Education

This week has been an intersting one to say the least. Normally my posts are boring or light hearted, however today I feel the need to write about a subject that is bothering me. I know I am opening myself up for critisim, so if you feel the need...be gentle.
As most of you know, I work at the school. I am a tutor/aid and I really love my job. I am attending college classes so that one day I may join the ranks of underappreciated, overworked, underpaid teachers. Why would I want to do this you may ask, my reply is simple...I love the look of understanding that enters into a childs eyes when they are being taught. As an employee of the school, I suppose you might say I have to say that we have amazing teachers..but as a parent I am not obligated to think so...and yet I do. I think that Fredonia has an amazing school system. We have caring teachers who bend over backward to make sure that kids do well. We don't have alot of money, and our playground equipment is old, but it works. However, like any school system anywhere, you have to have parent participation. When did it become the schools job to make sure a student does their homework...it is called HOME work for a reason. And if a student is failing, when did it become the schools job to gather their homework and hold their hand, while the parent is otherwise occuppied getting their nails done, working, or just flat sitting at home? I am a working mother...but my first responsibility is to my children. It is my job to make sure my kids do their homework...if they don't, well then we don't watch TV, we don't play outside, we don't do gymnastics or basketball, or baseball, we don't listen to I-pods, play video games or any other extra curricular activity that even remotely seems like fun...NO, if my kids don't do their homework, they know that life as they know it will be severely altered. Am I a harsh parent? Are they missing out on their childhood?....Uh, no because I can honestly tell you that there are very few times when I have to exert this kind of punishment. They know the consequences and they do their homework. Am I mother of the year...absolutely not, but education is important in our house and every one of my kids from my oldest to my baby who isn't in school knows it.
And what about behavior issues? When I was a student, my parents NEVER took my side over a teachers. Were the teachers always right...heavens no! I know there were times when I was completely in the right, but it didn't matter because it was a matter of respect. My own parents taught me not to back talk my teachers (I still did, but the punishment was not pretty) they taught me to be responsible for my grades and to talk with the teacher if I had a problem. Now, everything is the teachers fault. If Bobby is getting an F because he just plain didn't do any work, well then it is the teachers fault. If Susie acts disrespectfully and disrupts the class to the point that the other 30 kids can't learn, it isn't her fault it is the teachers fault.
There is no glory in being a teacher...if a student does well, it is because they have good parents, if a student does poorly it is the teachers fault. Where is the logic? Ultimately, whether or not a student suceeds or fails it entirely up to the parents. It is our job to make it matter, to make school important and if we as parents fail to do that, then a teacher can't be held responsible for our child's failure.
I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there
The clay they used was a young child's mind
And they fashioned it with care.
One was a teacher - the tools she used Were books, music and art,
The other, a parent, worked with a guiding hand and a gentle loving heart.
Day after day, the teacher toiled with touch that was deft and sure.
While the parent labored by her side and polished and smoothed it o'er.
And when at last their task was done, They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had molded into the child Could neither be sold nor bought.
And each agreed they would have failed if each had worked alone,
For behind the teacher stood the school and behind the parent, the home.
Ray A. Lingenfelter
It is my own hope and prayer, that I will continue to raise my own kids with a love for education and a desire to learn and grow. It is also my hope that when I do finally become a teacher, that my students will have parents who are supportive of me in my task to teach their children. We should appreciate our childrens teachers daily rather than once a year...they deserve it!!