When Nora Flanagan of Lane Tech High School was named one of the 35 most innovative teachers in the nation in 2001 by the Disney Learning Partnership, she packed for Orlando to pick up her American Teacher Award.
But before she left, the then-25-year-old English teacher had a warning for the principal, Keith Foley: Flanagan told him that she would be wearing a low-cut gown and that her tattoos, which cover her arms and back, would be revealed to the television audience.
Foley told her not to worry about it. He knew there was no stopping the future.
Young teachers are the rage in the Chicago public school system, though it’s not necessarily by choice. Foley said 60 percent of the more than 200 teachers at Lane were hired in the last five years, the vast majority of them just out of college.
Joyce Kenner, principal of Whitney Young High School, said about 25 percent of her 146 teachers have one to three years’ experience. During the next three years, she added, practically every veteran teacher from the school’s founding in 1975 will be gone.
According to the State Board of Education, 17,000 teachers in Illinois are expected to retire this year. In 2000, half of the state’s teacher shortages were in Chicago, which serves 21 percent of the state’s students, a figure that is also rising.
Deborah Lynch, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said her organization is studying the effect of so many “Gen Xers” on the union and the school system because within the next few years, she said, at least half the 27,000 teachers in the system will have less than five years’ experience.
“What you’re seeing is the Baby Boomers hitting retirement age,” she said. “So you’re seeing more and more young teachers. As a union we’re looking at this very carefully.”
Wanting fast results
Where their older mentors tended to commit to one school district, one grade and even one classroom, the Gen Xers “want things quickly, they want instant feedback and professional advancement and growth, they want to make a difference and see that difference and if they don’t, they’ll move on,” Lynch said. “And as a union of professionals, we want to be responsive and make sure we understand what their needs are.”
Kenner said that though younger people bring energy and enthusiasm, they have their drawbacks.
“I don’t think their work ethic is the same as the veteran teachers’,” she said. “They’re a little bit different than the way we were brought up.”
Foley, who runs the largest high school in Illinois with 4,000 students, is not complaining.
“Nora and all our young teachers have really revitalized our school,” he said. “They have brought a lot of energy and new ideas. They have spent a lot of time talking to the older teachers to gain the benefit of their wisdom and experience, and they’ve given our old teachers a newfound energy.”
Five years ago when she was hired at Lane Tech, Flanagan said, she went out and bought new floral skirts, blazers and pumps.
“I thought I had to look like a teacher was supposed to look. … Now I know I can go to work in a pair of corduroys and a hoodie and be just as effective as a teacher.”
Although Flanagan said that youth offers her no inherent advantages over an older teacher, “one aspect of my age that I think works for me is that I haven’t forgotten what high school was like. The cliques, the pressure, the insecurity, family trouble, dating crises, friend crises. Too many adults like to blow that stuff off as meaningless kids’ stuff.”
“I think being young right now is a huge advantage,” said Justin Lessek, 23, a biology teacher at Lincoln Park High School. “I can make a lot of comparisons and analogies to their present situation that my older colleagues can’t.”
It doesn’t hurt that Lessek plays guitar for a punk/alternative band called Don’t Worry About It. For these young teachers, music is a way to connect. Natalie Leki-Albano, a 24-year-old in her first year at Whitney Young, said that being in tune with her students’ musical tastes “gave me an extra edge in getting them to open up to me.”
Open communication
Flanagan’s energy and commitment rub off on her students, who are mostly freshmen.
“I think we can relate to her better, and she doesn’t restrict us from expressing ourselves in our own way,” said 14-year-old Reena Patel.
“We can say whatever we think when it comes to us,” said 14-year-old Paula Obregan.
As much as students and teachers have in common, there’s still that hazy line between respect and friendship.
“Some of the older teachers have advised me not to get involved and cross those borders and become a friend instead of a teacher, but I feel sort of like a big sister to them that will be there when they need someone to talk to,” said Leki-Albano.
“I think you can be friendly and helpful without being a friend,” Lessek said.
Said Flanagan, “It can be very easy to fall back and say to yourself that being a good teacher is being liked, but can they write a complete sentence by the end of the day? That’s the question.”
Gaining respect is particularly tricky for substitute teachers, such as Shomari Dailey, 26. After being laid off from General Electric last year, where he was a corporate financial officer, Dailey turned to teaching while he searched for a new job.
Whether he’s subbing at top-tier magnet Whitney Young (where he’s an alumnus) or one of the city’s low-performing schools, he said, he follows his own approach, based on intuition. One of his techniques he calls Full Blast. In Full Blast, teacher and students are allowed to speak out on any topic they wish, knowing that they are open to ridicule–or praise–from their fellow students.
“I allow them to vent and discuss what’s on their minds,” he said. “And it’s just not them venting, it’s me teaching.” Full Blast, he said, teaches students to think before they speak and to articulate.
History lesson
How are older teachers taking this influx of youth? For some, it brings back memories.
Fifty-year-old Byron Jones of Lane Tech recalls a young teacher when he was in high school who introduced the Beatles’ White Album to his students. Lane Tech biology teacher Russell Hayden, 52, remembers having to wear a tie to work when he started out.
“Today we laugh at their tattoos, and back then they laughed at our long hair and beards,” Hayden said.
But they appreciate their young colleagues’ contributions.
“You always need younger teachers around to shake you up,” Jones said. “I’ve borrowed ideas from Nora. What Nora is good at is focusing her class on social issues. She’s willing to try just about anything.”
So is Jones, who has used the lyrics of Eminem to teach poetry.
“The more you can connect to their lives,” he said, echoing his younger colleagues, “the better it works.”
