Barack Obama was on to something in his speech the other day to the class of '08 at Wesleyan University: "At a time when a child in Boston must compete with children in Beijing and Bangalore, we need an army of you to become teachers and principals in schools that this nation cannot afford to give up on." The best teachers fuse idealism with practicality, with a little personal sacrifice on the side.
When John McCain came home from five and a half years of torture, torment and anguish at the "Hanoi Hilton," he wanted first to thank a teacher at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., who had taught him grammar, the structure of language, the meaning of literature and something more. "He helped teach me to be a man, and to believe in the possibility that we are not captive to the worst parts of our nature," he told the students where he once studied. "I wanted to tell him I finally understood there in Hanoi all the things he'd been trying to tell me about life."
He arrived too late -- the teacher had died. But such understanding never arrives too late. Such teachers show the distinctions that are driven by moral purpose. "Finding noble purpose means both devoting oneself to something worth doing and doing it in an honorable manner," says William Damon. High test scores won't reveal it. Emphasis on such test scores, in fact, can narrow vision and limit goals.
The good news is that there are signs of renewed interest in doing purposeful work. The non-profit Teach for America program, which sends college graduates into troubled schools in low-income communities, reports a surge in applications and placements. This fall, the organization will send 3,700 new teachers into urban and rural classrooms. Those who have worked in difficult classes know how teaching envelops their lives with a renewed determination to succeed. You could call it a path to purpose.