"Where are the heroes of today?" a radio talk show host thundered. He blames
society's shortcomings on public education. Too many people are looking for
heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock musicians, athletes and
models aren't heroes, they're celebrities.

Heroes abound in public schools, a fact that doesn't make the news. There is
no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes, child abuse, and
crime in today's America. Public education didn't create these problems but
deals with them every day.

You want heroes? Consider Dave Sanders, the schoolteacher shot to death while
trying to shield his students from two youth on a bombing and shooting
rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Sanders gave his life,
along with 12 students, but other less heralded heroes survived the Colorado blood
bath.

You want heroes? Jane Smith, a Fayetteville, NC, teacher, was moved by the
plight of one of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant. So
this pretty white woman told the family of this handsome 14-year old black boy
that she would give him one of her kidneys. And she did. When they
subsequently appeared together hugging on the Today Show, even tough little Katie Couric
was near tears.

You want heroes? Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher. She
not only made it, she was one of those wondrous teachers who could bring the
best out
of every single child. One of her fellow teachers in San Jose, Calif., said,
"she could teach a rock to read." Suddenly she was stricken with Lou Gehrig's
Disease, which is always fatal, usually within five years. She asked to stay
on the job--and did. When her voice was affected she communicated by computer.
Did she go home? She is running two elementary school libraries. When the
disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff and all the families that she had one
last lesson to teach - that dying is part of living. Her colleagues named her
Teacher of the Year.

You want heroes?

Bob House, a teacher in Gay, Georgia, tried out for Who Wants to be a
Millionaire. After he won the million dollars, a network film crew wanted to follow
up to see how it had impacted his life. New cars? Big new house? Instead, they
found both Bob House and his wife still teaching. They explained that it was
what they had always wanted to do with their lives and that would not change.
The community was both stunned and gratified.

You want heroes? Last year the average public school teacher spent $468 of
their own money for student necessities--workbooks, pencils--supplies kids had
to have but could not afford. That's a lot of money from the pockets of the
most poorly paid teachers in the industrialized world.

Public schools don't teach values?!!! The critics are dead wrong!. Public
education
provides more Sunday school teachers than any other profession. The average
teacher works more hours in nine months than the average 40-hour employee does
in a year.

You want heroes? For millions of kids, the hug they get from a teacher is the
only hug they will get that day because the nation is living through the
worst parenting in history. Many have never been taken to church or synagogue in
their lives.

A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt to
rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on her desk--one
that said, "I love you!" He said he'd never been told that at home. This is a
constant in
today's society--two million unwanted, unloved, abused children in the public
schools, the only institution that takes them all in.

You want heroes? Visit any special education class and watch the miracle of
personal interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the
dedication they witness.

There is a sentence from an unnamed source, which says, "We have been so
eager to give our children what we didn't have that we have neglected to give them
what we did have." What is it that our kids really need? What do they really
want? Math, science, history and social studies are important, but children
need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to talk to, someone to listen,
standards to live by. Teachers provide upright examples, the faith and assurance
of responsible people. Kids need to be accountable to caring parents who send
well-disciplined children to school. These human values are essential in a
democracy.