Michael Aitkenhead: teaching tomorrow’s leaders. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
By Dave Matlow
Westport’s newly named Teacher of the Year said today he’s often asked if he really wants to make a difference, why doesn’t he teach in Bridgeport, for example.
The answer for Staples High School science teacher Michael Aitkenhead, as he explained it to fellow teachers at a district-wide pre-school meeting at Bedford Middle School, is fairly simple.
“I chose Westport because this is where I can make the greatest impact on tomorrow’s leaders,” he said. “They (the students) don’t realize it yet that they are tomorrow’s leaders.”
Aitkenhead, whose passion is the environment and who teaches AP environmental science, has been a teacher at Staples five years.
He said that’s long enough to know that while the students see themselves living a life of leisure, “We must instill in our students the reason to see things differently.”
Adults from all walks of life can have a lasting impact on youth, he said, and talked of his graduate school days at Penn State and the campus’s legendary postal clerk called “Mike the Mailman.”
He sold stamps and often rang a large loud bell to entertain the long lines (“often a 20-minute wait”) of students waiting to buy stamps or mail parcels, Aitkenhead said.
One day when Aitkenhead was standing in line and wearing a brand new pair of sneakers Mike the Mailman held up a sign that said “nice shoes.”
He said he looked down on his new shoes and felt good about himself. Since then, he has always remembered that simple inspiration, he said.
Aitkenhead summed the lesson learned by saying: “We never know how much you will influence a child.”
He added jokingly that the message of his story in not that being a mailman instead of a teacher has a greater impact on youth. But that adults in all walks of life can influence young people in lasting ways.
