Teacher sends list of “good” to KTVB

Joe Czykoski
December 14, 2011
Filed under Featured

Upon hearing that he was going to be interviewed for a feature article, English teacher Rod Wray simply replied, “No comment. Those charges were dropped years ago.”
But all joking aside, Wray has gathered some attention to himself over the past month about how he went up in arms against the local TV news station, KVTB.
It all started one evening when Wray was watching one of the recent forums, the ED Sessions, sponsored by KTVB.
According to KTVB’s website, the ED Sessions are a series of national speakers followed up by interactive forums.
“They had a panel of education experts, or so they said,” said Wray, sitting comfortably behind his desk, “and they had a session on education.”
As the show progressed, Wray said he became unsatisfied. “They kept talking about how schools should be.”
He said one expert wished that high schools would require students to take certain classes plus selected classes of their choice, depending on their interests. “I was screaming at the television, ‘that’s what high school is!’”
As he pondered why these experts did not know such things, Wray came to the conclusion that the source of the problem was that schools are not the best marketers. “We’re too busy doing our jobs and teaching to market all the amazing things that happen in our schools.”
While some people would stay angry and gloat, Wray took action. “I decided to channel this energy into something productive.”
Wray sent an email to some of his colleagues at Borah informing them of the situation. He asked if they could reply by telling him about some of the activities at  Borah. “I was surprised about learning some of the things that are going on [at Borah].”
Wray learned, for example, Borah’s organic garden grows food for the school and supplies fresh food for many refugee and needy families; the Art Community and Ecology Club devoted 201 hours of volunteer time last year to Adopt a Highway, Festival of Trees, and Rake Up Boise, for example; and many more programs.
Wray composed an email to the news station informing the station about these occurrences. Wray’s students agree that his actions were justifiable.
“I think it’s cool because it shows that he cares about what goes on here instead of [the students] being another paycheck,” said Kyle Spirk, a senior in Wray’s zero hour class.
A month after he sent his email, the school received a phone call from KTVB informing the staff that a news story about Borah was being planned.
“It made me happy that we got some positive press,” Wray said through the smile on his face.
“When people hear that I’m a teacher, I always have to hear their terrible teacher stories.”