Mr. Joseph Taught His Best Lesson

Forty-two years of teaching our students how to construct sentences and the pat on the back is a pair of accusations by a nameless Port Washington School District administrator.
Yet, Robert Joseph, a Webber Middle School English teacher, did not respond like Beyonce’s sister in an elevator. Instead, he stood true to his profession and provided perhaps his greatest teaching moment of his career. Ironically, this lesson comes outside the classroom and after apparently being treated like a new job applicant by an administrator serving our school district.
A simple request: “I wanted to end my career (after next year) in my room with my fellow teachers and students,” Robert Joseph is reported to have said to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Mooney.
And how does our school district respond?
Well, the defacto leader of rules and regulations apparently opted to refer questions to a public relations firm. However, let us say for a moment, there is truth to those accusations. Does it really matter if an Asian student was complimented? What if a someone born to a father raised in Queens and the grandson of Russian immigrants was complimented?
And, speaking of contradiction of terms, why is it that a school administrator apparently can simply suggest answers will be provided by a public relations firm, yet has no qualms about burdening students with studying for standardized tests of undetermined value to students?
Such nebulous questions can be addressed at another time.
Now, just a few weeks from graduation ceremonies, it is important to keep in mind the grace of Robert Joseph in the face of accusations more befit a citizen living in a system not based on democracy.
The great takeaway from the highroad taken by Robert Joseph is his ability to turn every opportunity into a learning experience. Once again, he has succeeded beyond reproach. Surely, in his 42 years, he mentioned Go Tell It to The Mountain, by Jimmy Baldwin to his students.
That is exactly what we need to associate with this Orwellian-like incident before students flip the tassels of caps.
When you feel you have been wronged—go tell it to the mountain. Within a democratic society, we have that right. That’s a remarkable lesson taught to us by an educator the community will long remember and admire. — Robert Remler