CHAPTER 6
History of Schools in the United States
Teacher Interview: Marvin Kuhn
Meet Marvin Kuhn, a teacher of 43½ years who just retired. Over his career, Mr. Kuhn taught in three school systems in Indiana, spending the last 30 years in the rural schools of Rush County, southeast of Indianapolis, where he grew up. Rush County is a farming community where the population is overwhelmingly white; less than 2% of the PreK–12 students are African American or Mexican American. The percentage of students who are on free or reduced-price lunch in the schools in which Mr. Kuhn taught over his career has grown from 10% when he began teaching to 50% in the largest elementary school in the county. For the last 19 years, he has served as the science coordinator for the five elementary schools in the county. He continued to be classified as a teacher while he was the coordinator because he was always working with the elementary teachers in the schools as he modeled hands-on science teaching in their classrooms. In retirement he continues to teach classes for schools in Rush County and surrounding areas on the stars and planets using StarLab, which is a portable planetarium. He also maintains and teaches classes at a nature center that he created and uses as a lab for elementary students.
What can teachers learn from the history of education that will be helpful in their work?
Interestingly, I was not crazy about history when I was in school, but I now love teaching history and making it fun for students. Knowing where we have been can be very helpful in looking forward. You should not be afraid of trying something new, but I have learned over four decades of teaching that not everything is new. Many teaching strategies that we have been expected to implement are refinements of methods developed earlier in our profession.
What does excellence in teaching look like?
The more enthusiasm you show in what you do and the more excited you are, the more excited the kids become. From the beginning of schooling, students have been asked to read and then discuss what they read and answer questions. You need to be much more creative than that to engage students in the lesson. I also find that hands-on activities help students remember what is being taught because they are actually doing it. Years after students have left my classroom, they remind me of a hands-on activity they did when they were in my classroom.