Having spent 10 years in the public education system, both as a teacher and part of the time as a coach, I could write a good deal, but will relate a few things about the realities I faced at the high school level:
1) I taught mostly tenth graders (15-year-olds), and it wasn’t unusual for several of my students to have third and fourth grade reading levels. Despite the extreme need for getting back to basics in some quarters, the “latest and greatest” technology was stressed above all else.
2) Learning is a two-way street, and most of the time, the parents I needed to talk to the most were unreachable, and refused to reply to telephone calls/emails/letters about their children.
3) Though I often heard adults within the system saying that some decision/action/plan was being carried out “in the best interest of the students,” this was not the case – it was in the best interest of the adults so they could keep their jobs within a hugely complex and inefficient bureaucracy.
4) As for the “emotional attachment business,” I cared deeply for my students, and felt a personal responsibility to each and every one of them. There’s a huge difference between being a “friend” and being a “buddy” to a student. Being a friend is about doing what is best FOR THAT INDIVIDUAL.
5) In our society, schools are seen as having to be all things to all people, and this is quite simply a wildly unrealistic expectation which allows parents to discard their responsibilities to their children.
Marty
From: pbjflorida@googlegroups.com [mailto:pbjflorida@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:11 AM
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Subject: {PBJFlorida} Digest for pbjflorida@googlegroups.com - 1 Message in 1 Topic
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§ Back to school - - - focus: connection [1 Update]
jim belcher <jimbelcher350@me.com> Aug 24 10:44PM -0400
“Educators should be in the emotional attachment business before they are in the academics business.”
Community and creativity (collaboration and innovation) are the not-all-that new imperatives for education. All it would take is a small cohort of teachers taking this on...
See below...
> Teaching Nonviolence By Building Community In The First Week Of School By Todd Diehl
jim
Be the kind of community you want to see in the world.
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