Several years ago the Director of College Counseling and I
met with a senior admissions officer at an Ivy League school. At one point in the conversation she said,
“If you want more Ivies on your college list, admit more talent.” I don’t think I will ever forget that
statement. I understand what she was
saying, and I certainly see the validity of her point. But implicit in this statement is a rather
cynical attitude about the value of teaching.
It’s subtle, I admit, but still, unmistakable – don’t expect
your teachers to do more than sort the wheat from the chaff. Insist that
teachers throw out the challenges to the kids, and the school will eventually
be able to separate the great students from the merely good ones, the athletes
who will play in college from the others, and the great musicians from the
rest. The role of the teacher is simply to challenge - challenge to the nth
degree so that the school can properly sort the students in ways that make it
easy for selective colleges to render admission decisions.
OK, I admit that the above is only a partial truth, but that’s
what happens when a school, almost unknowingly, acts as if its sorting function
is the most important value. There are
lots of schools - private and public - that would never admit to this
uncomfortable truth, but they exist. Having
teachers who inspire, teachers who care, teachers who make a difference,
teachers who value students and search for their talents, takes a back seat to
the sorting function. Many of these
“sorting” schools veil their ultimate goal with lots of talk about close
student-teacher relationships, and there is probably enough truth in these
statements to make prospective students and parents feel good about their
choice. But make no mistake; the highest
value in the hierarchy of values at these schools is to sort.
I love teachers and their power to make a difference in so
many wonderful ways. Even as I moved
into administration, I was always in awe of the impact teachers had on the
lives of students. I was, to be honest,
jealous of these great teachers even in my role as their supervisor. To become a mere ‘sorting machine” is to
denigrate this great profession and limit a school’s ability to value the
multi-dimensional glory of each of its students. May this never happen at Rivers!