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Loosening The Cannon

The Source

On an evaluation of teachers I was once labeled a “loose cannon,” so I don’t know that what I say has any validity, but as most schools now enter their final semester many will be treated to what’s been known as a “cooperating teacher.” If you’re over thirty, they’re still called student teachers. I had a few in my teaching career and frankly it was always an uncomfortable experience, turning your classroom over to God-only-knows-who for six weeks or so. It was hard for me to sit in the back of the classroom thinking, “No! No! No! You can’t do it that way! You’ll loose ‘em in ten minutes!” Or “For God’s sake, that kid in the corner needs a verbal thumping. Do something!” Then the time would come for me to leave the classroom entirely to let my student teacher go it alone, and that’s when I became like new mother, running into the hallway every time I heard coming from the direction of my old “crib.” In fact, I’d stopped taking student teachers entirely until I.C. dangled an irresistible young man under my nose and Tim Chipman gave me new hope in the upcoming generation of educators. And of course I went through my own stint as a student teacher. The old Baxter Hall cafeteria at Illinois College would fix me a sack lunch…undoubtedly the most disagreeable part of the student teaching experience. . . and I’d trot down to the old JHS building. They first assigned me to a lady named Mrs. Savage then at the last minute I was reassigned to Louise Norris Bone. The only explanation they gave me for the switch was, “We think that you and Mrs. Savage are too much alike.” Did that mean there was something wrong with both of us? Would our recessive genes multiply? But I was assigned to Louise and it was a happy pairing, I think. Either that or she’s been lying to me for the past forty years. Our teaching styles differed widely, but frankly she was a teacher and I was simply trying to be one so my “style” was hardly what you’d call developed. I learned a great deal from this fine lady. But the really magic moment was the day she gently nudged me out of the classroom and left me free to wander the halls of JHS, hopping into a classroom here and there to observe the other teachers on the Jacksonville staff. I visited perhaps six classrooms that week, but only one has stuck with me to this day…Roger McClintock’s math class. Okay, I don’t know math. My mother was a math teacher, my dad can still do mathematical acrobatics in his head, and my brother is the president of a bank, but I have a self-imposed learning disorder concerning anything with numbers. I think numbers simply make me mad. I once ordered 3000 advertising cards advertising my Theatre Guild show called “Jacksonville 2000!” to celebrate the year. The date I had printed on the cards? July of 2001. But Roger in front of a classroom…wow. The day I arrived he had his junior students reciting mathematical theorems in rounds. ..an enthusiastic cacophony of learning and joy. I vowed then never to spend a joyless day in my classroom. If you can make math fun then English should be a breeze…and it soon became so. I’ve approached both the Illinois College and MacMurray education departments over the years with a plan: Identify the 12 or 20 best teachers in our area, then allow each of your student teachers to spend one day…heck, one period… in their classrooms. I.C. thought it was a good idea but said the young teachers wouldn’t have time. Mac didn’t respond. Maybe I forgot a stamp…I don’t know. So…and remember, this is a “loose cannon” speaking…here’s my plan. Hear ye! Hear ye! Every brave young man or young lady who’s about to enter the dangerously rewarding field of teaching! Somewhere near the end of your student teaching experience, escape! Call in sick! Feign leprosy! Do something to free yourself and then start making phone calls, asking to spend an hour or a day with a truly master teacher. The teachers unions probably won’t allow a list of great teachers to be published, so ask around…heck, call me! If I don’t know I’ll find them for you. I’m still naïve enough to believe that the teacher is still the most valuable object in any classroom. It’s him or her who sets the tone, who lights the fire, who unveils the “possible” in every student. If both the student teacher and I get arrested for such a wild-eyed scheme then it’ll be a jail term well spent.