The Case of the Chronically Tardy Teacher

Apparently punctuality is not an important job requirement to teach public school in New Jersey these days.  As proof of this, we have Mr. Arnold Anderson.

Over the past two years, Mr. Anderson was late to his job 111 times – 46 last school year and another 65 the prior year. Anderson, who teaches at Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick, NJ, is paid a handsome $90,000 a year.

This sum, however, appears to be not enough to get him out of bed and to work in the same timely fashion you’d expect of, say, the school’s students.

Losing Track of Time

Mr. Anderson blamed his consistent and chronic tardiness on eating breakfast in the morning and losing track of time. He called his morning routine a "bad habit" but defended his recording saying he was often just a minute or two late to school, but still was prepared and made it to class on time. 

The school tried to fire Mr. Anderson. At face value, I would say this appears to be a reasonable course of action. However, an arbiter, appointed to oversee this situation between the school district and teacher’s union, ruled on August 19 not to fire Mr. Anderson. Instead, the arbiter decided to suspend him without pay until January.

The arbiter found that school officials did not provide Mr. Anderson with due process by giving him formal notice of his inefficiency and did not give him 90 days to correct the issue before seeking to terminate him.

It appears from news accounts (including this article in the UK’s Daily Mail, proving that news travels fast) that Mr. Anderson argued that the quality of his teaching outweighed his tardiness. The arbiter wasn’t buying this and criticized his claim. 

Due Process

So, three cheers for due process, I guess, right? I certainly don’t know all the facts here. Of course, any situation in which someone might lose his or her job, it’s important to get the facts right.

But can you honestly think of any job you can be late to for over 100 times in two years and NOT get shown the door? How about 50 times? Heck, how about 25?

Apparently the only job you can pull off this kind of behavior -- at least in this case -- is teaching.

Showing Up

I have worked in education for over 20 years. I have taught school at many different levels and in both school and corporate settings. There is a simple truth about teaching that I’ve observed. You need to show up.

By “show up” I mean that it’s essential to bring energy, enthusiasm and a positive mindset to teaching. If you fail to do this, students know right away. In almost every case, they check out.

Students of all ages read their teachers. They take their cues from them. A teacher who does not show up provides the students with explicit permission to not show up themselves. It’s pretty simple.

In Mr. Anderson’s case, a 15-year teaching veteran, his not “showing up” is at an entirely different level. He literally did not show up on time. Inexplicably, he can’t motivate himself to be on time to teach elementary age students. What message does that send them?

I personally know plenty of people who would love Mr. Anderson’s job and his more than ample salary. The only thing worse than Mr. Anderson’s track record, his apparent lackluster attitude and feeble excuse for his tardiness is the fact that we have a system that makes is so hard to actually do the right thing and fire someone for this kind of clearly irresponsible and idiotic behavior.

Great Teachers: We Need You

While most of us have teachers from our past who have inspired and shaped us, the sad reality is we’ve all had some real duds as well.

Remember that class that you dreaded attending? You showed up just as the bell rang and watched the clock minute after painful minute until the bell rang again releasing you from the misery of that class?

It’s quite possible you’ve had more duds in your educational career than superstar teachers. Both the highs and the lows tend to stand out for me.

In May, I wrote a post called “What Makes a Great Teacher?”and described how inspiring my 7^th grade social studies teacher, Mrs. Stephan, was for me. Ironically, that same year, I had a science teacher that I’ll always remember for all the wrong reasons.

I’ll call him Mr. Mumbles to hide his actual identify all these years later.  But here was a teacher who could not have been more ineffective as an educator. I recall nothing about science from that impressionable year in my life, but I do recall many things about him and how he ran his class.

Me in 7th grade

First, he mumbled. It was painful. Our sizable class was spread over numerous lab stations – complete with sinks and gas jets for Bunsen burners. Depending on where you sat, his mumbles were inaudible. If you could hear him, it made little difference. His lectures were dry, boring and rambling. Let’s just say National Geographic film days that took up most of the period were a welcome relief.

Naturally, when Mr. Mumbles spoke, the class disengaged. Usually a small subset of students moved to the front with their pens and pads of paper to hear him talk and take notes, while others did whatever they wanted.

Personally, I joined both groups depending on my mood, but as the year wore on, I found myself drawing pictures in my notebook or staring at a girl with braces and long ponytail whom I fantasized about talking to, but could never muster up the courage to actually do so.

In that same May 15 blog, I revealed a number of brilliant replies to a question I posted to a Linked In discussion group. Specifically I asked, “I am researching great classroom facilitation. What qualities do you think make teachers great?”

I’d like to revisit this topic of “Great Teachers” because I received so many wonderful replies to that question from all over the world. These particular 5 insightful trainers, educators and learning consultants are from Canada and the United Kingdom.

Here is what each had to say.

Tuula Lindholm, a training and learning solution specialist from Toronto, Canada, provided the following qualities of great teachers:

• Encouraging story-telling, dialoguing to allow issues to surface fully


• Listening for cues and clues about learning needs that may not be so obvious

• Responding and having others respond to/comment on to encourage consensus building and/or to draw out multiple points of view (not just the popular ones...)

Ability to admit own limitations, lack of knowledge, when necessary



Fran Traynor, lead trainer and learning designer at New College in Manchester in the United Kingdom, wrote:

“In my experience, great teachers are assistants and guides to people learning. They help people to identify what they need to know/do and then they assist people in getting enthusiastic about setting and travelling towards goals, reaching, assessing and celebrating their achievements both stage by stage and holistically."

