His Story
Jeff Baxter first thought about teaching literature while rocking on his grandmother’s front porch and talking about Shakespeare, Dickens and Browning. She was a teacher herself, and she taught him that “no answer was ever wrong, just a starting point for deeper inquiry.” He was a biology major and a basketball player at the University of Kansas until he took a course on nineteenth-century American fiction to fit around practice, read Moby Dick, and changed his major the next day.
He taught English at Leavenworth High School, where he chaired the English department, and later at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park. After a break to practice law, he returned to the classroom. In his classroom, students sit in groups of four, write every day in composition notebooks to prompts that range from novels to film clips to New Yorker covers, and get their lessons online at home so that homework happens in class. He tells them that if he cannot convince them an assignment is relevant, they will not do it.
One assignment asked students to compare Bruce Springsteen’s and Rage Against the Machine’s covers of “The Ballad of Tom Joad” and decide which better captured the tone of The Grapes of Wrath. Baxter says he teaches students hope, and his motto for them is “Strive Mightily, Write Thoughtfully, Dare Greatly.” Students often keep in touch for years; one former student recalls a coffee-shop farewell at which he said, “You always know how to reach me. Now go change the world.”
Beyond the Classroom
Baxter is a Kansas Teacher of the Year and served on the Kansas education commissioner’s teacher advisory committee, meeting with school boards around the state. He has testified many times before the Kansas Legislature on issues for educators, and he is a teacher leader with the National Network of State Teachers of the Year and a participant in the NEA Global Education Fellowship. He has been a keynote speaker and workshop presenter at national conventions.
He works with the Greater Kansas City Writing Project, whose summer institute for teachers he has been invited back to each year. At Blue Valley West he built a project-based senior English program for students who might otherwise have tuned out. At Leavenworth he sponsored Goodfellows, a student group that raised money for Christmas gifts, shoes, gas cards and glasses for people in need, and his seniors now complete a “Random Acts of Kindness” project. He served on the Leavenworth Public Library Board from 1988 to 1996, including two years as vice president.
Philosophy Into Practice
Baxter believes that “character matters more than test scores.” He builds both skills and traits like persistence and curiosity: on a first essay he marks only one-third of the paper, and students can revise the rest and earn a new score, which rewards learning from mistakes. He cites Gallup research that students who have a teacher who makes them excited about the future are far more likely to be engaged in school. He says teachers should be accountable for both thinking skills and character, and he welcomes visitors at any time.
He worries about the widening gap between rich and poor schools and about how little status teaching has in the United States compared to the countries that top the rankings. He supports a system of paid teacher mentors who keep teaching but spend at least a third of their time helping new teachers. He ends with this: “Teaching is the noblest profession.”
“Every book has a soul.”Jeff Baxter, quoting Carlos Ruiz Zafon
In His Own Words
“I teach my students hope.”Jeff Baxter
“I believe that character matters more than test scores.”Jeff Baxter
“Teaching is a calling and those who answer that call know that the rewards are cerebral, immutable, and sacred.”Jeff Baxter
What Others Said
Jeff is one of the most dedicated and inspiring teachers I have met in my 29 years in education.”Fabiano, English language arts coordinator, Blue Valley School District
“He is a teacher leader in the truest sense and is an exemplary educator.”Brett D. Potts, Ph.D., principal, Blue Valley West High School
“Jeff Baxter has been a tremendous partner to us in the growth and education of our children.”Sheila J. Lucas, parent of former students
“This is who Mr. Baxter is: an outstanding instructor who imparts truths which resonate both within the classroom and beyond.”Kevin J. Varghese, former student