Day 55 "To Sir..."

I've had the most success with my blog writing when I've been thinking long and hard about something - usually something that has happened during the day that made me ponder.

There are other days where no such spark has occurred. I've gone through the day thinking about average, mundane things. Work has been nothing too exciting, or the things I do once I'm home are the typical ho-hum kinds of things.

So, that said, there are definitely times when I wonder just what the heck I'm going to write about in my blog.


I find it interesting that even though, I may think I don't have anything to comment on, something always manages to sprout.

Yesterday, it was about rules for adults and how unexpected that was.

Today it ended up being an interesting discussion I had with a colleague about education.  Having been a classroom teacher for fourteen years, a majority of that time in middle school, I have plenty of opinions on the topic of education.

I loved the education classes I took at my Alma Mater many years ago. For the most part I have to say it was practical and not just based on educational theory. 

I also have to say that as a very young twenty-two year old going into a middle school classroom (yes, I really was just ten years older than my students in my first class) there were things I learned that I understood intellectually, but didn't really appreciate and apply until I was in the trenches.

A lot of people have a lot to say about education. How they wish they had more of it, how they wish they'd paid better attention. Maybe they have strong feelings on how their children are being educated right now. Kids wonder if what they are learning is going to be of any use to them. All of us have been in school at some point in our lives and we've either loved or hated it, or maybe even both.

We want our kids to learn what we did and more. We want our teachers to be creative so what is being taught sticks.  School boards dictate the curriculum and the state mandates tests to document student learning. Teachers go to in-services, take continuing education classes, work on master's degrees and doctorates.

A lot of the time meeting metrics is tossed into the fray with teaching creatively.  Generally, the classroom teacher loses. 

I remember in junior high school I had a teacher who team-taught with another teacher. The two of them had created a unit to teach us what factory life was like. 

In our social studies book, there was maybe one page that talked about industrialization in America in the 1930's, 40's and 50's.  I don't know how long it took those two to develop the unit and the lesson plans to teach us about the monotony of being Rosie the Riveter. It was more than one class period.

I do know, however, we didn't finish the book which is what school boards and text book writers "design" to happen. I do know, those classes built around the "factory" theme taught me that I really didn't want to go into factory work.

Today, I probably know more about the auto industry because I spent a lot of time around it, living in Ford towns where cottage industries sprang up to support the growing Ford factories. As an adult I learned to appreciate that Henry Ford started Manufacturers Bank in order to provide his own workers with loans to buy the very product they were producing. I saw history in a more practical light.

I didn't get that then. What I got was that I didn't want to work in a factory.

Was that such a bad lesson for me to learn? Was it the lesson everyone learned?  I can tell you that I don't remember anyone in class being bored by what we were doing.  I'm sure everyone got something different from the lessons, but the point is they got something from the lessons.

I'm concerned about school now.  So much teaching to the test, or the book and blaming teachers because kids are bored, or not scoring high on tests, or the school has a failing grade.

Everyone participates in education. Everyone has an opinion.  But, until you have been in the shoes of an elementary or middle or high school teacher, you don't really have an idea what that individual is up against, what constraints are put on their creativity, what dampers have tried to snuff out a new teacher's enthusiasm for influencing the lives placed in their trust and the love they have for learning and sharing.

Being a teacher is a lot of the time more like "Saved by the Bell"  or "To Sir, With Love," or "Stand and Deliver" than parents and boards and governments care to admit. Before criticizing that a

teacher isn't being creative or motivating the class to learn, try spending a week in their shoes trying to balance all the demands thrown their way along with controlling the class, encouraging free-thinking, being creative, grading papers and trying to reach individual students in their particular learning modalities while appeasing school boards, parents, union reps, varying nationalities and working with multiple languages in the classroom (I have a friend who had more than four main languages in her sixth grade class in CA).

Next time you're tempted to blame a teacher, or the education system, take a good hard look at how many cooks are in the instructional kitchen.  What ingredients are they really adding to the classroom learning environment? Could this just be another case of too many cooks spoiling the pot? Trying to improve a recipe that was best when it was simple?


It's a wonder education hasn't been dehumanized and, teachers taken out of the equation and given to computers to fulfill educational standards and goals.  It would be oh so easy to do right now.

Think about that for a second. Removing the human factor and leaving education in the hands of artificial intelligence.  Sounds like the stuff of science fiction. Scary science fiction.