Teacher of the Year Candidate #3

Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #40 – February 20, 2010

Welcome to week three of our review of nominees for National Teacher of the Year. With our attention focused on those attributes great teachers seem to wield that good teachers don't. I am pleased to introduce our next candidate for this prestigious honor.

Please meet Anthony Mullen, the third finalist for 2009. The quoted italicized text includes excerpts from the finalist’s applications for National Teacher of the Year.

Anthony Mullen—2009 Connecticut Teacher of the Year
Mullen is a ninth through twelfth-grade special education teacher at ARCH School in Greenwich, Connecticut. He has taught at this school of 35 students for six of his seven years in the education profession.

"The greatest institution for social change is the school and the greatest instrument of change is the teacher. Schools are the catalyst for human progress because the dissemination of knowledge has created the world in which we live. Everything you see is the direct result of teachers spreading knowledge to vast amounts of people. The building you presently inhabit is a masterpiece of acquired knowledge: architecture, engineering, physics, chemistry, and the sum of skills and technologies taught in our schools. Your ability to read and write can be traced back to your first grade teacher and, no doubt, your professional success is equal in measure to the number of years spent in a classroom. Great societies have always valued education and understood the critical role schools and teachers play in the success or failure of its people."

Mr. Mullen’s statements are packed to the brim with powerful and thought-provoking words. How many of us have actually thought about the school’s role as the greatest agent “for social change,” and the teacher as “the greatest instrument of change?” These are two all encompassing and crucial components of our society, educators are responsible for. Yet, schools and teachers everywhere, every day, take on this challenge. Anthony takes us on a journey back in time, not only our own lifetime, but through the evolution of the great cultures and civilizations of our entire world. He reminds us that most of the knowledge used to create all the technological, scientific and artistic marvels throughout time have been the direct or indirect result of great teachers. Those of you able to read this and think about it right now, undoubtedly have a teacher to thank for that gift. How much greater could our community, our society at large, our country be, if our leaders recognized and supported the significant role teachers play in “the success or failure of its people?” I applaud Mr. Mullen’s advocacy of the teaching profession. It is because of teachers with his strength and vision, great things are still happening in our American free educational system for all.

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something else." — Lee Iacocca