[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 4, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1931-S1932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WHAT AL SHANKER TAUGHT US

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of a 
great man and a very good friend, Al Shanker. His contributions to 
education and society at large are too great to enumerate so I 
respectfully ask that E.D. Hirsch, Jr.'s column from the Washington 
Post be printed in the Record.
  The column follows:

                       What Al Shanker Taught Us

       In the course of the past two decades, Albert Shanker made 
     himself the most important figure in American education. In 
     the wake of his untimely death on Feb. 22, the movement 
     toward rigorous academic standards in public schools must 
     still go on. But his death leaves a void, and the standards 
     movement will have less force and focus than it had before.
       No other high official in education spoke home truths so 
     consistently, or with more clarity, or to greater effect. No 
     one contributed more to the change in attitude among teachers 
     and the general public toward universally high academic 
     standards. If a single person could be said to be responsible 
     for the shift in sentiment that prompted the President to 
     call, in his State of the Union address, for national 
     educational standards in the public school--a proposal that 
     would have been unthinkable a few years back--it would be Al 
     Shanker.
       We teachers, like the rest of humankind, are creatures of 
     habit and tradition who follow the ideas we were taught. Our 
     leaders are inclined to preserve their popularity by telling 
     us what we are comforted to hear. Al Shanker was different. 
     His loyalty was to the wellbeing of public education as a 
     whole. Only a rare and great leader risks the disfavor of his 
     followers and brings them to a new understanding of 
     uncomfortable new realities.
       Long before his colleagues, Shanker had the insight to 
     perceive and the courage to

[[Page S1932]]

     acknowledge some harsh truths about our public schools. He 
     led teachers to recognize that public support for public 
     education could no longer be taken for granted, that schools 
     would need to set much higher standards of achievement for 
     all and that students would need to face serious consequences 
     for not attaining them--a stern message that went against the 
     dominant sentiments of students, teachers and parents alike.
       Still, teachers adored him. They knew that he spoke with 
     conviction and good will. They respected and loved him for 
     being so brainy and honest, so much himself. ``Let Al be Al'' 
     was the resigned decision of his union's executive committee 
     after he had written some particularly forthright and 
     discomforting numbers of ``Where We Stand''--the weekly essay 
     through which he promulgated his ideas. Sometimes the ``We'' 
     was an editorial ``We'', in later years maybe a royal ``We.''
       Among the educational leaders I have known, Shanker was the 
     most intellectually brilliant and tough-minded. He had talent 
     for clarity and trenchancy. But those gifts would have 
     counted for little had they not been joined to high 
     patriotism, a sense of responsibility, unflinching honesty, 
     imagination and courage. His brains alone would have made him 
     a distinguished CEO of a big organization that represented 
     hundreds of thousands of teachers. But his courage, honesty, 
     and imagination make him prophetic. If we are lucky enough to 
     follow in the direction he set, history will view him as a 
     pivotal figure in American educational renewal.

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