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Dear Students (Past and Present),
I want to take a quick second away from my Summer Vacation to talk you about a couple of things, so listen up.
I want to apologize to you. By now, you all probably think your other teachers and I have been lying to you since day one. Although it seems what we are telling you is full of more baloney than an Oscar Meyer jingle, I promise you this is not the case. So you truly understand what I am talking about, I will back up and start from the top to give the big picture.
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As your Geography teacher, there are certain educational standards I am expected to teach you. Many of them are important and can tell you a lot about the state of the world (such as the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Fair Trade). On the other hand, I freely admit that just as many of the standards you will probably never need to know again: The state says to teach them, so I teach them. I didn’t even know about micro-credit lending to developing nations until I looked it up to teach it to you.
I work very hard every day to do my job and teach you the standards I am supposed to; with that said, there are many things I teach you day in and day out that I think are much more important to me and the rest of the world than those ambiguously vague standards. These are the things I call life standards.
Part of the reason I became a teacher is to help you learn these life standards, and I am pretty sure it is part of the reason many of your other teachers did, too. We don’t care about your success in school—we care about your success in life! That is why I make you watch things like the State of the Union and Congressional Hearings every year. That is why I am more likely to give you a second chance on homework if you point blank tell me you just forgot to do it instead of making up some lie to try and cover it up. That is why I make you do push-ups in front of the class for calling something “retarded” or “gay” when what you really meant to call it uncool or stupid. I am trying to embed some of these things into your daily lives because I think they will make you successful in the long run.
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When I hold you accountable for your mistakes, it is not because I don’t like you—it is because I want you to learn and grow as a person, so you never have to waste your precious time making those mistakes ever again. When we have discussions and debates in my class I teach you how to have debates in a constructive and appropriate way. I teach you how to analyze your own opinions and their validity before you judge someone else’s. Finally, one of my personal favorites: I try to teach you that sometimes the best thing to say, is nothing at all.
When it comes down to it, I want you, my past and future kids (suck it up… you’re my kids whether you like it or not) to know more about Geography when you leave my room than when you walked in. But I would far prefer you leave my room a better person. I know I leave a better person because of y’all every day. That is why I must apologize to you.
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It hasn’t always been this way. I can remember a time, when I was in school myself, that the people I learned about in Geography class did not act the way people act now. We have talked about it in class, you have asked questions, and I have done my best to answer as honestly as I can, but I am out of logical answers, so I am just going to say I don’t know why it didn’t use to be this way:
- I don’t know why the President or people in other positions of power think the only way to get there is to lie and point fingers and assign blame.—It didn’t use to be that way.
- I don’t know why these same people are rewarded second, third, and fourth chances for not being honest and not having integrity.—It didn’t use to be that way.
- I don’t know why people laugh, cheer, and clap when people in positions of power call those not in power (like women, African-Americans, and people with disabilities) names or make fun of them.—It didn’t use to be that way.
- I don’t know why people in power aren’t held accountable, fired, disciplined, or suspended when they don’t fulfill promises that they made to others.—It didn’t use to be that way.
- I don’t know why the media can’t seem to discuss the people in power without raising their voices, pointing fingers, and assigning blame.—It didn’t use to be that way.
- I don’t know why these people are rewarded for continuing to talk.—It didn’t use to be this way… and trust me, I would tell most of them to take a seat like I have told many of you.
Now that I have told you this, I want to give you an assignment. If you fail every other assignment I give you and only pass this one, I will still consider you a stellar student. Your assignment it simple: Be Better!
Be better than the bullies, and the liars, and the bigots, and the racists, and the finger pointers, and the yellers, and the gossipers, and the buck passers who seemed to have overtaken the system.
Be better than them even when it feels like you are losing, because by being the better person, you are the people who are leading by example. You are the “city on the hill.” And slowly but surely, others will take notice and follow.
It won’t always be quick, easy, and fun, but when you look back on your life when I am long gone you just might think to yourself, “Who woulda thought!? Mr. Boliek was right after all.”
With great admiration and respect,
Mr. Wynne Boliek
World Geography Teacher
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Photo credit: Getty Images
