Tom Finneran: Sweet and Sour

Friday, June 27, 2014

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Boston Latin School

Grapes are on today’s menu, some sweet, some sour.

In the category of “OMG, say it ‘aint so” comes a story about administrators at Boston Latin Academy pressuring teachers to give out more A’s and B’s and to substitute pop-fiction for classical literature. How many ways can one say NO! NO! NO!

The Boston exam schools (Boston Latin, Latin Academy, and the John O’Bryant) are the glue that keeps Boston’s crucial middle class in the city. And while MIT, technically in Cambridge but carrying Boston on its mighty shoulders, is the most important asset in the state, the Boston exam schools are reassuring bright lights as well. They are not trifles to be tinkered with.

A catchy phrase captures my concern--“they used to teach Latin and Greek in high school; now they teach remedial English in college”. The phrase crystallizes everything that has gone wrong with American education. Is it any wonder that attentive parents consider an exam school opportunity for their child as a lifetime prize? Rigorous academics, year in and year out, create an incredibly potent community. Consider this astonishing fact---Boston Latin School, an urban public school, will send somewhere between twenty and thirty seniors a year to Harvard University! Most high schools in Massachusetts and across the country consider it a cause for great celebration if one or two graduates can gain admission to any one of the Ivy League schools. Boston Latin sends twenty or more to Harvard even in an “off year”. And they will send a similarly numbered mob of young scholars off to the other Ivy and Small Ivy League schools. Might we agree that any watering down of the historic standards of these historic schools is idiocy on steroids?

In the category of “can’t get enough” I come to praise teachers. The great ones are rare jewels and the good ones are a nation’s treasure. Think for a moment of your own education. Or of your sons’ and daughters’ school years… You might remember the sheer excitement of a class or the terror that gripped you when you had failed to prepare for that tough course with the legendary teacher. That teacher’s ability to open your eyes, to inspire your effort, and to extract high achievement is a rare gift. I was blessed to have several superlative teachers, some in grammar school, still more in high school, and still more in college. I remember them well. And I’ll honor them to my grave.

Yet much resentment abounds about teachers today. Perhaps it’s an envy of their schedules, with summers off and seemingly frequent holiday breaks. Perhaps it’s an envy of their health care and pension benefits. As more and more companies shrink away from such commitments, leaving their employees less secure and more vulnerable to life’s bumps and bruises, there’s bound to be some resentment of others. But let’s be honest here.

1. We don’t pay good teachers anywhere near their true worth.

2. If we could attract the most talented folks into the teaching profession, perhaps by paying them a yearly salary of one hundred thousand dollars or more, it would be a true revolution in American education. It would be the nation’s best and brightest, entering our classrooms, and leaving their mark upon several hundred, nay many thousands of students year after year after year. Then it would be watch out world--here comes America, bright and alive, from sea to shining sea.

Also in the category of “so sweet, can’t get enough” comes the month of June, soon to pass on the calendar but also to linger in our minds. June is the month of gardens, of roses, of baseball, of longest days, and fine swimming weather. June puts our recent winter miseries into a small corner. And June whets our appetite for the glories of summer harvests--sweet corn, real tomatoes, and fresh picked peaches. June gets personal too, as the calendar host to weddings, graduations, and other pivot points in our lives. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 begins thus- “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Need I say more? Have a great summer.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.