Brian Williams, former news anchor and managing editor of NBC News, credits his success to the help of an English literature teacher, Bob Kitzin, who, Williams says, “turned me around.”
Bill Clinton, 42nd U.S. president, says it was his high-school band director, Virgil Spurlin, who convinced him that he could “organize and run things,” do whatever he wanted to do in life.
John McCain, a naval aviator, prisoner of war and a U.S. senator for nearly 30 years, credits much of his success to his high school teacher, William Ravenel, a Second World War veteran.
Ravenel, says McCain, gave him “some moorings and a compass,” as he taught not just English, but values, standards and morals.
McCain says Ravenel’s lessons taught him about real honour, lessons he drew upon even as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
And Oprah Winfrey says: “I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Duncan.”
Winfrey says Duncan believed in her and made her embrace a love of learning. One of the defining moments of her life was in Duncan’s classroom when Winfrey learned to no longer be afraid to be smart.
And so it goes with a long list of people who have found their own definition of success, who credit a teacher with igniting the spark that developed into the light that led them forward.
That spark was not, in all likelihood, just a greater understanding of math, literature or history but the earliest flicker of self-realization that became far more valuable.
Almost all of us have experienced a great teacher, one we remember even if we don’t remember much about the academic lessons they taught us. But we do remember what else they taught us, usually by example.
These were the men and women who somehow led us to define our personal vision and elevate our performance, in the classroom, on the field, even at things we did when far away from school.
These teachers were invariably great leaders who taught, mentored, guided and coached. They provided tools and resources necessary for us to succeed, no matter what our own criteria for success were.
If we were ever to make a difference it probably, in part at least, went back to what we learned from that remarkable teacher.
Leaders in any setting, especially leaders at any level, but especially our elected leaders, those in whom we have voluntarily placed our trust should be, must be, good teachers — even great teachers. They have to be able to set the right context and direct people’s energies to establish a meaningful mission and vision for where we, as a society and as a culture, are heading.
Great leaders, like great teachers, are constantly learning about their central responsibility — to empower and inspire people to discover the best of themselves.
Typically, great teachers, not unlike our best leaders, aren’t in it for fame and glory.
So when Ted Hupe says: “I was just his Grade 6 teacher” and that he is “kind of embarrassed” to be interviewed about his former pupil, Joshua Kutryk, recently named as one of Canada’s two new astronauts, that’s typical of someone like Hupe.
Hupe was Kutryk’s teacher at Christ the King Elementary School in Whitehorse and, as Kutryk tells it, Hupe was not just another teacher.
It was the early 1990s, and Hupe had recently moved to Whitehorse after a year-long round-the-world trip that involved trekking in Nepal, and cycling in New Zealand and India. His students lapped up his tales of adventure.
“I’d tell them stories about cycling, about travelling, and I’d teach the kids how to tear apart a bicycle and rebuild it. And so I think some of those stories had an impact,” says Hupe.
“That was one of the things that ignited the explorer within me, which has really been there for the last 30 years,” says Kutryk. “I’m not shy about saying that he left a life-lasting impact.”
Ted Hupe was just another teacher, as were Bob Kitzin, Virgil Spurlin, William Ravenel and Mrs. Duncan. Many others like them will be returning to their classrooms next week to meet with our kids.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
