You know you’ve been around awhile when things start to come full circle, and like one of my boyhood heroes Yogi Berra said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

This week I interviewed a recommended teacher for a first-grade position. She did very well, and I will make an official recommendation for her to the board of education to teach in Brandywine.

I asked her several questions before coming to my most important question. There is this one favorite question I’ve asked hundreds of times in over 30 years as a school administrator, and if I don’t hear the answer I want, I’ve never recommended hiring the candidate. Here’s the make or break question:

“Over all your years as a student, in kindergarten through 12th grade and in college or in places you’ve taught as a student teacher, a sub, or as a teacher, think of the very, very best teachers you know and share with me what makes these people outstanding teachers.”

I’ve heard lots of answers about kindergarten teachers, all other grades and subjects, college professors and teaching partners. The best answers tell stories of caring people who saw the candidates as individuals. These outstanding teachers engaged students, made learning fun and challenged them to be better.

When the candidate this week answered me, she described and mentioned a teacher I hired myself over 25 years ago. I asked that outstanding teacher she described the very same question, because, as I said, I’ve been doing this for a long time. Clearly, she has become the teacher she wanted to be all those years ago. So, there is the full circle.

When school starts next month, ask yourself who those great teachers were that you had, and hold us in education accountable to those same high expectations.

Not everyone can be the greatest or at the top of everyone’s list, but we can all recall our best teachers ever and try to be more like them, no matter what we do at work or in life.

 

John Jarpe is the superintendent of Brandywine Community Schools. He can be reached at (269) 684- 7150.