Good day in Granite Falls

The best teachers translate academic lessons into meaningful experiences for their students. They create rigor from the arts and the three R's.

Andrea Peterson, a music teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in the Granite Falls School District is among the best of teachers. She has earned the title of 2007 National Teacher of the Year. It is an uplifting moment for Washington state. Amid all of the hand-wringing and fearful prognostications over increased academic rigor, Peterson, and the many teachers like her, are quietly and successfully transforming young minds.

Peterson teaches music in her 2,200-student district nestled in the North Cascades foothills of Snohomish County. Music is a subject that has often been sidelined in a misguided tilt back to basic academics. The 33-year-old Peterson nimbly navigates the nuances of education by infusing academics with the arts. For example, she has composed music and lyrics on ocean ecology, Shakespearean plays, the explorations of Lewis and Clark and the U.S. Constitution.

The celebration of Peterson and other top teachers by President Bush at a White House Rose Garden ceremony was a much-deserved recognition of public education's success despite many challenges.

This is the fourth year in a row that a finalist for National Teacher of the Year has come from Washington state. We're doing some things right and we ought to capitalize on them.

In Peterson's favor is that she is among a small but growing number of educators undertaking additional training and education to receive national board certification. The higher ranking confers a new level of instructional ability and, as importantly, a willingness by teachers to regularly hone their skills.

Credit our state for encouraging teacher improvement by offering bonuses ranging from $3,500 to $5,000, and another $5,000 if the teacher works in struggling schools.

It's a fine week for public education and a teacher from Granite Falls.