November 3, 2008
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Education in this country is a joke
and its time the teachers take some of the blame for it
don’t get me wrong here
I am not saying educator are at fault because they are ineffective classroom teacher
Some are of course, but that is not the point
I am saying that we the ones in the trenches every day
We are the only ones who are in a position to truly understand what is happening
day to day, in each moment in the classroom
And we know damn well
Nothing is being proposed by those in positions of power that
will do anything to improve the present situation….
and
That if left unchecked…the path we are on today will result in generations of citizens that will be unprepared to meet the tremendous challenges they will face in the days to come.
They will however be the perfect drones … submitting without resistance to countless injustices, allowing wars and bloodshed to continue until civilization such as it it disappears complete from the this earth.
Why are the teachers to blame…
Because we as a group have allowed ourselves to become powerless.
……………………………………..
case in point
Our district operates on a schedule called AB block
Which means that we see the students every other day. Students have 4 classes and teacher teach 3, one period for the teaches is a planning period. In this period we are expected to grade papers, prepare lessons, call parents, and the list goes on … as hard as you try it is impossible to get it all done in the time allowed.
The AB block has always been a failure.
When you see the student only three times one week and twice the other week …the result are about what anyone with any sense would expect….students forget the much of the information and much time is spent refreshing their memories.
The traditional schedule of teaching the same students every day provides the vital continuity necessary for the teaching process to be effective.
The traditional schedule worked…I was there …I lived it.
Today in class I asked anyone to tell me anything about the lesson we did three classes ago.
No one could remember a thing… because they agreed it was so far in the past.
I know by my directly experience of the inefficiency of the AB block
While teaching in the Aubrey school district, acting as the head of the science dept.
We were one of the first in the state to adopt this block schedule.
The direct result 2 years later was found to be
one third of the curriculum had to be deleted.
This fact was never publicly acknowledged.
A few years later much to my horror and despite my warnings the new district I had moved to adopted the same AB schedule
The result was identical…
A third of the science curriculum was abandoned.
Again this fact was never acknowledged
It appeared no one cared in a position of authority cared about inefficiency of the new system
Perhaps because everyone liked it. It made everyone day a bit easier
The academic failure of the new system was totally denied.
Things have changes as things always do and now
Our district has run out of money and is in a financial crisis and so it is frantically looking for ways to save money
This is a godsend opportunity to revert to the tradition schedule of seeing the student every day …as it is also much more cost efficient to do so….
Yea! I was elated
Yet woooo
The adminstration believes the answer to this problem is to have teachers give up our one of our conference periods and teach an additional class of 25 -30 student…and keep the insane AB block intact.
This would be a total disaster.
But they have also asked the teacher to particulate by suggesting other alternatives..
This is the moment for teachers to finally stand up unite and
make their voices heard, and regain the power they have lost
but will this happen?
NO……
It is not often that I am told to shut up by a group of my fellow teachers
but it has happened to me enough times that I am beginning to see a trend
It goes something like this
I see a clear and present situation leading in a direct cause and effect way
to a result that No one wants to experience.
result that will have a negative effect on teaching.
And when I tell them the situation in no uncertain terms
They become defensive and reject what I am saying…
Today I was told basically by a group of teachers again ”to shut up”
In a meeting discussing this AB block scheduling issue
It was clear that the majority of teachers are united in agreement for a schedule that would result in more daily contact with the students.
I listened in the meeting as we complained and whined about how helpless we are
The teachers believe the administration has already made the choice to continue the AB block
and that what we want will be totally disregarded,
I agree with them.
So after holding up my hand for 5 min the leader of the meeting finally recognize me.
I stood up and begin to speak…it went something like this
“Here we are again, each of us knowing what needs to be done yet not having a clue as to how to make it happen
How powerless we all feel.. and how powerless we are for each of us is alone as long as we fail to unite
Afraid that if we speak out against the wishes of the powers that be we will lose our jobs.
“My fellow teachers it is clear are in agreement about what is best for the children
and it is also clear that if we do not act …that change will not happen.
