Appreciation

Well Teacher Appreciation week came and went at my school...like elsewhere around the nation and world.  So with all the hubbub the real question to address is do I feel appreciated.  Yes and No. 

I will start with the bad. There is plenty of that.  In the recent past I am coming off another demoralizing budget season.  Sure money is tight, it always is.  But I have slowly come to grips with the fact I live in a community and a state that could do a better job supporting education, but chooses not to.  That's putting it gently.  Some outwardly decry taxes are too high and blame wasteful schools and dare I say...overpaid teachers.  Maybe so.  But more likely the levels of bureaucratic decision makers all take and redirect their share before it comes anywhere near me or my classroom.  I have what I need I suppose.  I know I have it way better than many around the nation.  So I learn not to complain or open my hand and whine too often.  But over the last few years most of the heavy lifting when it comes to balancing budgets, teaching more classes and more kids falls on guess who?  Mr. and Mrs. Appreciated.  But I don't like talking about money and few teachers start teaching in order to get rich.  If they did, they are dum(I like that one).

So there is one strike against appreciation.  But I get it elsewhere too.  Let's stick to the last week when a colleague who is a fellow coach couldn't get a sub for when he left early with the team he coached.  Maybe some of that was on him but this Spring has been crazy with cancellations so instead he had to struggle to find a colleague who could give up their unencumbered planning to cover his class.  A day before another teacher who wasn't feeling well heard the same thing.  That doesn't make me feel appreciated.   I was also informed of the Required Summer Professional Development where I was given no real choice.  Just choose among what and when I want to take it.  Next I dealt with the run up to next Fall when our overcrowded school will get another 100 or so 9th graders. 

During all that I kept focused in the hectic weeks before you guessed it, testing season.  ARGH! Already stressed and overworked with unrealistic and unsustainable expectations I had a young man in my class illustrate a point for me. I exist in a landscape  where  a 14 yr student chooses to put his head down, 3 minutes after I made a special effort to reach him about doing his best and what he is capable in the hopes I could get him through the 9th grade.  I felt more powerless than usual and that says something.   

I am in the not so sweet spot part of my career where I am devalued since I am not "new" and choose not to leave the classroom as a senior teacher in favor of some other role.  Most efforts on a national level seem to depreciate teachers.  From how they are evaluated to the ever tightening knot that limits how they practice their craft.  I did get the normal mass mailing letters of appreciation from the school board and division superintendent which I thought was nice.  But truth be told I am tired of being "told" I am appreciated.  But it wasn't all bad.

So how do I feel appreciated you ask?  There were some small gestures from students.  The applegrams, brief notes from students, yep... I received a handful.  I did get a small gift of appreciation from a family with a nice note.  I teach 135 kids so the odds were in my favor.  I did also get a few E-mail thanks which were nice gestures as well.  The most noticeable efforts were school wide in the form of some well timed and very tasty meals, snacks and treats from our parent teacher organization.  A thousand thanks to them!  So I do I suppose feel more appreciated than last week. 

Still what I appreciate has nothing to do with what week it is or what gets organized.  It is the psychological pay from countless seemingly meaningless interactions with the vibrant and infectious energy of youth.  It is seeing the world through their eyes and thinking of it as if they were my own children.  It is seeing the newness of learning brighten a day and the occasional light bulb go off.  Usually it goes off now on a cell phone first...  It is the unexpected thank you for something you did to help a student out.  It is the feeling of appreciation when students look to you for help, guidance and support.  The moments that are ever so briefly and arre, but also but also profound that make me feel appreciated as a teacher.  Thanks. 

How Much is Too Much?

Let's dismiss for a moment all the academic things schools do.  I suggest this since I admit readily that kids learn as much  (perhaps more) about life outside of my classroom as in it.  I strongly believe that the rich nature of the experiences that kids encounter in school best enables them to succeed and thrive.

But, that is not why schools exist.  Schools were created to teach our young people what society determines they need to know.  For better or worse, this is how students and teachers are measured.  If a kid does not "get" what they need, the school shares an increasing amount of the responsibility.

In recent years the pressure has grown to maximize what kids learn.  Few would argue with the idea that we should try to teach all kids more.  What sometimes goes unnoticed is the price paid for such efforts and uniformity and even volume.  NCLB was clearly motivated by efforts to better serve populations that were traditionally underserved in public schools.  But it turned into a monster that must be fed. 

It’s not as much about what is taught as it is about what is measured.  We grew so eager to measure what kids learn that we’ve made the measurement the point.  With so much additional focus on testing, something has to go to make room.  Trying to keep good, fun, quality learning becomes a greater challenge by the day.

So, something’s gotta give.  There is just not enough time.  We could go to school every day all year. The problem would still exist.  

 Time has come today

Young hearts can go their way

Can't put it off another day

I don't care what others say

They say we don't listen anyway

Time has come today

Those are prophetic words indeed.  I see the relationship of these words to education as we continue to fit more and more into a full glass.  The constant is not the length of the school day or calendar, it is the fact kids are people.  More accurately they are young people.  They need time for themselves.  They need to decompress.  They need downtime. 

Each year it seems we ratchet up the pressure on them to do more to the point where the phrase joyless childhood might even apply to some.  Though I think of Chinese schools first with this description, I hear more and more from anguished parents and students who are reaching the breaking point.   

Most conversations about time come back to the topic of how much time students spend on homework.  I am aware that homework now consumes a significant portion of my students’ lives.  They have trouble finding the proper balance.  For too many it amounts to spending too much or none.  I always laugh at how we now control their access to sugar, fried foods, websites and the like but don't seem to recognize or seek to help them choose an appropriate course workload.

So how much is too much?  With 9th graders it is among the most commonly asked question. 

Our division moved from a schedule of seven periods to eight periods two years ago.  Is this too much?  Who knows, but is certainly has become for a number of students.  Maintaining high standards and continuously increasing achievement with a greater volume of coursework conflicts with some basic notions:  We want kids to enjoy school so that they choose to participate, we want kids to develop a love of learning, we want kids to be kids and have the freedom to explore a diversity of opportunities outside of the school environment.

A recent article from the Atlantic puts a focus on how much this emphasis on quantity and volume of instruction might impact our children.

"Since about 1955 ... children's free play has been continually declining, at least partly because adults have exerted ever-increasing control over children's activities," says the author Peter Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology (emeritus) at Boston College.  

Even in the form of additional opportunities and offerings, educational requirements are adding to the ever-increasing adult control of children’s activities.

The article concludes by saying:  

   

When parents realize the major role that free play can take in the development of emotionally healthy children and adults, they may wish to reassess the priorities ruling their children's lives. 

Perhaps it is not only parents who need to reassess priorities.

  

This article on "Play" of all things helps keep things in perspective.  

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/10/all-work-and-no-play-why-your-kids-are-more-anxious-depressed/246422/