Teaching is a special vocation requiring a powerful connection between teacher and student on a sustained basis. That is what I saw in Whiteface and Sundown. Tireless love to navigate challenging transitions. That is teaching. Questions, concerns, fears, trepidations and a host of other grit that gets placed in the machine of progress must be addressed. Teachers appreciating that challenge will care for the individual in that borderland existence between what is and what will be. Lastly, good teachers also sense their roles as leaders. Thankfully, in every school I visited I have found to a greater or lesser extent the importance of leadership and teaching. There is no border between these two. Teaching always requires that a vision be cast. Leading requires the same. No excuses, no lack of funding, no challenge with unprepared students, no placing of blame elsewhere absolve the
teacher from being a leader and the leader from teaching. Effective teaching and leadership allow no borders between.
Someone might ask, “You saw all of that in Whiteface and Sundown?” I would say, “Yes, that and more.” As students cross that bridge between being a high school student and something else, they learn from energetic teaching to accept responsibility for personal action and become emotionally responsible citizens. That is the role of education. And students in Whiteface and Sundown expect that. Those high expectations lead to changed views of the world and the borderland allows perspective to see the world changing. Lastly, good teachers also sense their roles as leaders. Thankfully, in every school I visited I have found to a greater or lesser extent the importance of leadership and teaching. There is no border between these two. Teaching always requires that a vision be cast. Leading requires the same. No excuses, no lack of funding, no challenge with unprepared students, no placing of blame elsewhere absolve the teacher from being a leader and the leader from teaching. Effective teaching and leadership allow no borders between. If a student and family visit a university campus and don’t find a strong commitment to teaching, an appreciation for the border between late adolescence and a productive life in a vocation and in citizenship, skip the free lunch and head for the house. Look elsewhere for a place to study. Find a place where the fruit of teaching is realized in its fullest expression as addressing and appreciating the borders.
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