I always read Tom Danehy’s column in the Weekly. No, Dan Gibson didn’t tell me to say that. I used to read Tom before I wrote here. He’s got a predictably enjoyable style and an unpredictable topic list. When I don’t make it to the end, it’s because I really, really don’t care about his topic du jour, but that’s the exception.
A column like this week’s Tom talks about what really makes America great is the kind I read to the end, then go back and reread a few favorite paragraphs. Spoiler alert: It’s a full-throated endorsement of our system of public education and what public schools did for him. No, it doesn’t say everything’s great, we don’t need to change a thing. It just gives credit where credit is due.
My favorite part:
Willie Nelson’s heroes might have always been cowboys. Mine have always been teachers and coaches. I’m not going to say that they saved me from a life of drugs, crime, and self-destruction. I was never headed in that direction. But they did push me when I needed pushing, they listened when I talked, and they talked well enough to make me want to listen.
There was my 6th-grade teacher, Mr. Carpenter, a man about whom I could write a book. Mr. Carpenter was so cool, he would have made Miles Davis feel like Urkel. He was proudly African-American way before anybody else. He had played pro football and occasionally sang with the Metropolitan Opera. He made these giant tapestries of Zulu warriors; each one sold for more than he would make in a year as a teacher. He lived in Bel-Air, right next to Vincent Price, but he taught elementary school in the ghetto out of a sense of duty. He taught me how to play chess and never let me win. When the other kids were being tested on the multiplication tables from one to 12, he asked me to multiply 18 times 17 in my head. He always pushed and I’m eternally grateful that he did.
Oh yeah, he wrangled some tickets and took me and some of my classmates to our first-ever concert—The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2014.
Were you told to write this or be fired?
“We’re so hard pressed to find “good” liberal news, that we’ll just talk about each other.”
That’s what happens after 6 years of Barrack Hussein Ebola.
That’s what they call a Freudian slip.
David: Thank you for this. I think that most of us have had a teacher that made a difference in our developing lives. I know that I do. And the fact that your colleague, Tom wrote about his mentor with such eloquence is as fitting and appropriate as it is moving. Like you, I am sure, I have little patience with those who would dismantle our system of public education. I admire teachers and respect the sacrifices that they must and do make to educate our kids and perhaps even turn a life around. That’s why I am involved with adopt a classroom (http://www.adoptaclassroom.org) so that we citizens can reach into a classroom and directly support a teacher.
Maybe you could try writing like this guy.
Tommy’s fan club to the rescue.
I don’t always agree with Tom Danehy. But I’ll stand up for his exercising his First Amendment Rights. Free Speech. And at least his name is on what he writes, unlike certain freepers cowering behind anonymous names. (FYI: I agree with this, the influence of good teachers stays with you for life. Sheesh, my best was 6th grade too). On the other hand, you have to be willing to LEARN, or the greatest teacher will do you no good.