When Iowans, even Republican politicians, thanked teachers

In his first go-round as Iowa governor, Terry Branstad wrote a vignette recalling how Forest City middle school teacher Lura Sewick “more than anyone else” steered him toward being governor.

At the same time, Lt. Gov. Joy Corning wrote a piece reaching back to her days at Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI). Moderate and socially liberal, Corning credited adviser Evelyn Wood with guiding her into the American Association of University Women, which in turn led her into “lifelong and enthusiastic commitment to community involvement, leadership and concern for issues beyond my private world.” Those efforts included bolstering same-sex marriage and abortion rights and serving Planned Parenthood.

Two Republican leaders telling how Iowa public schoolteachers empowered them. That was a long time ago.

Branstad and Corning joined 91 other Iowans and former Iowans in celebrating Iowa’s 150th anniversary of statehood and its education system’s reputation as envy of the nation. The publication is “Tributes to Iowa Teachers,” edited by William L. Sherman for the Iowa State Education Association, 1996, Iowa State University Press.

Between its front cover showing Grant Wood’s “Arbor Day” and back cover, “Young Corn,” the 216-page paperback radiates warmth not only with salutes to teachers of yore but drawings by 1990s students (their names listed along with their teachers). It plays like a 1950s movie — teachers making do in multi-grade, one-room schools and toiling at summer jobs to make ends meet — but with an occasional edge. A common thread is many writers’ latter-day revelation that their most inspirational teachers were sometimes the most creative and the strictest.

Such a teacher was Darwin DeVries of Kingsley High School. Of him, book contributor Laura L. Phelps, CPA and (at the time) stay-at-home mother, wrote, “I hope that all students who pass through his (DeVries’) class will realize that tough teachers are usually the BEST teachers.”

Superintendents also drew praise. International opera star Simon Estes, who faced stifling racism growing up Black in Centerville, credited Superintendent E.W. Fannone with providing inspiration, saying, “Simon, you can achieve. You will always have obstacles in life. You simply have to work hard … Education is something no one can take from you.”

Estes said Centerville High basketball coach Bill Jerome provided similarly empowering guidance. He became a lifelong friend.

Minnesotan Garrison Keillor has a guest part in the book — an excerpt from a 1995 speech titled “A Tribute to Teachers Everywhere.” He wrote, “ … It is my pleasure and my duty to stand up for public education when it comes under attack.”

If that sounded strangely combative during Iowa’s Sesquicentennial, it fits the arena in the state Capitol 26 years later. In their six years of domination, Republican legislators have forsaken conservatives’ traditional emphasis on local control and fallen in line with the national GOP strategy: strong-arming school boards, threatening teachers and intimidating LGBTQ kids.

The blows have included shattering Iowa public employee bargaining rights that bipartisan forces cemented into law four decades earlier, annual shortchanging of state funds for education, passage of poorly crafted legislation forbidding instruction that could make students or their parents feel uncomfortable (study of racism, perhaps) and — yet to pass — Gov. Kim Reynolds’ push to funnel public education funds into private schools.

The devaluing and denigrating of Iowa teachers has led to a discernible exodus of young talent. Which makes reflections in “Tributes to Iowa Teachers” especially relevant today. Robert J. Gilchrist, himself a longtime Linn-Mar teacher and coach, recalled how a music teacher, Mr. Leigh Fleming, fresh out of college, excelled in teaching him and other North Linn Senior High students “the importance of experiencing new and different challenges.”

Imagine how the disillusioning of such youthful teachers could impact Iowa students in the approach to 2046 and Iowa’s Bicentennial. By shoving present and prospective educators from the profession, Iowa is eating its own seed corn.

Voters can stop the damage. Failing that, the common ground on which the late Joy Corning once stood will remain scorched earth.

Writer-editor Jerry Elsea is retired after 40 years with The Gazette, the last 15 as opinion page editor.