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January 09, 2005
It sucks to be you
Over Friday evening beers, teachers from my school love to get together and bitch. Bitching, beers, and teaching go together like Texas, the death penalty, and tornadoes.
For last Friday and many Fridays before that, I have very little to bitch about. School is far from perfect, with a mix of inept management, funding problems, and dangerous situations making every day interesting. I'm okay with my job. Some days I even like it.
On Friday we all talked about the kids. It is incredibly tough to be a kid in my school. Even though they have the greatest need for effective teachers, they have limited access. More than half of our staff has less than three years experience in teaching.
Their classes are horrible also. When I was a teenager, I had tons of electives. I took shop, typing, journalism, and gym every day. So much secondary learning occurs in the other classes. Most math lessons on fractions are lost, but drafting, music, and home economics gave real life lessons.
Because math and English tests define whether a school stays open or closed, everything else falls off to the side. My kids spend half of every day in just math and English. Science and social studies fill up the remainder of the day, with gym only twice a week. They have four periods a week for electives, but the funding isn't there. Our art teacher has no supplies. Our computer lab doesn't have a full complement of computers that work. Our music teachers are short staffed, overworked, and have a dearth of instruments.
I think that many times the theft and destruction of supplies/equipment in my school comes from a deep well of adolescent frustration with no outlets. It kills me that I lost two-thirds of my calculators to theft when I was absent for two days in December. It's an endlessly frustrating cycle, and I often can't find a way to break it.
Maybe year four will provide some ideas. I know we'll be discussing it all over beers.
Posted by G at January 9, 2005 08:49 PM
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Comments
I think I'd be very frustrated with the lack of needed supplies, but I know that good teachers can make a real difference, no matter what obstacles are in the way.
Posted by: Jess at January 9, 2005 09:21 PM
That so-called roster of classis is a nightmare! Man... inner city school funding. And I thought things were bad in downstate Illinois!? At least we had electives!!
Hang in there. Maybe things will improve somehow.
Posted by: MzOuiser at January 11, 2005 08:43 PM
Oh God. I meant classes. You see? Country schooling. Sheeeeeeesh.
Posted by: MzOuiser at January 11, 2005 08:44 PM