I have no interest in getting into administration or being anything in education other than a classroom teacher. So, that's my personal background to this.
Anyhow, I pretty much stay out of all the politics in and around the school. Other teachers are in and out a lot, our district opens other schools and principals are being moved around, etc. I just don't really keep up with it.
There seem to be big changes going on at the state level this year (with Tennessee's influx of money from Race to the Top and proposed plans of how to spend the money), but I don't really keep up with it.
Basically, I love teaching and as long as I make enough money from it to live fairly comfortably, I'll do my best to take care of the kids who come into my room and progress their learning as much as possible. Maybe it's just optimistic to think the rest will take care of itself, but that's where I am.
Is that a crazy viewpoint?
Sadly, yes.
ReplyDeleteIn too many places, the ability to care about kids is being compromised by mandates, edicts and scripted curriculum that is based on some standardized view of who and what teachers and students are without ever acknowledging the incredible humanity that exists in schools.
Our challenge is to figure out what policies would support and sustain student-centered, take-care-of-the-kids teaching and then be advocates for it.
If we don't take an active role in having a voice in the policy debates, we will have to live with what is done to us. And that's a scary thing right now.
I'm with you 100%. Teaching is too complicated for me to bother about much outside of the classroom. I'll do my best to teach the stuff needs to be taught, and keep as interesting as I can. Anything else is out of my domain.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Chris on this one. Just focusing on the here and now is quite short-sighted, and narrow, too, because ultimately as teachers we don't just care about our own teaching. I don't even live in the US, but follow closely the developments about tenure removal and other questions - simply because it is important to education on a larger scale than my classroom.
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