It is time for us to wake up and realize the only power we have is to unite behind this cause and speak with one voice….
Unite the teachers and the parents of this district.
We need to seek out and include the parents of the district to join with us in this just cause. For their support is vital.
The crucial step is this!
We must empower a charismatic individual to represent us.
We must give them our authority …. empowering them to speak for us
We must give them the power to say:
“I have been chosen by a group of teachers and parents of this district to speak for them.
They have sent me because the district asked the teacher to participate in this crucial decision
I come here now to speak with one voice for all of us.
This (give them a handout) is the plan we whole heartily endorse…
(explain the plan in brief)
Well now………….
I further told the teachers
That I was not the one to represent them.
I am not suitable….
Look around the room…. i said
“I have angered many of you right now just saying these thing. Yet they must be said for if you do not listen to the message I am telling you and take immediate action Your voices will not be heard and our one chance to make a change for the better for all our student will be lost. And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.
It was about this time one of the teacher told me
“Stop talking … don’t say any more”
As if he had been given the authority to speak for all of them??
“Is no one with me in this?”….I asked.
Silence. Some looked angry, others would not look me in the eyes.
Some looked at me with pity
I just got up and left.
Like i said before…
Education in this country is a joke
and this is one time the teachers should take some of the blame for it.
Comments (12)
:goodjob: i just read this to my friend A who is a teacher she is working on a master’s teaching plan in science she goes to war every day
Something happens to the brain in matters of bureaucracy, whether one is fighting the proverbial city hall or the odd creatures on a school board. You proposed a call to action, but gave the answer above it: “It made everyone’s day a bit easier.” It is not about teaching anymore than it is about learning. If students learn, they might think. If they think, they might question. If they question, they might not like the answer. If they might not like the answer, they might rebel. If they rebel, they might stir the slumbering dreamers.
Perhaps it began with a crazy notion of “if it ain’t broke, fix it” that came when everyone fell down the rabbit hole. I understand your frustration. It’s happening in school districts everywhere, under one guise or another.
Your problem may be that you give a damn.
Peace~
Postscript: As disenchanting as things may be in the maddening world, I am gratified you give a damn.
{{hugs}}
Wow, man… just, wow. I don’t know what to say. This saddens me for my son, and his sons to come.
I think you are a very smart man, who has deep seated concerns. I realize the problem, even though I am not a teacher and I would gladly work with any group who might be able to fight the establishment.. The problem goes beyond the classroom, it goes lut into the world of people who don’t have their wits about them, to do the most common sense thinking. There was a time, not long past, debating teams were run diligently in schools which helped in the thinking process as winning took thinking. I cringe at the debates our presidential candidates are party to. Your fight if it should happen will take you into schools of thought such as: 1- we have to do a study to discover why our children are obese! 2- we have to do a study to discover why in the first place, children don’t enjoy being at school to begin with, and why they have no real interest in learning (that statement does not include every student but many)! 3- We have to do a study to discover why it is our children get into trouble! 4- you will have to fight people who think they have been educated, but are examples of the crap educational system they came from, who make the dumbest of decisions. A for instance which happened to my husband who nearly cut his first finger, first digit, in half and was treated by an emergency room doctor who sewed his fingernail back on! A major stupidity that caused more grief, than the injury. I’m a person who believes there are people in the wrong vocations, including teachers, and there are students who are not catered to, rightly, from the beginning. If you want to hear some of my thoughts you can let me know and I’ll gladly give you a write up. I’m as angry as you are. I do want you to know, I think many a parent doesn’t take the responsibility they should. Parents, the school system, government, big business are all to blame. Your video with George Carlin, pretty much, hits a lot of it, right on the head. I am out the door in a few to go vote. I would love to think it will make a difference.
I forgot, I was going to leave a link for you, a page with some of my philosophies, CLICK HERE, if interested.
holy crap, mr s.
I FOUND YOU.
ITS YOO STUDENNTTT, ANDREAA.
