Waiting for something better to come along

We had a guest speaker at work today. He was trying to motivate us to work harder and to understand that we could achieve our dream if we put had a positive attitude. Now remember, we’re teachers. Our positive attitude is usually gone by June after we have been cursed out by parents and students at least twice a week during the school year and documented everything that we did in case of a lawsuit. Almost every teacher I know wants to walk out the door and never look back.

It is sad that we have a country where more social prominence is placed on whether a student can pass a football, hit a baseball, or cheer than on how well students do with their reading and mathematics. Children have more electronic gadgets and toys every year, than I’ve bought in the last ten. They have Ipods, cell phones, Xbox, hand held video games…. But they don’t read many books. National Standards say that a child should read 25 books every school year. There is a direct correlation to the number of books a child reads and to how well they will do in school. Many students I work with can use technology, but they struggle to read because they wait and watch the movie.

I was on spring break in South Georgia last spring while a rural school system was still in school. I went with some friends to get a manicure and pedicure on Friday afternoon. A mother had checked her Junior High daughter out of school so that she could get her toe nails painted to match her swimsuit. The 12 or 13 year old girl was going to the beach on Saturday and her mother thought that it was more important for her daughter to get her nails done than to attend school. Just from the attitude of the girl and the way she talked to her mother and to the manicurist, I bet the teacher was glad that she left early.

We can continue to funnel more money into education programs that are “proven” to work, we can constantly reform education but we must address one of the most significant problems of all. There is a lack of respect for education in the United States. Until society places its values in the right place, teachers will do the best they can with the students they are given and will continue to pray for something better to come along.