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Those That Can
28/9/07 09:53Last night was the Back-to-School extravaganza at Sarcasm Girl's high school. After a brief presentation in the "Little Theatre" (the auditorium is being renovated, persuant to ADA requirements, and much of the school has been torn up, so there are now seven "bungalows"--ie., trailers--on the football field) I followed the girl's schedule to JROTC (in the basement), Civics and Democracy (bungalow), Media Arts (third floor), French (first floor), AP Lit (bungalows again), and AP Statistics (second floor). I give the kid props--by the end of the evening I felt like I'd been on a treadmill for an hour.
All her teachers clearly like and enjoy my kid, whom they call a critical thinker--the highest praise the school can bestow. All her teachers (except the guy for JROTC) are young(ish) and boundlessly enthusiastic about their subjects and about the school and their students. Just being in the room with them, hearing their delight with the kids, the administration, and this place they're building from the ground up (Balboa was a deeply troubled school ten years ago--they've totally turned it around), is exciting.
So much is asked of teachers these days, not only to impart information and develop thinking, but to teach kids to organize, to watch for signs of abuse, neglect, psychosis, bullying, sociopathy; to be accountable for things that may not be within their scope; to make up for the shortcomings of textbooks designed by state committees; to support students whose language and culture and family are sometimes in conflict with what they're teaching them. And they do this despite the concerted efforts of a segment of the population to simultaneously sentimentalize and tear down their work. In my opinion a good teacher in the current environment--particularly a good public school teacher--is a hero. I met seven good teachers last night, and I couldn't be happier about where my kid goes to school.
All her teachers clearly like and enjoy my kid, whom they call a critical thinker--the highest praise the school can bestow. All her teachers (except the guy for JROTC) are young(ish) and boundlessly enthusiastic about their subjects and about the school and their students. Just being in the room with them, hearing their delight with the kids, the administration, and this place they're building from the ground up (Balboa was a deeply troubled school ten years ago--they've totally turned it around), is exciting.
So much is asked of teachers these days, not only to impart information and develop thinking, but to teach kids to organize, to watch for signs of abuse, neglect, psychosis, bullying, sociopathy; to be accountable for things that may not be within their scope; to make up for the shortcomings of textbooks designed by state committees; to support students whose language and culture and family are sometimes in conflict with what they're teaching them. And they do this despite the concerted efforts of a segment of the population to simultaneously sentimentalize and tear down their work. In my opinion a good teacher in the current environment--particularly a good public school teacher--is a hero. I met seven good teachers last night, and I couldn't be happier about where my kid goes to school.