Lessons from Fifth Grade

Really, lessons about teaching. It's not the ideal way to be reminded of somebody's life work, but...

He moved to Saskatchewan and began teaching in the fall of 1976 in Saskatoon. He was a gifted teacher who inspired his students through music, history and the love of nature. He championed children with learning disabilities, founded Camp Tamarack in 1977 and initiated the formation of the Saskatchewan chapter of the Learning Disabilities Association.

Ken Marland's fifth grade classroom included a large contingent of learning disabled and emotionally disturbed kids, and the categories weren't mutually exclusive. When it came to helping troubled kids, Ken walked the walk.

Having spending almost a year in that classroom I can tell you that having a caring, dedicated teacher can make a difference, but you'll never be able to convince me that the baggage a child brings in from home doesn't affect their classroom performance, or that you can "have it all" - that the time a teacher spends maintaining classroom order, and providing structure and support for struggling students, doesn't take something away from everybody else. At the same time, you're going to have difficulty finding a teacher who either tried harder or could have done better under the same circumstances.