I will admit that much of my education writing focuses on broader policy type questions. But this weekend, the Washington Post reminded me that at the very core, education is about human interactions, about the relationships among and between students, teachers, administrators and parents.
In all the hubbub about school design, charter schools, vouchers, reform efforts and NCLB, it is easy to forget that every education is a human endeavor, taken on by one person and a cast of dozens around them. It is easy to forget that often it only takes one person, on one day, to change a life and it is not always teacher to student interaction.
Below are links to the various storied in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine about these relationships.
Shelter from the Storm about one man finding a "family" among school personnel
Parental Advisory: How a preschool's teachers come to mean as much to a mother as they do to her children.
Loathing 101: How one young professor learns something from the one student he hated the most. Teachers aren't supposed to hate their students, but they do.
Broken Bond: Explores the efforts of one teacher to reach an at-risk kid, with heart-warming and heart breaking results.
The Lesson Plan: How the insight of a veteran teacher helped a rooking understand how things were going in her rowdy classroom.
Final Draft: A former student engages a professor and draws him out of self-exile, due to the love of the written word.
In His Footsteps: How a 30 year relationship between a former student and his teacher has evolved, but never changed, even as the student is now the teacher's principle.
Speaking of Success: Not every teacher is the model of excellence, they are human but they do so much for very little credit.
A Shared Language: How one student touches a teacher and reminds the teacher of her own past.
Drama King: How a teacher teaches more than the subject matter, but also how to manage life.
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