Teaching
Excellence
6
By Our Example,
What Do We Teach?
By Mary Griffin, Professor of Education and Child Development
Editor’s Note: It is a tradition at Siena Heights for each year’s Outstanding Teaching Award recipients to
speak at the following year’s Honors Convocation. 1998 awardees Mary Weeber, English, and Mary Griffin,
Education and Child Development, spoke at Convocation this spring; the following article is excerpted from
Professor Griffin’s address.
year ago, I received the Outstanding Teaching Award, named for
Sr. Eileen Rice, my mentor of 18
years. Time stood still for me. It
was a life-defining moment, and it has
moved me to reflect on what I do.
Can I apply the theory? Can I set a positive example? Can I travel with the Old
Testament prophet, Micah, and do as he
aspires: to do justly, love mercy, and walk
humbly with God?
By law, it is necessary to hold a teaching
certificate in a formal education setting.
But I propose this next step for all of us
who teach: to recognize that when we act,
we teach by our example. I have garnered
three goals that guide me in
my actions:
To teach is to blend passion and reason, to start
a spark of learning, to
respond to a student’s
meaningful question.
Mary Griffin
to have perspective
to be qualified
to be ethical
All of us n