Education: How Did We Get Here?
My Experience Going Back to the Classroom
12.05.21
Right now, education is a hotbed of confusion. Teachers, school leaders, parents, students and everyone else are all screaming, “This isn’t working!” while on autopilot. I can confirm that education is a hot mess and the definition of insanity IS actually doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.
In staff meetings, we were talking about new ideas, but doing the same outdated arbitrary things. Adding new things to the plate without taking off the things that didn’t matter. Complaints were met with, “That’s just how it is?”. It’s the same old gaslighting story. And…do not even get me started on the“data” push and pressure that is on EVERYBODY.
Within the last five years, I made it back into the classroom after taking a hiatus for about 20 years from public education. Here is what I experienced.
For starters, when I started in the classroom, I worked at a Title 1 school. It was July of 1995. I was fresh out of college and ready to save the world one 4th grader at a time. I had a classroom of about twenty five 4th graders. Over half of them were bilingual, a few spoke more than two languages, two of them only spoke their native language and many of them were not born in the U.S.
And I LOVED them. I loved teaching. I had desks that were arranged in rows. I decorated my class so adorably. I was organized, I was streamlined, I had class policy, I had routine, I had the discipline plan (it did involve flipping cards ~ shhhh!) and I was in my element. Everyday wasn’t great, yet every day flowed. But again, I was young, fresh and eager to please back then.
I had few I.E.P.s/S.E.P.’s (504's), I had parent volunteers, I had a stipend to buy some things for my room. I also a Mac computer. My Mac was more for communication, not so much for teaching. I had awesome insurance that didn’t eat my paycheck or have huge deductibles. We were disconnected. I also did not have cell phones out in class. I did not have to compete with Youtube. I did not have to entertain ALL the time. Although, my energy was satisfied if I did put on a good show and have some fun with my lessons every from time to time. I had some freedom. Parents heeded my advice on how to help students perform better and followed through on their end. My experience with disciplining students was extremely supportive. Rarely, was a parent angry at me if their child did something wrong because we were working together. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t this.
As I got back into the classroom, I was floored by what is going on. It was like the story of the frog. It goes something like… how hot can you make the water before the frog jumps out. Or was it, can you kill a frog gradually by slowly turning up the water slowly kill him? (I swear that is a story). I would imagine the frog realizing too late the water is hot, gets confused and cannot figure out how to get out resulting in ultimate death.
The water is boiling and has been for some time. Teachers are jumping out of the boiling water and I cannot blame them. Some are so used to putting themselves last that it is very possible they will not move becoming then next victim of the boiling hot education system.
My first experience back was quite the eye opener. I replaced a lovely teacher that the students loved. This meant those kids were not going to completely be excited to see me. Kids are resilient and black and white at the same time. These kids were not prepared for the switch and blindsided by the fact that their world and expectations of what the year was supposed to be had been blown up. I seriously, do not have any idea why people are not honest with children. But, that is a story for another article.
Their routine was gone and someone had to pay. Unfortunately, that was me. I was the closet in proximity. Look, I got it, they were just kids. It was hard for them. But, being sad only gives you a couple of passes for bad behavior, not a lifetime membership. They told me they hated me. They would argue about every assignment. They gaslighted me, I lost my cool, they would cry, I would get into trouble. “How dare you make a kid cry?”. They wrote cuss words and poked holes all over the supplies that I bought myself with my own money, thinking these things would make our lessons more fun.
However, that is not all that I experienced. I noticed something significantly different than in those first years. My initial reaction was “What did I just take on?” The kids had changed drastically. I mean like, “Wow! I would have NEVER said THAT to any adult when I was a kid” kind of stuff. Yet, there was another thing that was completely shocking to me. These kids were extremely, extremely, harder on themselves than 20 years ago. The way they talked about themselves was different. They also struggled with resilience and emotions. Almost every slight or miscommunication or slight initiated an emotional outburst or some triggering comeback so not appropriate for school
After awhile and some hiccups, we made it through the year and I think most of us came out liking each other in the end. However, every year after that there was some kind of unnecessary drama that just interfered with the job I needed to do. It just got to be too much. Kids had rights, but teachers did not. I respected myself too much to stay. And if it really was “about the kids?” I would have stayed. Our educational leaders and the people in power are failing our kids. We ALL need to do better.