I told ya I’d kinda ya.
Lololol.
ahhhh, you need to tell them hoes at that district thing to suck it.
CAUSE YOURE THE MAN.
you kids…. I love ya…
:sunny:
but be cool now …
I need to keep on being your teacher
We have a lot to do together!
We got to send love to those who don’t understand me
cause they are not evil or bad, they just dont get it…
(remember your first few classes …with me..yes?)
:spinning:
rofl, im tryin, im tryin.
they’ll stop hatin one day though.
It’s your student Sean from Andrea’s class too! :wave:
I agree on the block schedule, as much as I would like to be all for the block schedule because it made my freshman year go by pretty fast (not sure if it was just high school or block schedule, really) but I definitely see the faults. An example could be what happened to me today. I missed a test in Health Science for a Golf tournament, and the day before my re-take I studied pretty well for it. By the time it came to take the test, we didn’t have enough time left so she told me I could just take it Tuesday and it would be fine. So after a fun Halloween weekend and Monday back at school, by the time I got into class today I had totally forgotten all about my stupid test retake. Needless to say I don’t feel so confident on how that grade is going to be. And that’s just a test, as you said that happens all the time on just trying to continue a lesson you’ve been going over.
That really sucks about the district stuff, I don’t think I could be a teacher and have to keep my mouth closed in those kinds of situations hah
and RIP George Carlin
People are not just afraid of the truth, they are not just afraid to talk about the truth, they are afraid to hear anyone talking about the truth. As I was becoming a teacher we were constantly, openly threatened that we would not get our licenses…if we didn’t attend such and such silly workshop we would not get our licenses, or if we were 10 min. late to such and such a silly “lecture” we would never get our licenses, or if we made a tiny error in processing the state tests we would lose our license and never teach again etc., etc., etc. This was said to us constantly and people were dead serious about it.
I came to teaching from the business world so all of this was extemely shocking and apalling to me. How about the fact that they can take away your job at the end of each year without any reason given! I had never heard of this nonsense and, could not imagine how these “policies” could ever have been accepted in the “profession”. People in the normal world were disbelieveing also when I told them. Did you know that Teacher’s have no recourse with the Labor Board. I found this out one time when I went 3 months without receiving a paycheck. In the private sector they would have had to pay my full salary for every day that they hadn’t provided my paycheck within the legal time frame. Right now my school district has not paid me for hours I put in last school year, and will not return my calls regarding this. As a teacher, I have no protection under labor laws.
Personally, I think all of this goes all the way back to the beginning of the profession when most teachers were women and terribly opressed…not allowed to get married and other controls. Although gender bias no longer exists, it seems that the ethos that teachers are somehow inferior, and have to be told what to do has presisted. And, forgive me, but teachers do passively go along and play right into this perception.
The anger that arises when this role of the powerless subordinate is challenged, is evidence of the deep hold that the collective egoic mind has on us. We ourselves don’t like it, we believe it is unfair, and will voice these beliefs amoung ourselves….but the suggestion that we are the knowlegeable ones and should come together and take a stand like the educated professionals that we truly are….that elicits anger. Because the “powers that be have bullied us…as they always do….into believing that if we don’t uphold and perpetuate their lies about who we are….we will lose our jobs as teachers and our livelyhood.
I personally have been fired many times….and friends, I am not talking about taking the kind of stand that a self respecting hippie from the 60′s could be proud of….but they got rid of me quick. The thing is, getting organized, selecting a leader, navigating the system to make the weight of our knowledge substantial and relevant….that is different….we collectively accept their madate of ineffectiveness….why not collectively, consciously assert ourselves. Think about convocation….how many of them are there?….a few….how many of us?….Thousands.
If we requested that our representative should attend all meetings regarding this decision about the class schedule, at least they would have to come up with a reason that we shouldn’t be represented, and perhaps be required to justify that in the press.
If we don’t do so….we stand by while we watch bad things happen….we are shaping our reality in each and every moment.