. Getting to a point where this kind of positive

experience can be achieved often requires ridiculously hard work.

Students at all levels must be convinced, motivated, taught, and

told that their job is to learn whatever their parents, teachers, and

scholars say they should be learning in order to move forward.

Most readers would not disagree with what I have just said.

However, what is to be done when some students choose not

to do what they are asked or expected to do. There should be

consequences. In my day, such consequences were being grounded,

being denied something I wanted until I adjusted my behavior,

or being spanked—not beaten. Today, there is still a need for

consequences, but often there aren’t any. The reason why there

aren’t consequences goes back about 30 years. At that time due to

fears of litigation, corporal punishment disappeared in Virginia’s

schools. Nothing was created to take corporal punishment’s place.

As a result, to this day, if students say no, that is often the end of

what educators can do.

Whatever direction we go, when a pronouncement is made,

a law passed, and a policy created, the problem has not been

solved. All constituents—students, parents, educators, scholars,

politicians—must keep talking about and evaluating what is

important and keep at it continually and forever. The method and

mode of learning is constantly shifting, and we must all keep up.

We have to agree upon that which is truly right, that which is truly

wrong, and that which is truly needed. I can tell you this with

certainty— to improve schools and learning, we need more than

just data. We need consequences beyond test scores to hold students

accountable. Once we figure out what the accountability should be,

then maybe we can figure out how to truly measure the successes

and failures of all involved.

Herb Thompson is a Professor Emeritus of Education at Emory

& Henry College, Emory, VA. He is currently President of the

Association of Teacher Educators –Virginia.

Students

Cannot Be Allowed

To Choose Not To Learn

By Edgar H. Thompson