Next year's graduating seniors will have the chance to honor a kindergarten through 12th grade teacher during their final year at Dartmouth, thanks to a program the College implemented recently.
The program gives students the opportunity to submit an essay explaining why the nominated teacher was significant to their academic careers. The four selected honorees will be given an award at commencement, as well as $3,000, plus a $2,500 award for the recipient's school. The program will be funded by the President's Office and the Provost's Office.
Hany Farid, Professor of Computer Science, brought the idea for the program to Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt and College Provost Barry Scherr after he was inspired by a June 2005 New York Times op-ed by Thomas Friedman. Friedman described a similar program at Williams College that he witnessed while visiting as a Commencement speaker.
"For a place like Dartmouth -- for its incredible endowment -- we tend to pat ourselves on the back when we graduate these great students," Farid said. "But really we've only had them for four years, these other teachers have had them for 12 years."
"They provide what I consider one of the most important services in our society. They are in the trenches day in and day out," he said.
Instructor of Education Jay Davis and Ben Taylor '07 will chair the program's selection committee.
Taylor, who is an executive editor of The Dartmouth, was also inspired by Friedman's article and Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia '82 put him in touch with Farid, Instructors of Education Jay Davis and Janet Zullo and other administrators.
Taylor said that if not for an influential teacher in his own earlier education, he might not be at Dartmouth.
"I think it's important that a major college like Dartmouth and other peer institutions recognize the decisive influence that good high school teachers, and not just high school teachers, have on students," Taylor said.
Both Taylor and Farid noted how quickly the administration approved the program, setting it in motion only a year after the initial idea. Taylor explained that the administration hesitated only at the notion of hosting the event at Commencement, given the length of the ceremony, but that administrators eventually decided in favor of the proposal.
"We just wanted to send a strong message to current teachers and future teachers that their work is important and Dartmouth recognizes the worth of that work," Sateia said.
Sateia added that the questions the College asked at other schools during the research period for the program might have stimulated interest in similar programs elsewhere.
In his June 2005 column, Freidman suggested the development of K-12 teacher recognition programs at more colleges.
"Imagine if every college in America had a program like Williams's, and every spring, across the land, thousands of great teachers were acknowledged by the students they inspired? 'No Great Teachers Left Behind,'" Friedman wrote. "How about it?"
