Students Praise Departing Science Teacher; Who Else Deserves Extra Credit?

It's no secret that adults and teens aren't the best when it comes to communicating with one another.

Adults can struggle to get a boy or girl from the ages of 13 to 17 interested in anything coming out of their mouths. It's like they really do sound like the wah-wah trombone in the Peanuts cartoons. But at least the those animated kids appeared to understand what those adults were saying.

That generational inattention comes up in an interview this week with Paul Dorney, an outgoing Tinley Park High School science teacher who cleaned out his classroom Thursday. Anytime a teacher can get a kid at that age to become engaged in a class should be considered a victory, he's told.

Dorney laughs. "Anytime anyone can get a teenager to become engaged in anything should be considered a victory," he replies.

The reason for the remark—and for the entire interview—stemmed from the outpouring of accolades and emotions the teacher has been receiving from former students in the wake of news of his departure. 

Dorney, who has been teaching for 20 years with about a decade at Tinley, lives in Crown Point, IN, and the hour-and-a-half, round-trip commute has taken its toll on his home life. Time spent in the car could better be time better spent with his daughter in third grade and his son starting high school, he said. That's why he's trying to find work in the education field closer to home.

"I'm just really making this decision because it's the best for me and my family," Dorney said. "Leaving this job is one of the hardest things I've ever done."

During his time at Tinley, Dorney taught science mostly to sophomores and some freshmen. He also coached the girls soccer team to four regional championships over the past five years, as well as the boys junior varsity soccer team, which earned its first regional championship last year. 

"Tinley Park's got the best kids in the world," he said. "They're eager to learn, and they're receptive."

That feeling is mutual, which is apparent when reading the tributes students have left Dorney on a special send-off Facebook page for the teacher. Ed Fizer, who was Dorney's student as a sophomore this year, helped create the page to let other people share their anecdotes, photos and best wishes for the teacher, who had a reputation for caring about his students and for using less-than-conventional teaching approaches. Posted on May 24, the page has more than 550 followers at the time of this writing.

"His class was the reason I came to school most days, and I'm not the only person who thinks this way either," Fizer said in an email. "We love him to death. He treated everyone of us as a child of his own, helping us with our own personal and school-related problems."

Of course, Dorney's role at Tinley Park High School was to be a teacher, not a buddy. And students, such as Kelly Hunoway, will attest to the fact that Dorney's connection with his charges wasn't at the expense of learning. If anything, it was in service to it.

"Unlike so many, Mr. Dorney understood what the role of a teacher is," Kelly, who will enter her senior year in the fall, wrote in an email. "He reached so many students by his ways of connecting with us on a personal level, along with engaging us in his class. … My personal forte has always been science, and in grade school, I did succeed, but the classes were never close to being adequate enough to engage my curiosity. The moment I stepped into room 203 I knew I was home." 

Hands-on labs and stories that applied classroom lessons to real life were just some of the ways Dorney engaged students, Kelly said. 

"He reached so many more people than so many will ever know," she said.

When he hears and reads sentiments like Kelly's, Dorney is almost speechless when asked to respond. 

"Honestly, it's completely humbling," he said. "It feels good to me as an educator. ... My whole job is to affect kids in a positive way. Just to see that, it's really special."

As remarkable a teacher as Dorney was to his students, he can't be alone in Oak Forest schools. Patch wants to hear about these extraordinary educators, whether they're retiring, leaving for another school or staying. They can be teachers from any of the high, middle and elementary schools that serve the city, and they can teach any grade and subject. Who has been an example for other teachers to follow?

YOUR TURN: Tell us the Oak Forest teachers you think deserve special recognition for all their hard work in the comments section. You can share your praise, photos and videos in this article. And pass along your well-wishes to Paul Dorney, too.