From T__ whom I taught as a 9th grader in 98-99:
And you're still at Roosevelt? How good! You were one of the first teachers that ever really challenged me and I'll never forget that.
From E_ whom I taught as a 10th grader in 03-04:
Thanks for being such a wonderful role model, allowing us as students to both see you a teacher but as a person, using your personality to come out during our class times.... It still stuck out to me how you could gauge our personalities towards the end of the year . . .Only because of teachers like you and people invested in my future have I made it this far. So thanks Mr. Bernstien. Keep doing what you're doing, and changing lives every day.
Two of several dozen direct messages received on Facebook as former students and I connect. Reminding me yet again why I teach.
And why I write about teaching, and work on educational policy. It is about the students. Not the test scores.
Even before I finally got on Facebook - which I had to do because I was asked to help coordinate an effort of several thousand educators trying to influence educational policy - I stayed in touch with some students through email. One young man I taught in 97-98 as an 8th grader has visited me at the high school where I now teach, sent me pictures of his promotion ceremonies (he is in National Guard, and has done several tours in Iraq) and emailed me from time to time (and now sends me direct messages and chats via IM through Facebook).
Some students don't realize how much they appreciate what a teacher has done until later. Occasionally some will email me at home (I'm not that hard to find) or through school (when they find out I am still there). Facebook is for many their communications tool of choice, and as I connect with some former students others who are on the Friends list reach out to me as well.
Some used the occasion of my teaching award to touch base, such as D__:
You may not remember me, but I was a freshman in your LSN Government class for the 1998-1999 school year at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. I am now a 4th grade teacher at Perrywood Elementary School. When I was a student in your class, I enjoyed it immensely! I appreciated your humor and animated teaching style. Being as though history/government have never been my favorite subjects, I always regard your class as my favorite class and you as my favorite grade school teacher. I had a college professor who displayed very similar teaching styles to you at UMCP and because of this, I became his intern for 2 years. Teachers like you are hard to find, but so easy to appreciate. I am thankful to have had the chance to enjoy your expertise and congratulations again on your recent award! You deserve it among many others!
and R__:
I don't know if you remember me, but I'd like to wish you congratulations on your award. I attended Kettering Middle School in 1996-1997 and remember fondly your history class. I remember how you were always willing to be silly to prove a point. Thanks to teachers like you students like me are inspired to become teachers ourselves.
N_ was a student in the same class as T__, my first year at Eleanor Roosevelt. He later took an elective with me as a junior. This past year he became a teacher of ESOL students, and sent me an email which read in part:
In preparing for the program and reflecting on my own experiences, I find myself thinking frequently about your engaging and motivating lessons, and how my experiences in your class could influence my students.
I feel that your lessons specifically could be accessed by students with different levels of English comprehension. Your lessons were exciting and well developed, and could be accessed by those with multiple perspectives.
We have since talked by phone as he wanted to pick my brain on teaching.
Sometimes I am surprised at the students who track me down, such as A__, with whom I was not necessarily that close, but whom I tutored to help him get through his SATs to make him D-I eligible (he was an all-Met football player):
If you remember me I am an student that was in your class during the school year of 2000-2001..since then I went to college. Alabama A&M University and played football here. Im working towards graduation. I sat out of school for almost a whole year. the reason I did was because my father became ill and eventually died of cancer at the age of 44. Im majoring in secondary education. I have aspirations and dreams of becoming an principal or to hold a position with the state board. I was planning on coming back to the area after December graduation. just wanted to let you know that you inspired me to try to be the best. apparently you did the same with Melvin perry. Bernstein you are awesome you give kids hope. you grill us, you open our minds. many people may say that what you do is minor but for this kid that entered those doors some seven years ago you made me believe in myself. when I couldn't get the score you helped. thanks Mr. Bernstein thank you so much. hopefully I can come back and teach at my alma mater.
E_ was one of two sisters I have taught. When she was in my class at times she felt I was being almost too challenging. But then she realized why:
I just wanted to thank you for being a fantastic and definitely unique teacher. I've learned alot from cutting out my "uhs" and "uhms", being precise and accurate with language in order to achieve the meaning you desire, and a whole lot about government and politics. I got my AP test scores in the mail yesterday and I am pleased to inform you that I got a 5. I knew when I saw the test and the FRQ's that I was well prepared thanks to you. You are a great person and you have been such an impact on my academic career. I wish the best of luck to you.
