I got two interesting pieces of mail yesterday …
First was a letter from one of my former students. She is excited because her family is going to the beach to have a “bomb fire” … should I notify the authorities? 
Second was my temporary membership card for the AARP. 
I do from time to time feel that I am getting old, but, hey, let’s not rush things, folks! As much as I would sometimes like to retire, I am still 18 years from their minimum age of 50.
A few notes on education:
I can understand parents’ frustration with the schools … especially when basic skills aren’t being mastered. But from a teacher’s perspective, I think you might be surprised at some of the things we are expected to teach in 3rd grade. I know for a fact that I did not know anything about obtuse or acute angles, isosceles and scalene triangles, square roots, the periodic table, or alliteration and onomatopoeia in third grade. Nor did I know about the economic and governmental structures of the Native Americans of my region or the adaptations they made to survive in their changing environment. On top of the things we learned in third grade like multiplication, division, handwriting, and the development of reading and writing skills, we are expected to teach so much more. Algebra is creeping into the curriculum, and by the time they leave third grade, my kids even know about narrative, expository, and descriptive writing.
Many of our students come to us in Kindergarten not speaking ANY language fluently and having never been read to … no knowledge of what a book is. And yet our funding is based on test scores being sized up against districts where students have had the advantage of expensive, elite preschools, parents who have the luxury of time and money to lavish on giving them every advantage. From the beginning we are playing a game of catch up, forced to cram as much down these poor kids’ throats as we can so we don’t lose funding and have to be taken over by the state.
I think that, actually, in my school district many of our problems with students could be lessened or resolved by putting back into education everything that has been taken out to accommodate these increasingly unrealistic expectations. If you are not a student who finds your path to success through fundamental academics, you have no other paths open to you. Perhaps you might have been a gifted artist, talent athlete, a whiz on a computer, or a future scientist, but because none of these areas are even tapped by the school anymore, success and self-esteem are based solely on how one performs in the classroom and on “the test.” I once had a student who was newly-arrived from Vietnam. He spoke no English and had, as a result, developed a reputation among his peers as not being smart. One day I took the kids out to PE, and Hai kicked everyone’s butt in hockey. Suddenly, his classmates had a new respect for him, and he had newfound confidence that translated into improved performance in the classroom.
Another student, Edward, was a struggling, but devoted student newly moved out of a severe language disability and aphasia class. When I taught the students about Van Gogh, he became so interested that he begged me to get more information for him. Because of that passion and intrinsic motivation, that little boy spent hours pouring over whatever I was able to scrape up for him … even materials written for adults.
Raul fell in love with Diego Rivera … a love that changed his life. His mom wrote a letter for me to the superintendent (which took her two weeks because she insisted on writing it in English) describing how Raul had always been ashamed of being Mexican and even refused to speak Spanish to her. But, after learning of Diego Rivera, Raul had new pride in his heritage and shared ad nauseam with his family about the famous Mexican painter. Raul also went on that year to develop a love of classical music and begged his mom to buy him a compilation CD from Sam’s Club which later caused great conflict with his brother who wanted to listen to his Men in Black soundtrack. Raul was a messy, sticky kid for whom every little task was a huge chore. Who knew that there was something so special waiting to be awakened in him?
These are some of my favorite memories of teaching. Jonathan Kozol writes that teachers are experts in opening small packages. Opening those packages is what I love most about my job, but in the past five years it has become increasingly difficult to find those opportunities to truly inspire my kids. What I find so frustrating is that I know that kids in neighboring wealthy districts still have those opportunities … in fact, they have double because they often have parents who encourage those discoveries at home. A student I am tutoring from a wealthier area is still doing the art projects, reading the novels, taking music classes, and going on incredible fieldtrips.
I am so fortunate to have colleagues who are intelligent, committed people and share my sense of desperation as well as my desire to do the best that I can do for my students despite the system. I don’t think I could continue getting up and going to work everyday if I had to do it with colleagues who didn’t care as much as I do about our kids. But, there’s only so much we can do. Bush has created a system whereby more than 90% of schools may be labeled “failing” by 2012 so the Republicans can push their voucher agenda. But that is a story for another day.
Poisoned by Fairy Tales 