His Story
Merle Saunders never planned to teach. After graduating from Nyssa High School and the Arizona Automotive Institute in Phoenix, he worked as an automotive technician for three years. Then he broke his wrist playing softball, which kept him from working as a technician, and he was asked to apply for a job teaching auto shop at Vale High School. Vale is a small agricultural town on the Oregon Trail of about two thousand residents. He was hired with no formal training in education. “The first day of school (just after I turned 21) was the most terrifying day I have ever had. Nearly 25 years later, I still tremble to think of those first few weeks.”
Teaching runs in his family. His father and sister were both teachers, and his father taught all grade levels in a one-room schoolhouse in Kansas. When the family visited, his father would stand in front of the old slate chalkboard and reminisce. Saunders rescued a broken piece of that slate on his last visit and keeps it on the tray in front of his classroom. “This is a daily reminder of the great heritage I have in the educational field that I didn’t plan to enter.”
He started in a cold shop with a few metal folding chairs and a wooden chalkboard. Today his classroom looks and sounds like a professional shop, thanks to a new classroom and shop space built in 1996, when a retiring superintendent donated his salary to fund the addition, and to grants and awards. He has held a Master Automotive Technician certification from Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) since 1978 and recertifies every five years.
Beyond the Classroom
Under Saunders, Vale High School auto students have won 17 state auto championship titles since 1984, more than any other school in Oregon. They have won the Weber State University Auto Contest seven of the eight times they competed, and have placed in the top ten nationally twelve times, including three national championships. This has come from a school of about 320 students. Students have won roughly $126,000 in tools and equipment and about $318,000 in cash and scholarships. Many of his students have taken the best written scores in the nation, and about 80 of his former students now work in the automotive industry as technicians, service managers, shop owners and engineers.
His honors include being named Oregon’s auto mechanics instructor of the year five times, the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award (2001), Ford National Instructor of the Year, Valvoline National Auto Teacher of the Year, Radio Shack National Teacher of the Year and Vale Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year.
He started the Vale High Auto Club so that students could see him “as a person instead of just a teacher.” The club’s officers plan swimming trips, snow tubing, go-cart racing, work nights, Christmas baskets for needy families and an annual end-of-year trip. Each year the students rake leaves for elderly residents through local churches. One of those residents, the widow of an auto mechanic, set up the George Baker Memorial Automotive Scholarship for seniors continuing their automotive education. He mentors auto teachers from around the country by phone and in person, donates surplus equipment and cars to other programs, and spends many hours each week on the International Automotive Technicians Network (iATN).
Philosophy Into Practice
A typical Saunders lesson starts by showing students why they need to know the topic, then teaches the theory, shows a demonstration, lets them practice on live vehicles or mock-ups, and ends with a hands-on test. Students who complete Auto 3 earn both an Applied Math and an Applied Science credit. He makes slide shows for visual learners, lectures for auditory learners and runs a shop for hands-on learners, and he is available before school, at lunch and after school. Fridays are optional, and the shop is still full.
Saunders says his philosophy was shaped when he was a student himself: “When I could see the use of my learning, I was a great student, but when I was learning something to be used maybe sometime in the future, I was a disruptive individual, not wanting my time wasted.”
“Service learning, learning while actually doing is my philosophy. What better way to learn and reinforce what you have learned is there except by doing?”— Merle Saunders
“When a student knows that his or her work is subject to the praise and/or criticism of the customer, they rise to the expectation. When the expectation is low, then the outcome is low.”— Merle Saunders
In His Own Words
“The ultimate reward, and the greatest personal accomplishment, for me as a teacher has nothing to do with awards, trophies, plaques, or recognition. The reward is seeing former students being productive citizens and knowing I had a part in changing someone’s life positively.”— Merle Saunders
“I have found that almost all discipline problems disappear when the students know their time is not being wasted and that what they are learning will in some way benefit them.”— Merle Saunders
“My students know that their class is their job for the time they are with me and the salary they have earned will show up in their report card.”— Merle Saunders
“I have found out that the students will usually live up to your expectations. The same students other teachers complain about often do fine in my classes.”— Merle Saunders
“I measure my successes by the number of kids I touch, by former students coming back and shaking my hand thanking me for the job well done and keeping me informed of their families, careers, and lives.”— Merle Saunders
“My goal is to be the best consistent teacher I can be, constantly evaluating, reevaluating, and improving what needs to be improved.”— Merle Saunders
What Others Said
“In my 40 years as an educator in Michigan and Oregon, the last nine as Vale’s superintendent, I have never met a better teacher than Merle Saunders.”— Dr. Albert J. Butler, Superintendent, Vale School District
“I have never worked with a teacher who is more dedicated to the assignment of providing not only the knowledge of his trade, but promoting the necessary human components such as work ethic, honesty, citizenship, setting and completing of goals, and importance of responsibility.”— Dave Enright, Principal, Vale High School
“My motto in teaching is “I just want to grow up and be like Merle!””— Mary Jo Sharp, Business Education Teacher, Vale High School
“Every parent hopes that there will be a teacher that creates a defining moment in their child’s life. Mr. Saunders is that teacher.”— Patricia Maag, parent of two former students
“Mr. Saunders is an incredible automotive instructor.”— Belnap, parent of a student
“I came in to the program not knowing the difference between a wrench and a socket, and through Mr. Saunders’ teaching, I can fix just about anything under the hood.”— Student, Vale High School
“Merle Saunders has taken a basic high school program and made it one of the best in the nation. He cares about his students and helps them to succeed later in life.”— Student, Vale High School