Teachers: Models of Excellence in Today's Classroom

George G. Ambury is an associate professor of adult education at
Queen’s University.

This is a comfort book for teachers and a challenge to their critics.
The authors feel that teachers in Canada have become scapegoats for the
economic and political ills of the country, and that it is time to
present the other side of the picture. Individually, teachers may be
loved and respected by parents and pupils, but collectively they feel
like the enemy. To counter this public attitude, Simmons, a former
teacher, has, since 1985, been running an annual contest to choose a
teacher of the year through a large metropolitan newspaper. This book
summarizes some information gathered as part of this process. It offers
hope and inspiration to beleaguered classroom teachers working with
people from early primary to adults.

Those who are chosen as models of excellence display, beyond a deep
care for their charges, six qualities. These excellent teachers are
flexible, interesting, available, informed, accountable, and relevant.
Each of these qualities is exemplified by a vignette of four or five
award winners. Extensive quotations from those who support the nominees
are inspiring and sometimes humorous. In reading them we think of other
teachers who have touched us in one way or another and share many of the
qualities being described.

This is a book by teachers and primarily for the inspiration of
teachers. It is possible that parents, journalists, and politicians will
also catch some of the vision displayed by the authors. Unfortunately,
there is neither an attempt at critical analysis of what makes teaching
effective nor any reference to the body of literature that examines this
subject. However, this book is what it sets out to be—a celebration of
the best of teachers and the best of teaching.