JADED AND CYNICAL
NOTE: Our 5th and 6th grade team eats lunch together everyday. We've bonded over the months, and we're a pretty tight group that just loves to spend time together. One of the things we love -- and perhaps it's because we, with one exception, are all women -- is chocolate!! Anything that just hints of chocolate, and we are all foaming at the mouth.
Our pincipal gathered our team together at lunch time yesterday and presented us with a giant, frosted, chocolate chip cookie! It was a heavenly-looking token of appreciation for all the work we do on a daily basis. Adam, our one token male, was given the charge of cutting the cookie, and I was practically drooling all over myself waiting for my piece.
Then she got very emotional as she announced that she was being reassigned to the high school for the remainder of the year. You could have heard a pin drop in the place!
Adam stopped cutting.
And, I'm ashamed to admit this next part, and this is where I feel like, because of my past experiences at Albion Public, I've become very jaded and cynical ... while everyone else was getting very emotional at the prospect of losing our principal, all I could think of was, "why did he stop cutting the cookie!?!?!?"
Please hear me!!! I'm very sad about losing our principal to the high school. She is one of the best principal's I've ever worked for, and I've worked with a few ... 6 to be exact, counting my current one. Not to take away from anyone else that I've worked for, but Cynthia, to use a bit of middle school vernacular, is the bomb!! She's tough -- she's demanding -- she's incredibly fair -- she's ... she's just great!
However, I guess my years of watching a school district systematically raped and pillaged and countless students left behind over the lack of money that the state is willing to give and then take away, has caused me to be callused. I'm no longer surprised when ridiculous cuts are made that seem to make no academic sense whatsoever. I will not be the least bit surprised when I am served my pink slip as the year comes to a close ... do I hope it happens? Absolutely not! I really like this school! In my short time, I've put my heart and soul into my students. I would be very sad to, once again, be out scratching for a job ... something I thought I would no longer have to deal with when I moved down here.
I feel like there's a reason children are being left behind, and I wonder if it isn't that when it all comes down to it, there isn't FULL ON priority when it comes to education. Yes, I know, I'm opening a can of worms here. I mean, I will be the first to admit, I come at this whole education thing from an entirely different angle than most public school employees. And yes, there are many, many families that are rabidly dedicated to our children's education. However, American kids, by and large, keep falling behind, and I have to ask myself why? As an educator, it's my job to ask why.
I don't know the answer. I've never seen a "business" run like the business of education is run at this moment, and, let's face it, this is a business, and it can no longer afford to be run this way.
Ahhhh ... if only I had a magic wand ...
Our pincipal gathered our team together at lunch time yesterday and presented us with a giant, frosted, chocolate chip cookie! It was a heavenly-looking token of appreciation for all the work we do on a daily basis. Adam, our one token male, was given the charge of cutting the cookie, and I was practically drooling all over myself waiting for my piece.
Then she got very emotional as she announced that she was being reassigned to the high school for the remainder of the year. You could have heard a pin drop in the place!
Adam stopped cutting.
And, I'm ashamed to admit this next part, and this is where I feel like, because of my past experiences at Albion Public, I've become very jaded and cynical ... while everyone else was getting very emotional at the prospect of losing our principal, all I could think of was, "why did he stop cutting the cookie!?!?!?"
Please hear me!!! I'm very sad about losing our principal to the high school. She is one of the best principal's I've ever worked for, and I've worked with a few ... 6 to be exact, counting my current one. Not to take away from anyone else that I've worked for, but Cynthia, to use a bit of middle school vernacular, is the bomb!! She's tough -- she's demanding -- she's incredibly fair -- she's ... she's just great!
However, I guess my years of watching a school district systematically raped and pillaged and countless students left behind over the lack of money that the state is willing to give and then take away, has caused me to be callused. I'm no longer surprised when ridiculous cuts are made that seem to make no academic sense whatsoever. I will not be the least bit surprised when I am served my pink slip as the year comes to a close ... do I hope it happens? Absolutely not! I really like this school! In my short time, I've put my heart and soul into my students. I would be very sad to, once again, be out scratching for a job ... something I thought I would no longer have to deal with when I moved down here.
I feel like there's a reason children are being left behind, and I wonder if it isn't that when it all comes down to it, there isn't FULL ON priority when it comes to education. Yes, I know, I'm opening a can of worms here. I mean, I will be the first to admit, I come at this whole education thing from an entirely different angle than most public school employees. And yes, there are many, many families that are rabidly dedicated to our children's education. However, American kids, by and large, keep falling behind, and I have to ask myself why? As an educator, it's my job to ask why.
I don't know the answer. I've never seen a "business" run like the business of education is run at this moment, and, let's face it, this is a business, and it can no longer afford to be run this way.
Ahhhh ... if only I had a magic wand ...
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