Respect Crowe

About a month ago, word started getting around school that Pat Crowe, the 12th grade English and AP English teacher, was going to be teaching 9th and 10th grade next year, and not by choice. After 38 years at LeRoy, administration is apparently trying to coax him into retirement, because they have to pay him so much since he has been there so long. These actions are finding strong opposition from one student-created website, four facebook groups, and about 520 facebook users, spaning two generations.

Anyone to graduate from LeRoy in the last 38 years will gladly tell you how awesome and kickass Mr. Crowe is. He runs out in the halls screaming "THE KING IS DEAD" to help us better understand Shakespeare; he has us make posters expressing our extreme hatred of Lady MacBeth; he shows us a plethora of great movies, some of which aren't even book we read, but are extemely relevent. He chooses topics that any high school senior would think is interesting - criminology, Helter Skelter, Sociopaths. I was personally elated that we got to watch two Liz Taylor movies so far this year.

I think that students really like about Mr. Crowe is that he treats us like adults. He doesn't talk down to us, something that teachers do all too often. He'll joke around with us, and he'll take us seroiusly too. I think that having Mr. Crowe senior year helps get us ready for whatever is next because we feel like adults in his classroom, and therefore start acting like adults.

Administration would certainly be putting the needs of their students aside if they were to follow through with this. While Mrs. Brotherton is certainly a fine teacher, most agree that the younger grades are her forte. Having Mr. Crowe's class senior year is a blessing that students at leroy have had for 38 years, and that's something that money should never play a part in. True, in this recession, schools are going to have to look at their budgets with a stricter eye, but their most experienced teaching staff should certainly not be the first thing to go.