Thirty years ago, when I was considered a young gun in education, I was filled with new ideas and concepts I knew would once again make our nation's public education system the world's pride. I had the energy and capacity to work with young men and women in order to accomplish this goal. I was surrounded by similar teachers and administrators who worked together in order to produce curricula and teaching strategies that would lead our students into the 21st century.

Today I am considered a dinosaur of education who many believe is to blame for the disintegration of not only public education but for the demise of the national spirit, moral standards, and even basic ethical concepts. Many of my colleagues have long since retired and I am now surrounded by the new young guns of education who consider my learned concepts old fashion and a drag on what they are trying to do.

I try and explain to them that content is more important than process. I show them how to motivate their students into wanting to learn more about the subject being taught. They sometimes look at me with disbelief I would even attempt to motivate students without using the 'entertainment' technologies that make teaching more of video game than basic classroom studies.

Remembering back to when I began teaching I observed veterans of their times being pressured by administrations into retirement so they could bring teachers like me into the fold. These same teachers promoted the concepts of teaching multiplication tables by rote memory, making their students map sentences so they could express their ideas in an organized fashion, and even making them read the classics that for centuries gave our children a love for literacy. I am proud to say I promote these same instincts even though their philosophies, which became my philosophies put me in a position many did not survive.

These teachers were told their education philosophies were old fashioned. They were admonished to take up modern techniques they knew would fail. They were told their methods of teaching stifled creative thought. They were asked how could a mind be totally freed if it were imprisoned by laws of grammar and even spelling.

A few years back I sat down next to an elderly teacher whose white ashen skin probably hasn't seen the sun in a long time. He looked frail and after I sat down next to him he appeared anxious. After a few moments it was obvious I did make him feel uncomfortable because he leaned toward his side of the bench as far away from me as possible. Maybe he was afraid of me. I decided to talk with this gentleman so I could at least try to calm him down. He wouldn't even look at me. He just stared straight ahead and in his mind's eye I am sure I didn't even exist.

Why won't the experienced veterans of education talk to us? Why is it so hard for them to explain their years of experience to those of us who try not to make the mistakes of those who lived before us? Why is it so difficult for them to look into our eyes and explain how they got to become so old? To paraphrase Harry Truman, "There is nothing new in this world. Only the times that are not remembered." We can't remember these times unless the people who lived through them will explain them to us.

After 30 years I've evolved into that old veteran teacher. I've experienced similar times when I work with young men and women trying to show them as to what methods work and what methods have failed in the past. Some listen but most brush me off by thinking how could someone who represents the failure of the past dare to advise into the future. I am beginning to believe they simply want me to go away.

Jim Fabiano is a teacher and writer living in York, Maine

You can contact him at: james.fabiano60@gmail.com