“This is not the job for invertebrates” is Wil Beshears’ endearing advice for any aspiring educator, a lesson learned after more than two decades of teaching all over the world, from inner-city Los Angeles to Ghana. He has spent the last 13 years as the gifted and talented education (GATE) teacher at Manuel A. Salinas Creative Arts Elementary School in San Bernardino, where he inspires and challenges students, expands opportunities for kids and their families, and has helped create a thriving learning community that includes parents.

These are just a few of the reasons the San Bernardino Teachers Association (SBTA) member was named a 2020 recipient of the NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. He represents California as one of 50 California Casualty awardees nationwide.

Beshears engages with his fourth and fifth graders on subjects ranging from the words of oral historian Studs Terkel to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. He started a Quotational Quotes Bee, where students compete by memorizing famous historical quotations such as Yiddish sayings and wise words from Mother Jones and Laozi, “as a way to sneak college-level discourse into the home.”

“If you take a moment to consider it, how often does a child really get to speak to an adult — teacher or parent — in a thought-provoking way?” Beshears asks. “Far too often, we only interact with our children via praise, punishment, or by giving directions.”

Held annually at CSU San Bernardino (CSUSB), the event has grown to include a Submit-a-Quote competition, where students become the teachers, creating their own deep content that is folded into the curriculum for future lessons, debate and memorization.

“Our kids are not simply vessels of knowledge; they are the creators of curricular content,” he says. “We continue this outreach in posters featuring our students throughout the Inland Empire. Why? Because wisdom, despite the age of the mind, should be shared.”

Beshears talks fast, thinks much faster, and it can take some effort to keep up. He never planned on a career in education. It was while working with incarcerated youth during his time attending UCLA that he realized that he cared too much about the future to do anything other than teach. He spent time teaching sex education for Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles (“The best training of my career was teaching sex ed to 14-year-olds,” he laughs), taught sixth grade at Florence Nightingale Middle School in Los Angeles, did two educational stints in Ghana, and taught English at Usui Senior High School as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.

Since landing in San Bernardino 13 years ago, he’s quit traveling the world, opting instead to sate his wanderlust by pushing boundaries in his classroom. Most recently, he formed a partnership called Al Najm (“the star” in Arabic) with a world languages professor from CSUSB. Beshears says it has brought a diversity of culture and outside-the-box thinking to his classroom.

“Our first year, we focused on the culture and written language of Arabic, but my 33 eager little minds were hungry for more,” he says. “After completing the first all-Arabic play at my school — and in any public school that I am aware of — we decided to focus on inquiry to understand the parallel immigrant experiences of the Arabic-speaking worlds and my own mostly immigrant Latino families.”

This year, Beshears is bringing a new facet to his GATE classroom: conceptual art to promote creativity. Students suggest their interpretations of famous artworks and create pieces of their own, with Beshears asking probing questions that reveal the roots of the work, much of it personal and emotional.

“It’s this really intimate setting of being honest,” he says.

Beshears is especially proud of the learning community he’s been a part of building and nurturing in the San Bernardino area, called Salinas and Coyotes: Instruction in Poetry and Prose (SCIPP). What began as a simple after-school class, led by Masters of Fine Arts graduate students and professors of poetry and creative writing, has now grown to become a legitimate CSUSB course where prospective teachers study teaching the creative child, which includes a service learning component tutoring students.

Every Friday, SCIPP meets as a true learning community, tutoring K-12 students in a variety of educational and enrichment activities, from video game design to cooking. Their parents meet with educators to discuss hot-button issues in education and learn how to use this knowledge to advocate for their children and themselves.

“Formerly shy parents now not only better understand teaching dynamics in the classroom, but express agency that is rocking the boat in the Inland Empire. We put true meaning to the words learning community, extended family and democracy,” he says. “Through it all, SBTA was there for me and, by extension, the kids, parents, tutors and professors that I call family.”

Beshears says he wants to use the platform of winning a national award to spotlight the beauty of his parent learning community and showcase some of the great work that is being done in his home of the Inland Empire. But mostly, he hopes that his fellow educators who struggle day in and day out to do the right thing are inspired to see a fellow soldier in the movement and recognize some of themselves in his story. Admitting that some days even he gets beat down, Beshears says the award will serve as a reminder of what he’s been able to accomplish and an inspiration for all that’s left.

“We have so much potential, and it’s already being realized, so how do we tap into that?” he asks. “As a union, we are the biggest laboratory of ideas in the nation. How do we access that library of ideas in all our classrooms? How do we uplift and inspire each other? How do we support innovation in education?”

The NEA Foundation’s Awards for Teaching Excellence recognize educators who shine in their schools, communities, and their own learning. For more information, visit neafoundation.org.