With a national debate going on about how to improve education in this country and how to evaluate teacher performance, the news from along the Potomac seems mighty timely, not to mention welcome:
The launch of the Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards, which will be given annually to "a handful of teachers, kindergarten through college."
The awards, created to honor this year's 80th birthday of the famed Broadway composer, "were initiated and funded through the generous support of [entertainment lawyer and author] Freddie Gershon and his wife Myrna," according to a Kennedy Center press release.
In that release, Sondheim says that
"teachers define us. In our early years, when we are still being formed, they often see in us more than we see in ourselves, more even than our families see and, as a result, help us to evolve into what we ultimately become. Good teachers are touchstones to paths of achieving more than we might have otherwise accomplished, in directions we might not have gone."
The first awards will be given out each year on March 22, Sondheim's birthday. Teachers winning the award will receive $10,00. Nominations for the inaugural awards are due by Dec. 15. A page on the Kennedy Center's Web site includes instructions on who is eligible to make the nominations, which can be submitted in written, audio or video formats.
BALTIMORE SUN STAFF PHOTO