Jane Smith Parsons, a curriculum development consultant in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, noted that great teaching is an art. She wrote:

“Great facilitation is knowing how to deliver the technical aspects in a way that comes across relaxed, fun, and engaging….We must always remember that great facilitation brings out the best in others... It is not our experience but theirs... So we must understand the multitude of ways others become engaged and offer up the opportunities through a sequential and necessary process that heightens each individual's learning experience.”

Paul Cook is an on demand learning specialist living in London, England. He wrote:

“What the learner does is more important than what he teacher does.”

Kevin Fitzsimons, an education consultant from Hull, United Kingdom, was equally concise stating the quality he feels is critical for a great teacher. He wrote:

“A sense of humour, which helps you to keep a sense of proportion.”

So, to sum it up, I am taking away this list:

• Skilled storyteller
• Patient listener
• Discussion leader
• Classroom guide
• Artist
• Persistently student-focused
• Good sense of humor

I think that’s a darn good list. Thank you Tuula, Fran, Jane, Paul and Kevin. Your insights are appreciated and exceptionally well-stated.

My 7th grade yearbook

As for my paradoxical 7^th grade year at Springman Junior High School in Glenview, Illinois, I

survived. Perhaps this heaven and hell experience was training for future blissful and then disappointing moments that happened in close proximity to each other. Sadly, mediocrity in the classroom is more common than it should be.

For teachers in schools, in companies and in any location where the goal is to learn, the opportunity to be great is so awesome and critically important. Don’t shrink from it, but embrace it. We need you.

What Makes a Great Teacher?

 In 2013, Ayad Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play “Disgraced.” When he was asked during an interview about his play and his other writing, Akhtar, a 44-year-old New Yorker, said, “I’d had a wonderful high school teacher who made me want to be a writer. Everything I do is an homage to her.”

When I heard him say this, a series of images in passed through my head about what his teacher must have been like, how she ran her class, what she must have felt like when she learned her student won the Pulitzer Prize. Through these images, though, I found myself staring at the face of my 7^th grade teacher at Springman Junior High School – Mrs. Stephan.

She was a kind, matronly woman who kept wadded up tissues in the sleeve of her sweater. Her reddish brown hair sat like a beehive on the top of her head. She had a pleasant, understated smile, unusually warm hands and she smelled like the fragrant soap balls my grandparents kept in a seashell dish in their master bedroom.

Ayad Akhtar - (Photo by Nina Subin)

I thought of how through her quiet confidence in me she managed to fill me with more energy and enthusiasm than I thought possible. Granted, I was only 12, my voice cracked with startling regularity. I had not quite discovered deodorant, had persistent acne and was stumbling awkwardly into my early teenage years.

This started me thinking about great teachers. Truthfully, I actually think of this subject often. But let’s just say this comment from Akhtar and my mental tumble back in time to Mrs. Stephan's classroom prompted me again to ask myself the question, “What makes a great teacher?”

Like you, I have my opinions, but I was curious what others thought. To get answers, I posted this question to a few discussion groups on Linked In. It’s a great place, Linked In – full of thoughtful, well-spoken people, I’ve found. I asked the educators, “What qualities make a great teacher?”

I received many replies. Here are a few that I thought hit the mark.

• Professional trainer Jason Sturges of Alexandria, Virginia wrote that great teachers “focus on the participant needs (versus) just getting through the content.”

•  It’s a simple thing, but he’s totally right. How many instructors have you had that seem bent on plowing through the content come hell or high water? I have had more than a few. Great teachers focus on what the students need first. 

• Ann Adler, a learning designer and facilitator from Cumbria, England wrote several things that I loved. She noted that great teachers “understand what it means to be a learner and how to develop learning capability in those they teach”. She also stated that great teachers “draw out, rather than pour in, learning.” 

• I agree completely. You can’t forget what it is to learn and expect to be a great teacher. We can all tell when teachers have lost the desire to learn. They become jaded, lecture and frankly dial it in. Old-school lecturers attempt to generically dump information into our head – with alarming inefficiency.  Great teachers, in contrast, draw out – they draw us out, draw out our energy, our curiosity, our capabilities. 

• Dr. Martin Carnap, a longtime educator and coach in Costa Rica, wrote that you can best define great teachers by focusing on their students. Do the students take initiative during class? Do they make decisions? Do they feel the importance of what they’re doing? Do they look for alternative points of view and modify ideas, focus and strategies? If so, he wrote, you have a great teacher. 

• Well said, Martin. All I can add is that to great teachers, it’s truly all about the students and less about the teachers. Their own ego fades into the background. I wish more of the teachers I had (and continue to have) subscribed to this idea, don’t you?

• Kathy Miller, head of the English Department at Coulsdon Sixth Form College in the UK had many great thoughts, but the two I liked the best were: (1) Be open to and ask for feedback from your students and (2) Love the students- care about them- there are many ways to demonstrate this.

• What can beat this? Teachers, first off, should never stop learning, so feedback is a must no matter how many years they’ve been in the classroom.  In my view, someone who is not open to feedback likely has a distorted sense of his or her own effectiveness or is afraid to hear what he or she already expects or knows.

• Second – we all realize when someone cares about us and when that person does not.  If a teacher cares, you know it right away and you’re very likely to care more about learning. It’s like my friend Tammy Berman told me recently, “Kids won’t care what you know until they know that you care.” I would only add that in addition to kids, we can include adults as well.   

So, was Ayad Akhtar’s teacher all of these things? My bet, quite honestly, is yes. Did she focus on his needs? Did she act as a learner, draw out instead of pour in? Was her ego in check and did she love and care for him as a student?

I would say absolutely. If she hadn’t, would he still have been a writer? Would he have won the Pulitzer Prize? It’s impossible to say, but it’s a question worth considering as we think about the power teachers have and the influence they can have in people’s lives and their importance to the broader success of our society.