Thursday, March 24, 2005

spoon in spoon, stiring my coffee,
I thought of you and the answers were gone...

I woke up at 7:30 this morning, with nothing in particular to do. There is no work today, none for the next 10 days (spring break). I do need to finish up my unit for english class, and write a paper a spanish poet, then the semester is pretty much over...

It seems so easy in the college classroom: somehow we've got to reach the needs of all our students. The second you enter a high school it becomes impossible. You've got thirty kids an hour, five classes a day. That boils down to one kid every two minutes, minus role, minus the usual 50 minute class period, minus all the bullshit, and you just can't do it.

My brother and I were talking about this dilema last night. I think the solution is to convince the public to spend more on schools with the specific goal of doubling the number of teachers and turning the average class size to 15. It may never happen, if we don't try. The sad thing is, I don't know where to begin... on the bright side I have a while before I am tenured and in a school, all the while to prepare to go to work on the real purpose: making schools better fit our childrens needs.

Teaching is the most noble profession and, I'd argue, the model for success in all other professions: want to be a good boss? instruct your employees and meet their needs. Want to be a good politician? Gain your peoples (pupils) support and deliver them what they need. Want to be a good Doctor? treat the person not the patient... I could go on and on, but I'll save you... just know this education reform has been going on the last ten years, and there are some great teachers graduating right now. If we can somehow harness our collective power/will, then we can change the world.

be the change you wish to see in the world.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh wow. Awesome entry. I totally agree. Too bad though that there will also be soo many dumb people graduating from university . At least here in Germany.Most of them still don't understand what it means to be a teacher.

9:49 PM  

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