29 November 2005
The Miseducation of Kevo: Holidaze
This month, Kevo gives us a look into the mind of the public school teacher midway through the academic year. Think the holidays make it hard to do your job? He might have it worse.
This is the time of year when stress starts to roll in. Teachers are starting to finish their second full unit, there’s pressure for some kind of holiday performance or celebration while well-groomed classroom management gets tossed out the window by the kids. The children begin to bare the brunt of every teacher’s frustration. We are tired, we feel we are being treated unfairly, and we’ve had this low-grade cold that’s annoying but not quite debilitating for weeks now. So we snap - some more than others. Welcome to a failing American public school. The kids run the school, really. If they decided to riot for some reason, they could take over command and control in the main office and thrash their opponent. But instead, they start to slowly chip away at their teacher’s sanity until the ELA test is over and we can teach what we want. Don’t worry, just wait it out until the spring- everything will be better then. Don’t worry, just wait until next year when we will have planned better and are going strong with a new core group of young teachers. Actually, the kids don’t want to riot and they don’t want to take over the school. They desperately want intense structure and to feel success. They just have no idea how to get those things by themselves. They need help, they’re kids! This is why we have school. It is there so that kids can have a place to screw up then learn how not to screw up the next time. I guess nobody thought that school would have to be and teach all the support systems put in place to help raise our children.
Read Part I of this series here and Part II here. ¶ 9:37 PM
This is the time of year when stress starts to roll in. Teachers are starting to finish their second full unit, there’s pressure for some kind of holiday performance or celebration while well-groomed classroom management gets tossed out the window by the kids. The children begin to bare the brunt of every teacher’s frustration. We are tired, we feel we are being treated unfairly, and we’ve had this low-grade cold that’s annoying but not quite debilitating for weeks now. So we snap - some more than others. Welcome to a failing American public school. The kids run the school, really. If they decided to riot for some reason, they could take over command and control in the main office and thrash their opponent. But instead, they start to slowly chip away at their teacher’s sanity until the ELA test is over and we can teach what we want. Don’t worry, just wait it out until the spring- everything will be better then. Don’t worry, just wait until next year when we will have planned better and are going strong with a new core group of young teachers. Actually, the kids don’t want to riot and they don’t want to take over the school. They desperately want intense structure and to feel success. They just have no idea how to get those things by themselves. They need help, they’re kids! This is why we have school. It is there so that kids can have a place to screw up then learn how not to screw up the next time. I guess nobody thought that school would have to be and teach all the support systems put in place to help raise our children.
Read Part I of this series here and Part II here. ¶ 9:37 PM
