Tag Archives: teaching

Building Cathedrals Begins Anew

by Woody

Backpacks, notebooks and pencils have been bought, lunches packed, sneakers tied in double-knots, say “cheese” smiles flashed for milestone pictures before heading off to begin a new school year…

…and an old story I read about the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. has come to my mind. Bear with me and I will get around to the connection.

The magnificent cathedral took eight decades to build, 83 years to be precise, from 1907 to 1990, and near the end of construction progress slowed to a crawl because it became harder and harder to find experienced stonecutters with the skill necessary to prepare the stones properly to fit perfectly.

Curious about this nearly lost art, a newspaper writer went to the job site and interviewed two of the remaining master craftsmen who were now well up in age. Specifically, the writer asked the pair to explain what they were doing.

“I’m shaping this stone,” the first stonecutter replied, running a calloused hand over his smooth handiwork before pointing to a section of a rising wall, “so that it fits into that space over there.”

The second stonecutter, making a sweeping gesture towards the sky, had a grander answer: “I am building a cathedral.”

Schoolteachers, it seems to me, are very much like stonecutters, shaping their lessons to fit into the spaces that need to be filled with knowledge so a cathedral – each student – can rise tall and proud. Instead of shaping stones, teachers help shape minds. Joseph Addison, a 17th English century poet, echoed this stonecutter analogy when he wrote: “What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.”

Teachers, thus, help sculpt souls and there can be no higher calling. John Wooden certainly believed so, noting: “I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession.”

Master teachers do their stonecutting with lectures and instruction, surely, but also with words of praise and inspiration; with grace and goodness; with humor often and discipline when necessary; and always, always, always the best in the profession perform their magic with encouragement.

Indeed, when my mind races back in time for a stroll through my school hallways and I recall the teachers, one after another, who made the biggest impact on me, it is not the facts and figures and rules of grammar they taught me that I most remember. Rather, it is the way the unforgettable teachers lifted me skyward with their encouragement. I am confident it was the same for you.

As with building a cathedral of bricks or cut stones, a student takes many years, decades even, to rise to full potential. As the adage has it, teachers do not see their individual successes until at least two decades after each student exits their classroom.

Just as it takes many stonecutters to build a cathedral, it takes countless teachers to help a student soar. It is, in fact, a relay effort with each teacher handing the baton to another, year after year, elementary school to middle school to high school and often further onward.

Castles, like cathedrals, require stonecutters. However, “castles in the air” are often interpreted to mean having daydreams that will never become reality. Henry David Thoreau, a daydreamer to be sure, disagreed, writing: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

Teachers, the really good ones, are master stonecutters at helping students put the foundations under their castles in the air.

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Essay copyrights Woody Woodburn

Woody writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His SIGNED books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.

Personalized Signed copies of WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and  “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” are available at WoodyWoodburn.com

 

 

Column: Tragic Loss of “Artist”

by Woody

Teaching Fraternity Loses an “Artist”

 

“There are two kinds of teachers,” the great poet Robert Frost said. “The kind that fill you with so much quail shot you can’t move, and the kind that just give you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.”

 

Like many, I was fortunate to have a handful that prodded me. Miss James, Mr. Ridland, Ms. Hutchings and Mr. McFadden meant the sky to me.

Chris Prewitt

Chris Prewitt

 

And not to me alone, for as Andy Rooney observed: “Teachers have thousands of people who remember them for the rest of their lives.”

 

            That figure seems on the low side for Chris Prewitt.

 

Indeed, he seems to have gently prodded so many earthbound young people to jump for the skies during his far-too-brief teaching career that a memorial service this morning at 10 a.m. is being held in the Buena High School football stadium.

 

            Prewitt was tragically killed at age 38 last Sunday morning when he was hit by a car during a 16-mile run training for a marathon. The driver, 23-year-old Shante Chappell, is accused of the heinous crime of driving under the influence of drugs.

 

Making the senseless heartbreak further unbearable is that Prewitt leaves behind his wife, Erin, and 7-year-old daughter, Isabella, with a road of missed milestones laying ahead – from elementary school plays to proms to graduations and marriage and more.

 

(People interested can contribute to a college fund for Isabella at http://www.youcaring.com and search for “Chris Prewitt.”)

 

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes you hear or read about a person and you not only wish you knew them – you feel at a loss because you don’t. Or didn’t. This is how I feel about Prewitt.

 

In a way, however, I feel like I did know this remarkable man because the outpouring of heartfelt words reminds me of how widely beloved one of my own favorite teachers was, the late Harold McFadden.

 

            Moreover, that Prewitt made such a profound impression on a number of people I know and revere – such as Trudy Tuttle Arriaga and Joe Vaughan – makes his loss resonate deeper.

 

Arriaga, superintendant of the Ventura Unified School District, told The Star: “He had a unique way of spreading his love of life.”

 

That passion spread to Emily Park, Foothill Tech’s 2013 valedictorian who now attends Wellesley College in Boston. Her most beautiful of eulogies, titled “A Recommendation For Mr. Prewitt To Enter Heaven” for Foothilldragonpress.org, includes this line: “My dream is to have the work ethic, the positivity, the pure kindness, the leadership skills, and the effect on people that Mr. Prewitt had while he was living.”

 

Without question, Mr. Prewitt prodded Emily to jump for the skies.

 

“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings,” Carl Jung wrote. “The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”

 

It has become far too fashionable to blame teachers for the shortcomings in our educational system. While Prewitt was by all accounts exceptional, he still was not the exception. I guarantee you DeAnza Academy of Technology and Arts, where Prewitt was the assistant principal, has other brilliant teachers. Same for Foothill Tech, where Prewitt taught previously; and Buena High, where he coached water polo.

 

And every other school in Ventura County.

 

Because of one driver who didn’t belong on the road future classrooms will be diminished by not experiencing Prewitt’s vital warmth. This diminishes the future for all of us.

 

 “I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists,” the word artist John Steinbeck said. “Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.”

 

We have lost a great artist.

 

Chris Prewitt’s work, however, will live on in his former students – surely some who will become teachers and great “artists” themselves giving their students a little prod to jump for the skies.

 

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

 

Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”