Both she and her sister are now in touch with me again through Facebook, and her father reached out to Friend me as well. He had emailed me while she was still my student:
In any event, I'll share one observation about E___. She will speak about you and what occurred in AP US Gov that day more than she will for all her other classes combined. I know she's learning writing. I can see the improvement in her written submissions to class. I know she's learning chemistry when we discuss that. I know she's getting an excellent grounding in biology based on the depth of what we discuss. In spite of all of her other excellent courses, she talks most about your course and yourself. Thanks for the effort!
When I have my down moments, when I feel frustrated that things in class don't go well, when I worry about the future of teaching and of public schools, my wife encourages me to go and reread the messages from former students. My wife is a wise woman.
It is as I reread messages such as these - and the dozens upon dozens of others she has insisted I save, print out and put into my portfolio, etc. - that I again realize why I am as active as I am in educational policy matters.
Teaching is about connecting with the students. Yes, E__ was delighted by getting a 5 on the AP exam, but the real point was that she realized immediately she was prepared. She also made the connection on my working on her communication skills to make her more effective, something her father had already noted.
Our national obsession with test scores leads schools and districts to concentrate too much on test scores - no one wants to be found wanting. That means more practice tests, more exercises geared specifically to the tests which carry high stakes. And the more of that there is, the less time is there to work on finding a way of motivating individual students, of making the material meaningful to them. I have to have enough time to get to know and understand my students. E__ is right, by the end of the year I know them very well. In fact, by the end of the first month I am beginning to see how their minds work, what interests them, how to connect with them. To my mind I have a responsibility to try to help them understand how what we do in my class has meaning for them in their own lives, if not immediately (my mainly 10th graders are not old enough to vote) in the near future. I have to help them make sense of their world, to empower them to deal with it on their own terms, to give them possibility of choices they will control.
I am currently working on an 8,000 word essay review of several educational books for a major professional publication. My piece will go through the peer review process. I have to write in a style very different than what I offer here and elsewhere online. I continue to write online whenever I am given the opportunity or occasion, such as this piece for Teacher Magazine's website on why I call all my parents at the start of the year- in part simply to begin to get to know more about my students so I can be a more effective teacher for them.
I want to be able to use my best judgment to help my students. I may need to challenge them. Sometimes I will need to comfort them. Sometimes simply remind them that a score on any one test - mine or the state's or the AP exam where relevant - is not a measure of what they have done as my students and certainly is no indicator of who they are as human beings. They are more than their test scores. And I sure to hell wish people who obsess about test scores would step back for a moment and remember that.
When I hear from former students, or sometimes when I see the successes they have (for I do try to follow them even if they don't reach back out to me), I can feel a quiet satisfaction in helping them in any fashion I could, during the time they were in my care. If they want to maintain contact, great. I am always delighted to hear from them.
What I most enjoy are messages like that I received from J__, who fought me tooth and nail while he was my student:
I used to hate it when you insisted I redo work. I just wanted to turn it in and get it done. Who the hell cares if it could have been done better? I now realize that you were demanding because you cared about me. I'm sorry I was too immature to realize that when I was your student. Thank you for being so tough on me. I wish I had told you this before I graduated.
I want my students to believe in themselves. I want them to have choices.
Our schools should be less about the adult concerns, and more about the students. Yes, we bring insights and experiences that they may not yet be capable of fully grasping. Their judgments are incomplete. They will make mistakes. So what? Don't we still make mistakes as adults? Should not they experience not being successful, but then being able to go back and make things right? Should not they be allowed to try and fail and learn from failures in a safe environment? How do we allow for that if we obsess about test scores on exams that have little to do with what they will confront outside of an academic setting?
When I have doubts, I know what I need to do. I need to go reread messages like these. Messages that are coming more frequently as I connect with former students through Facebook, or they read about me in the news, or perhaps I bump into them in a bookstore, at a bar, or on one occasion as I was buying a cell phone and the salesmen recognized me even though since he was now a grown man and not the tiny 8th grader from more than a decade past I did not recognize him.
It is not just about the curriculum. It's about the persons who pass through my classroom.
Teaching - it's about the students, not the test scores.
Peace.