I Am A Teacher Help Me God???

No joke.  These are the words someone used in the google search engine and was ushered to Autism Diva Help.  "I am a teacher help me God."  Seriously?!

Who ever this teacher is, I pray you read this post...  While I do not wish to short staff any school division, YOU ARE CLEARLY IN THE WRONG PROFESSION.  Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.00...  

Reading this sentence brought to mind Michael Zwaagstra book titled What's wrong with Our Schools:  and How We Can Fix Them, where Mr. Zwaagstra talks about edu babble and how tomorrow's teachers are being taught how to teach, or dare I say how not to teach, but babble. 


Until reading this book, I always looked at my own and Dayton's perspective of how unfair and discriminatory our education system has become, a game of politics so to speak.  I never really appreciated a teacher's point of view, and how helpless they must feel in their careers.  Their hands seem to be tied behind their back, even if they want to help my babe, they can't.  It really seems just as unfair to the teacher as it is to our children.  Perhaps the teacher that searched for I am a teacher help me God is a newly graduated teacher, who has been taught today's edu babble.

I really feel horrible for today's teacher.  I say this with utmost respect, not in my usual nasal, sarcastic way.  As an educator myself, teaching the Pharmacy Technician Program at a local college for the past three years, I've struggled teaching students with English as a second language.   Reading their test answers sometimes took three times longer than than it did for me to read an English student's paper.  It was frustrating for me as well as the student.  To make things easier for all of us, I would allow students sometimes to answer their questions verbally, or allow them to draw their answer out.  I wanted my students to feel successful, and know for themselves that they knew their material.  I had one curriculum to follow, and one lesson plan for all students equally.  If students needed extra help, my door was open for an hour after class.  Yes, while I worked for an hour a day for free, it was more important that I produced students of sound knowledge than get paid for five hours a week.  Make no mistake, this was not making me a martyr...  After all, I am a selfish woman.  I wanted to ensure when the time came that I looked for work at a pharmacy, I would not be laughed out of a job due to poor production of my former students...

This is not what's happening in our school system for our children.  If your child falls behind, whether or not they have a label, once 3:15pm comes around, your child is no longer the teacher's responsibility.  The teacher can not fail your child, and they continue to move on to the next grade level.  The elementary teacher no longer teaches a curriculum, they teach each child individually.  So, instead of having one curriculum and lesson plan, they have numerous lesson plans.  You have got to be one seriously organized individual who's feathers don't ruffle easily to teach in schools today.  I'm not one to admit my own weaknesses, but I don't think I have what it takes to teach in an elementary school.



Consider yourselves hugged,

Lou