Teach Them Well

Thanks to everyone who participated in the DS&D Blog Contest. Below is the winning topic I chose to write about:

How about pre-school kids getting kicked out because they are screaming, due to anxiety? What a horrible injustice it is to them. How they then feel that they can scream and get out of everything! How poorly some teachers handle things because they are not educated…

When Whitney Houston said “I believe the children are our future,“ she was right. (Granted, she also said “crack is whack“ while she was a raging crackhead but let’s try to remember the good.)

Children are our future.  That is why I keep a lot of candy in my house. I want kids to like me. I’m going to need them one day. I may be the authority figure in their eyes right now, but that won’t last. It won’t be long before they’re running the show and I’m so old that my doctor is using a forklift for my facelift and my birth certificate says “expired.”

The other day I was driving along, minding my own business, when all of the sudden some old lady pulls out in front of me only to drive really, really slow. What do you do? What else can you do but shake your head with annoyance, bust a vein in your forehead, and yell “Can you pick it up, grandma?”

Next time you do that, though, keep this in mind: You will be that “grandma” before you know it and someone from a younger generation is going to do the same thing to you.

Our country depends on the kids who will one day be driving behind us, and if those kids don’t have good teachers now, we’re in big, big trouble.

I don’t know of anyone who thinks teachers are compensated fairly. Children may be our future but teachers are the heroes. The pay they receive doesn’t accurately reflect the importance of their job and I don’t care if they do have their summers off, they still work harder than most everyone who makes more than them. School may end at 3:00 or so, but that‘s not the end of their day. Many teachers are doing extra-curricular activities while others are working on lesson plans or correcting the work handed in that day.

For good teachers, teaching can be a thankless job. Sure, they get an apple every now and then, but that apple can’t make up for all the crap they take on a daily basis—even if it‘s one of those big, yellow Golden Delicious apples, and those are really good.

But, not all teachers are good teachers. Some are bad. Like bad, and considering that they’re working with kids who are going to have a lot of say about what happens to us one day, that is not good. Notwithstanding the fact that teachers don’t make jack, they’re overworked and they’re underappreciated, they did, still and all, sign up for the job. I don’t care what kind of job you have, have some self respect and do it to the best of your ability or get out. I feel strongest about that statement if that job is teaching because that is pretty much the most important job there is. That’s where it all starts.

It all starts with the teachers.

I’m not saying teachers can’t, or shouldn’t, complain about their jobs, I totally would—and as far as I’m concerned, the better the teacher, the more room they’re allowed for bitching. But if you’re not a good teacher, hit the bricks. You didn’t get into the profession for the cash or the notoriety so what were you expecting? There are lots of people who are waiting for your job and not only would they be thrilled to get it, they might even do a good job.

Now, I don’t know the whole story about the little kid who was kicked out of pre-school for crying but I’m picturing two sides of the story:

The Side of the Parent:
You just kicked my kid out for crying and clearly he has anxiety about something. Plus, he’s in pre-school. That is what little kids do. They cry and whine and scream. How about drawing on something you learned in college instead of kicking him out? Now I have to figure out what to do with my kid while I’m working, and not only that, but thanks to you and your blatant laziness in teaching, he now thinks he can get away with all kinds of crap just because he is crying and screaming. What is my kid being taught from all of this? Nothing good. Thanks a lot, bad teacher. I’m never giving you an apple.

The Side of the Teacher:
I’m sorry that I had to unload your kid, but I have lots of other kids in my class and your kid is making my job very difficult. I’m a teacher, not a glorified babysitter. How can I effectively teach the kids who aren’t crying and screaming while your kid is having a anxiety attack at the glue and popsicle stick table?

Am I close?

And if I am, who’s right?

Thanks for being here!

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