Here's a copy of today's print column, about the value of teachers and the effect they have on our lives.
There are a couple of questions I know I can count on every time I am out speaking to groups about what I do for a living.
That’s especially true when I talk to students. I love getting out of the office and engaging readers, especially young readers. That’s in part because of the fact that this newspaper – and in fact the entire industry – could use a lot more of them.
So before my young inquisitors get a chance to ask me a question, I usually have one for them. For the most part, the groups I speak to are high school and college kids with an interest in journalism and writing. I know, you’re wondering if the two are somehow related. Very funny.
My questions for them are simple: Have they read a newspaper yet today, and since they have shown an interest in writing for a living, exactly what have they written yet today?
I’m usually dismayed by the answers. Precious few have read the newspaper, even fewer write every day.
I’m not surprised. The fact that young people are not reading newspapers is not exactly “news” anymore. Which doesn’t make it any less worrisome for a person in my line of work. Nor any less true. Young people are not reading newspapers, at least not in the numbers my generation and my parents’ generation did.
My parents would not even think of starting a day without first consuming a newspaper. I didn’t get the sports section until my dad had read it from one end to the other. The page in the sports section with the day’s entries and results from the horse tracks was usually smeared with jelly, a sure sign my father had been there.
I inherited the newspaper habit from my parents. It’s one of those questions I know I am always going to get from young people. They want to know why I do what I do for a living.
It’s a good question. Thankfully, I think I have a good answer. My parents are certainly a part of it. But there’s another one as well.
For the first eight years of my education, I toiled at the firm right hand of the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That’s right, I went to a parochial elementary school. In short, I can diagram a sentence like nobody’s business. I know my subjects, objects and predicates. I gained a love for language and words. And I gained an appreciation for their power.
Now I might add that, in addition to my command of the Baltimore Catechism (Who made me? God made me. Simple, right?), those tend to be the highlights of my education. The truth is, I’m not much when it comes to math and science. Take away my calculator and I’m nothing. My guess is that this is as much my fault as the nuns. I never had a ton of interest in math and science.
There is no doubt I am who I am, and do what I do, in large part because of those eight years I spent under the sisters’ tutelage.
All of this is my way of saying how important teachers are in the development of kids into adults. They aren’t the highest-paying jobs in the world (that’s something else we have in common), but they just might be the most important.
That’s why this newspaper took the opportunity on Sunday to honor 18 of the best teachers in Delaware County.
In conjunction with the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, we unveiled the first Excellence in Teaching Awards to recognize outstanding educators.
These awards follow on the heels of our annual All-Delco Hi-Q team, honoring one team member from each of the 21 schools taking part in the annual scholastic quiz competition.
It has been one of my goals in my term as editor of the Daily Times to increase the focus on the academic achievements of students and our local schools. My guess is we’ll never match what we offer young people involved in high school sports (they don’t call us “Delaware County’s Sports Authority” for nothing), but I do believe it is important for kids and teachers to know that we value the often untold stories of excellence from the education side of the equation.
The winning teachers come from a wide spectrum of middle and high schools, and dot the entire county. There are high school teachers from Chester and Haverford high schools, as well as middle school educators from Penn-Delco and Upper Darby, and elementary school teachers from a couple of archdiocesan elementary schools.
They will be honored at a banquet Tuesday night. It will be my pleasure to attend. I hope someone asks me why I do what I do for a living. It’s a good question; I think I have a pretty good answer.
Thanks, mom and dad. Thanks, sisters.
Philip E. Heron is editor of the Daily Times. Call him at (610) 622-8818. E-mail him at editor@delcotimes.com. To visit his daily blog, the Heron’s Nest, go to
www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/delcotimes/philh/blog.html.
There are a couple of questions I know I can count on every time I am out speaking to groups about what I do for a living.
That’s especially true when I talk to students. I love getting out of the office and engaging readers, especially young readers. That’s in part because of the fact that this newspaper – and in fact the entire industry – could use a lot more of them.
So before my young inquisitors get a chance to ask me a question, I usually have one for them. For the most part, the groups I speak to are high school and college kids with an interest in journalism and writing. I know, you’re wondering if the two are somehow related. Very funny.
My questions for them are simple: Have they read a newspaper yet today, and since they have shown an interest in writing for a living, exactly what have they written yet today?
I’m usually dismayed by the answers. Precious few have read the newspaper, even fewer write every day.
I’m not surprised. The fact that young people are not reading newspapers is not exactly “news” anymore. Which doesn’t make it any less worrisome for a person in my line of work. Nor any less true. Young people are not reading newspapers, at least not in the numbers my generation and my parents’ generation did.
My parents would not even think of starting a day without first consuming a newspaper. I didn’t get the sports section until my dad had read it from one end to the other. The page in the sports section with the day’s entries and results from the horse tracks was usually smeared with jelly, a sure sign my father had been there.
I inherited the newspaper habit from my parents. It’s one of those questions I know I am always going to get from young people. They want to know why I do what I do for a living.
It’s a good question. Thankfully, I think I have a good answer. My parents are certainly a part of it. But there’s another one as well.
For the first eight years of my education, I toiled at the firm right hand of the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That’s right, I went to a parochial elementary school. In short, I can diagram a sentence like nobody’s business. I know my subjects, objects and predicates. I gained a love for language and words. And I gained an appreciation for their power.
Now I might add that, in addition to my command of the Baltimore Catechism (Who made me? God made me. Simple, right?), those tend to be the highlights of my education. The truth is, I’m not much when it comes to math and science. Take away my calculator and I’m nothing. My guess is that this is as much my fault as the nuns. I never had a ton of interest in math and science.
There is no doubt I am who I am, and do what I do, in large part because of those eight years I spent under the sisters’ tutelage.
All of this is my way of saying how important teachers are in the development of kids into adults. They aren’t the highest-paying jobs in the world (that’s something else we have in common), but they just might be the most important.
That’s why this newspaper took the opportunity on Sunday to honor 18 of the best teachers in Delaware County.
In conjunction with the Franklin Mint Federal Credit Union and the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, we unveiled the first Excellence in Teaching Awards to recognize outstanding educators.
These awards follow on the heels of our annual All-Delco Hi-Q team, honoring one team member from each of the 21 schools taking part in the annual scholastic quiz competition.
It has been one of my goals in my term as editor of the Daily Times to increase the focus on the academic achievements of students and our local schools. My guess is we’ll never match what we offer young people involved in high school sports (they don’t call us “Delaware County’s Sports Authority” for nothing), but I do believe it is important for kids and teachers to know that we value the often untold stories of excellence from the education side of the equation.
The winning teachers come from a wide spectrum of middle and high schools, and dot the entire county. There are high school teachers from Chester and Haverford high schools, as well as middle school educators from Penn-Delco and Upper Darby, and elementary school teachers from a couple of archdiocesan elementary schools.
They will be honored at a banquet Tuesday night. It will be my pleasure to attend. I hope someone asks me why I do what I do for a living. It’s a good question; I think I have a pretty good answer.
Thanks, mom and dad. Thanks, sisters.
Philip E. Heron is editor of the Daily Times. Call him at (610) 622-8818. E-mail him at editor@delcotimes.com. To visit his daily blog, the Heron’s Nest, go to
www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/delcotimes/philh/blog.html.
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