Gary Stein, a teacher in his last year of teaching, read the post by retired superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder and was inspired to share this message:
After reading Ms. Snyder’s article and all of the responses to it on the dianeravitch.net page, I was reminded of the best advice for all teachers, and what seems to me the best advice for teaching, always, regardless of social circumstance or historical situation. It comes from Chaim Ginott, (1922-1973), teacher, psychologist, theorist.
Dear Teacher,
I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by learned engineers,
Children poisoned by educated physicians,
Infants killed by trained nurses,
Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates,
So, I am suspicious of education.
My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.
For those of you who know this quote, I hope this isn’t perceived as either ‘trite’ or too idealistic. This passage has guided my teaching for over 30 years, including this year, my last as a certified public school teacher. For those of you new to either teaching/learning, or ‘education’, I hope you take this quote to heart as you engage with young citizens in every interaction. Peace.
By the way, Superintendent Snyder’s post went viral; it has been opened more than 500,000 times on this blog.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
More than our subjects, we teachers teach our students ourselves. Let us always strive to be worthy of the trust they repose in us for it is the kind of person we are that is infinitely more important than the material we teach them.
Help your students become human. As the note suggests about all of the educated monsters . . . <–that term remains a contradiction in terms for so many exceptional teachers who have gone against the tide, so to speak, of the last several decades; and where, for some, teaching for humanness has survived as a result of good pedagogy and content DESPITE obvious and even forced omissions and railroading of methods that so many have struggled with, and even become subversive about (ha!) hiding from the Know-It-All Powers-That-Be.
Just one example: I had a teacher in my college class who copied her paper on the school copier . . . and was visibly shaking when she told the rest of us about how fearful she was when she realized that she had left the original paper in the copier . . . because her principal might find and read it. . . . though professionally written, it was critical of her campus, curriculum, and administration.
Though, presently, we see evidence of long-term educational absences every day, we’ll probably never know just how pervasive it is to us personally, to the educational establishment and its curriculum, and to the culture we live in, . . . such as it is. If reform is needed, it is exactly the dehumanization by absence that is at its root. CBK
More than ever teachers today must serve the whole child, not just the academic side of young people. Too many politicians are preoccupied with so-called learning loss. BTW Peter Greene has a very funny post on this issue where content literally falls out of children’s heads, plop, plop. More than ever children will need compassion and patience. I taught so many students from all over the world that would be considered “far behind.” In time the vast majority of them were able to graduate, and many were able to go to college. Social and emotional security are more important than any academic “gaps.” Without a sense of well-being young people are less likely to succeed.
I am old enough to have read Chaim Ginott’s ‘Between Parent and Child.’ I even remember seeing him on TV a few times. He was one of the first psychologists that spoke about a child’s need for dignity, stability and acceptance. Here’s are few of his favorite aphorisms.
Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.
If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.
Thank you for this post. It is so relevant to this historic moment with highly educated cowards (eg. J.D’s from Harvard, Stanford, Yale) still supporting Donald J. Trump’s four-year effort to to demean any critic and ultimately claim he had won an election that he lost and also enlist others in an effort to overthrow the election.
FORWARDED to National Literacy Association where they are involved with talks with Jill Biden about adult education. Here are two recent notes about those talks:
NOTE ONE:
Hi all, I want to reiterate what others have said about adult education vs developmental education. Dr. Biden may not know as much about adult education as we think. After working 20 years at a community college and having responsibility over both, I can tell you that not everyone knows the distinction. We may have to do more educating before an ask. Thanks, Regina Suitt
NOTE TWO:
Re: Jill Biden’s Dissertation on Student Retention
Greetings All: When I asked about what “asks” we might have for Dr. Biden I meant as related to her professional role as an adult educator whose dissertation shows she is aware of the many problems facing adult learners and the institutions and other groups who strive to serve their educational needs, and in her political role as First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS). In her latter role, I wondered if she might not be asked to serve as an Ambassador-at-Large for the millions of adults in need of developmental/ basic skills education and the professionals and their organizations who advocate for these benefits. I wondered if she could meet with reps from VALUE/USA, COABE/ AAACE etc., and shine a national spotlight on the needs of these millions of adults and their families. During this meeting (and perhaps follow-up meetings) she could advocate for the elusive $1 billion for the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of the United States. Any thoughts about this?? Tom Stitcht
Thank you for reposting Teresa Thayer Snyder’s letter. I must not have read it the first time you posted it. And thank you Gary Stein for sharing Chaim Ginott’s words with us. If everyone understood this truth, and our education system was built around it – the world would be a better place.
Teresa Thayer Snider’s post was viewed about 600,000 times!
It pushed this blog over the 38 million mark for page views.
That’s amazing. I wish every teacher, school leader and anyone making decisions involving education regularly read this blog.
My parents are both Holocaust survivors. No more important words can be said about our ethos for educating children and young adults. Education means nothing if we cannot help promote and foster humans who care for each other, the earth, and the conditions under which all living things exist.
Keep Teresa Thayer Snider’s post handy to repost. I suspect there will be a time when we return to “normalcy” when pundits will start bemoaning the learning losses. I dread the measures that will be suggested (and already are being suggested) to “catch them up.”
Send them Greene’s article on “learning loss.” Plop, plop.http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-battle-with-learning-loss.html
🙂