by Joseph Zavarella

Created on: July 19, 2008   Last Updated: July 29, 2008

A school in and of itself is nuts, bolts and concrete. The program provided in that school is developed and mandated by authorities outside the classroom. Hence, school boards and administration are the ones who must be rigorous in making their demands on the students to learn and the teachers to teach the specified programs. The rigors applied by strongly stated policies and administrative edicts within the context of contracts agreed to with the teacher's union are the proper place for rigorous actions by school personnel.

Teachers on the other hand can be nurturing. Hence, we have an immediate standoff between two major philosophical positions. Teachers must always be nurturing in order to cope with the mandates of a rigorous school and the program imposed upon it by administration from local to state and federal edicts. Teachers can be both rigorous and nurturing, but a school and school system must and I emphasize, must, always be rigorous. The rigorous rules imposed from above create the need for teachers and students to cooperatively fulfill the demands placed upon them.

This is different than NCLB because that was an edict passed down from Washington DC. The rigors described above would be by mutual agreement with union and district leadership as defined in the contract. Most school districts are currently run this way, but the number of mandates and the support given for teachers who must teach those mandates to students who may not wish to cooperate is not necessarily a given.

If we were to see more emphasis placed on the concept of a rigorous school system's program and the teachers who nurture the students throughout their educational experience we might see fewer problems in our public schools. In other words, it is not the teachers who would be making the demands it is the school district (especially school boards who seldom take any responsibility to support their teachers) making the demands and they will stand behind the teachers and principals who are trying to meet those demands.

The intent in my argument is to say that teachers are not the ones who create the mandates placed upon them and the students. They are the ones who must show their nurturing side. The teachers in the so-called trenches are the ones who will nurture and vigorously try to teach the mandated material to their students. Yes, teachers may also need to be rigorous in their approach with their students. In many instances rigorous may be described as stern or demanding. WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY, Copyright, 2003, defines nurturing as follows: "to train, educate, rear, etc." Rigor is defined in that same source as: "severity; strictness." Rigorous is the adjective. Therefore, I suggest that there should be no attempt to mutually exclude one when the other is chosen as an approach. Teachers may, or must, be both rigorous in their approach as well as nurturing.

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