On my way home from dropping my kids at school today, this ditty kept cycling through my head:
No more homework
No more books
No more teachers' dirty looks...
My children have not yet learned that poem, or this one:
In days of old,
When knights were bold,
And teachers weren't invented,
You'd go to school and be a fool
And come out at 3:30
Contented.
And then there's Alice Cooper's lovely, School's Out for the Summer, whose lyrics you know and probably belted loudly on your last day of 10th grade--you know, the ones that today would inspire a lock-down and bomb-sniffing dogs (and perhaps for good reason).
Anyway, I started thinking about these little gems of childhood resentment after, in the space of 30 minutees, running into not one, but TWO, friends/fellow parents who commented on my blog and also have completely contrary opinions on whether the schools are working and what we should/should not do about it.
There are about 6500 students in the system. Let's say, for ease of calculation, every three kids represents one family. That's, at minimum, about 2000 families that could (and probably do) have an opinion on everything from serving cupcakes in the classroom to whether some teacher should be fired to whether we offer enough AP courses in 12th grade.
I am one of those people who has such a critical mind I can't go into a shoe store without thinking I would have put the sandals on the bottom shelf and filled the bowl on the checkout counter with Hershey's kisses instead of toffees. But, like most humans, I just don't enjoy being criticized. Aaaaargh, ye mateys! Imagine being one of our teachers or principals!
And I thought how hard it is to be an educator--principal, teacher, lunchroom assistant--for the very fact that you are trying to teach stuff to large crowds of individuals who, as adorable as we find them, can be, um, you know--ungrateful little out-of-control wretches.*
On the other hand, we want so much for them. SOOOOOOOO much. So very very much. Too much for the schools to provide? I mean, seriously, what DO we want that's reasonable to ask for?
(*And if for some odd reason you have forgotten this, you will be remembering very soon.)
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I am a former teacher, too, and I can tell you it's really hard to be on the other end of the criticism. It might be one reason i left the field. but now i'm the parent of three kids in school, and i find myself exhausted by the all the advocation (if that's a word) i have to do just to get them sort of minimal attention for their needs...
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