Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to a little piece of news I’ve been informed of. On Wednesday, May 22, towards the end of the school day, the Town of Webb Senior Band was practicing marching around town for the Memorial Day parade. Upon returning to the school, band teacher Mr. Clark congratulated us for our good efforts at marching under the hot sun that afternoon.
Afterward, he asked us to gather around for a minute before going inside. He had some unpleasant news for us. Mr. Clark told us that he will not be here next year as our band teacher. As soon as those words left his mouth, jaws dropped and my heart sank.
Now, the official papers will say that Mr. Clark resigned. But we band students know that isn’t the truth…he was forced to resign. We’ve been told that it is because some of the higher-ups of the school do not like his way of teaching, but I am writing to defend Mr. Clark’s way of going about educating us.
How many teachers in our school teach kids, not to just want to improve, but empower their passions? How many teachers in our school not only try to teach us to put full effort into everything, but to also be kind, considerate human beings?
There are teachers at school who fall asleep while they have a class or watch TV shows on their computers instead of taking the time to thoroughly teach their subjects every single day. Mr. Clark does everything in his power to get kids to be enthusiastic about playing music every day.
We all remember Mr. Clark’s predecessor, Mr. Downey, and the legacy he left behind. Everyone thought Mr. Clark had some pretty big shoes to fill, and I for one think he did a pretty good job. After every band performance my dad would say, “He’s got some shoes to fill, but tonight he grew a size.”
Mr. Clark is one of the kindest, most compassionate and enthusiastic teachers to come to the Town of Webb UFSD. He would do anything in his power to help his students succeed—from writing recommendation letters, to devoting some of his scarce free time in helping kids practice and improve.
He not only teaches us about self-discipline and taking pride in what we invest our time into, but also life lessons on how to be compassionate, respectful, and smart.
You cannot judge a teacher based on his students (though that’s the direction our education system is going.) Mr. Clark can’t help that he had some disrespectful students in band. Regardless, there will be those obnoxious teenagers in almost every class who don’t care and don’t participate as much as others, but Mr. Clark shouldn’t be punished for that. And to those students who disrespected Mr. Clark in class, shame on you.
We students, along with our parents, feel that Mr. Clark deserved a better chance before being subjected to this. Just because he has a different way of going about teaching than some are used to doesn’t mean he is a bad teacher.
When Miss Cloherty came in after Mrs. Stanton, her way of teaching was far different than what the school was used to, but we kept her. (I have her as my Spanish V teacher, she’s fabulous.) Mr. Fountain is also a lot different than Mr. Tracy, but we love him too. Same thing goes for Miss Harmer, she’s a genius.
These young teachers are doing an amazing job at bettering our school and getting the kids involved. Now that we’re losing ANOTHER amazing band teacher, even less kids will choose to take band and our music program will shrivel up and disappear.
Now, I know that my letter will have little-to-no impact on the school’s decision, but the community should know how much Mr. Clark meant to the students, whether they had him as a teacher or not. He is one of the few teachers at our school who can inspire students to such a superior degree. Make it known that Mr. Clark is loved and appreciated by his pupils, and we would be grateful to keep him.
Molly Rodriguez,
Town of Webb School senior
President of the Class of 2013
