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Show Teacher Aids: Types Of Allies The very best teacher, in the entire world can fail completely comple-tely if one ingredient in the learning process is missing. THAT ONE ingredient is motivation. To learn well, a student must want to learn. Sure, a teacher can do a lot to increase a youngster's excitement ex-citement about learning. The teacher can stimulate, demand, nudge, plead, encourage, en-courage, push and inspire. STILL, THE student who fights learning can win that battle. That's why a teacher needs allies. AN ALLY IS a parent who tries to find out exactly how Johnny behaves in school, rather than blindly insisting that Johnny is too fine a person per-son to lob a spoonful of mashed potatoes at Jennifer in the school cafeteria. An ally is a brother or sister who will turn down the stereo at homework time. AN ALLY IS a young friend who will tell a student to "hang in there" when he's talking about dropping out of school. An ally is an old friend who convinces Joe or Margaret Mar-garet that it's nobler to do without than to bug Dad for a costly item that may cause more hurt than happiness. Like a car, for instance. AN ALLY is a busy professional profes-sional who sacrifices time at the office to visit a school on "Career Day" to fire up students on the merits of becoming architects. Or Dentists, Den-tists, or whatever. An ally is a citizen who insists that his community must have the best schools anywhere. AN ALLY is a mother who gives up that new dress to pay for Mary's eyeglasses. rtn ally is a father who will ask his children about their problems at school. And listen to their answers. I'M SPEAKING for every educator in the state when I say this sincerely: Thanks, allies! |