If you can read this, thank a teacher

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 9, 2002 | by John Elvin

The Great Books Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization founded to promote lifelong learning. With its emphasis on the why of reading in addition to the basic how, it is a little at odds with current federal educational-reform efforts that fund "scientifically approved" reading methods, whatever that means.

"[T]o have no motive for learning to read other than to stay out of trouble, to simply follow the rules of letters and sounds without a view into the worlds that books represent, is a shame," according to the foundation's president, Peter Temes. The Great Books program for adults, as well as the junior program, promote discussion of what is read. For more than 50 years there have been Great Books discussion groups in communities across the country, encouraging others to continue with lifelong learning.

Despite the current reform fad, many teachers follow the Great Books emphasis on spirited inquiry--which happens to date to the era of the philosophers who founded Western civilization. The foundation recently recognized a number of these teachers. Those honored include Judy Bakalar, Mission Valley Middle School, Shawnee Mission, Kan.; Alice Giovanniello, Memorial Elementary School, Burlington, Mass.; Christy Johnson, Price Elementary School, Louisville, Ky.; Whitney Karp, Forest Grove High School, Forest Grove, Ore.; Kathleen Loughran, Woodmere Elementary School, Portland, Ore.; Deborah Newman, Tedder Elementary School, Pompano Beach, Fla.; Carolyn Price, Blaine Elementary School, Chicago; Sonja Pritchard, Lake Taylor Middle School, Norfolk, Va.; Carol Romary, Donna Shepard Intermediate School, Mansfield, Texas; Stephen Schroth, Corona Avenue Elementary School, Bell, Calif.; Sally Stephenson, Grout Elementary School, Portland, Ore.; and Dylan Stolz, Ogden Elementary School, Valley Stream, N.Y.