Writings in the Sand

Are You as Smart as a Fifth Grader?

I came across a social media post that asked: “Do you remember your fifth grade teacher?”

Yes, I do.

I struggle to remember my first grade teacher. I have one image of her in my mind but cannot conjure up her name or anything else about her (except her failure to ease my fears on my first day of school) but I was five years old and such a tiny, anxiety-ridden creature that I think I pulled a Sybil and my conscious mind refused to attend first grade. It’s all lost to me.

I do remember second grade and the teacher’s name. I remember third grade and what my teacher looked like, but the name escapes me. I remember my fourth grade teacher, her name and her photos of her dogs. I must have started paying attention by this time.

Fifth grade was Mr. B. He was the youngest teacher that I had ever had up until that point. He was kind and handsome with thick, black hair and he wore things like purple shirts with modern neckties. Yes, I am that old. Teachers used to dress up for school. So did we.

What I remember most about Mr. B is that he supplied my first experience of indoctrination in public school. It was an election year and he brought a TV into the classroom to show us news and debates. I think that bit was good. Although this was way back in the olden days before cable news and most of us watched the news nightly with our families, it was still good to expose us to more information about current events. But he didn’t stop there.

Mr. B inserted his personal political opinions into the current events curriculum. He told us that one political party was in favor of some very bad things but that the other party (his, I assume) was in favor of all these good and wonderful things. I am intentionally leaving out details because it doesn’t matter which party he was praising or which he was trashing. He was speaking to the uninitiated, those who had not yet formed any opinions and he was trying to shape our opinions and make them the same as his own. That is wrong, regardless.

Mr. B was not the only teacher I would have whose main interest was teaching his or her opinions, he was just the first. Although I went to school ages ago, the new crop of teachers were already trying to shape the students' viewpoints to match their own visions. I learned to like the older teachers, the ones the other kids hated because they were strict, disallowed monkey business in class and demanded more of them academically. At least they weren’t trying to convert me to anything.

Teachers should teach by encouraging students to learn. They should encourage students to seek out information and form their own opinions and tastes. They should not be in the business of raising up an army of clones.