Caleb FrischknechtEnglish 2010 T 10:00 amBriggs

Superman in the Classroom

Staring at the projection on the wall, the students slip into a zombified state of

mind as the teacher scribbles meaningless information on the overhead. In another room,

just across the hall the atmosphere is energetic with excitement as another teacher gives

the students a reason to want to learn with his own

personal interest in the subject. The students in my

dad’s math class not only have learned the subject

better but have also learned to love math itself. Not

once has there been a student that I have come in

contact with that has said anything bad about Mr.

Frisch. The only comment that is ever said is “He

was the best teacher I ever had!” Besides his

average teacher salary, seeing success in his

students is the only bonus he ever really gets.

“It is hard to hear the media, politicians, and society in general denigrate those of

us who often have to put our lives on hold so we can help our nation’s children become

productive members of that society.” (Author Unknown, A Day in the Life of a Teacher)

Student success rates are much higher in classes where teachers care more about their

students and make the classroom a fun place to be. Not only do grades go up but so does

attendance and participation in class. There are plenty of teachers who just took up the

job as an easy way to make some money, but then there are those who took the job to

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really try and make a difference. They are influencing the future of America every day,

and yet professional

sports players,

reality TV stars, and

politicians are the

ones who get all the

attention. A lot of

people think that

school is just a place

to learn subjects like

math and English, but it’s not just about that, it’s about building character and finding

direction in your life. "The research shows that kids who have two, three, four strong

teachers in a row will eventually excel, no matter what their background, while kids who

have even two weak teachers in a row will never recover," says Kati Haycock of the

Education Trust and coauthor of the 2006 study "Teaching Inequality: How Poor and

Minority Students Are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality."

Just like the

thousands of students my

dad has had over the many

years as a teacher, he is

constantly learning. For

example last year he took on

the duty of teaching statistics

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for the first time in his career. He spent countless hours every night studying the lesson

he had to explain the very next day. Accepting the fact that his knowledge of the subject

was limited, he worked hard with his students to help them make the most of the class.

After the results of the test came back, he was surprised to see that his class had an

average of 97% overall on the final test, placing in the top 10% in the nation.

To his students, my dad is like a star athlete or movie star. They look up to him

and learn many lessons. They will most likely forget a lot of the math that was taught, but

they will always remember how it was taught. He isn’t signing autographs or buying a

new corvette, nor will he ever. The only people he has touched are those that he has

taught, the rest of the world will go on with their lives, not even giving him a second

thought… because he is just a teacher.

Works Cited

" A Day in the Life (of a teacher) - Teacher Lady - Open Salon ." Open Salon: You make

the headlines . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

http://open.salon.com/blog/teacher_lady/2010/11/01/a_day_in_the_life_of_a_teacher

Thomas, Evan, and Pat Wingert. "Why We Must Fire Bad Teachers - The Daily Beast."

The Daily Beast. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/03/05/why-we-must-fire-bad-

teachers.html