Teaching is the second-best job in the world.
The best, Davis High pre-calculus teacher Mike Shaw says, is parent-hood.Neither pays well, but the rewards are priceless.
"A teacher is a surrogate parent," Shaw said. "We're impacting the future."
Shaw's way with students and emphasis on analytical thinking skills have pushed him to the top of his class. He has been named Davis School District's Teacher of the Year and received a $1,000 cash prize, which he'll use to buy a new home computer. (Several other colleagues received Hall of Fame awards. See accompanying story.)
Shaw was nominated by school colleagues, but only after a tie-breaking vote.
"It was a huge surprise, especially when I barely made it out of my own school," said the 26-year teaching veteran who has spent 20 years at Davis High.
But Shaw won't be found basking in the spotlight.
"He is quick to praise others and credit others for his achievements," said principal Scott Greenwell.
Indeed, after the honor, Shaw e-mailed colleagues explaining that any one of them could have been cho-sen and attributing his win to luck and "hats," of which he wears many.
"The problem with any type of individual award is, it can detract from what's totally essential in education, which is cooperative efforts within departments," said Shaw, a member of the Davis Education Association and school community council, among other education groups. "You can't rank teachers. It's like I won the lottery."
Shaw prefers to praise math students, who this year won a fifth consecutive title at the State Math Contest, in which the top 10 percent of each school's math students are scored on a two-hour, written exam. This year, four Davis students were among the state's top five scorers in their grades.
"If someone did that in an athletic event, they'd call it an athletic dynasty," said Steve Cottrell, district math specialist. "He never celebrates Mike, but he does celebrate the good work his kids do."
Shaw was instrumental in establishing his school's honors math program, in which three teachers rotate duties of department chairman and teaching algebra/trigonometry, pre-calculus and Advanced Placement (AP) calculus courses.
The program began in 1984-85, when 92 percent of Shaw's AP calculus students passed the AP exam, which determines college credits.
While the nation's average pass rate is about 65 percent, Shaw found his school's numbers "lousy" because not all of his students took the test. The next year, after raising his teaching performance and student expectations, all 35 students took the exam, and all 35 passed.
Davis High's AP exam success rate remains at top state and national ranks, with 129 of 132 students passing this year. Shaw attributes the success to the students' leap from memorization, which he says any pigeon can do, to higher-level thinking.
"Typically, students are not enchanted by math if they don't see the application," he said.
Shaw shows that some formulas can be used in forensic science to determine a time of death. Exponential functions plotted onto graphs are used to determine compound interest on investments or population growth trends.
"I've learned more from him than any other math teachers I've had," said senior Robyn Tingey, who took math from Shaw as a sophomore. "I actually understood it and could get excited about it."