When I Taught, Part 2 (see Part 1, 6.10.2013)

After my initial teaching experience in my hometown, the place where I spent a good portion of my own money providing food, school supplies, haircuts and such to those of my students who needed these things, I found myself in a completely different educational environment.  I landed a teaching position with the Muroc Unified School District at Edwards Air Force Base in California where my husband was assigned to the Judge Advocate General's office, his first assignment as a JAG officer.

The school building I was assigned to, on the base, was brand new and housed only sixth and seventh grade classes.  I was part of a team teaching effort and taught the sixth grade social studies/sixth and seventh grade girls physical education component.  Everything I needed or wanted was either housed in the building or could be brought in within a day.  My students were world travelers  by virtue of their parents being stationed at Air Force bases all over the world.  They came to my class armed with knowledge gained from living in other countries and around the United States.

All were well dressed, articulate, eager to share their experiences.  It was exciting to teach kids who didn't have hunger issues or all those issues that come with broken homes, low income or other family problems. I didn't have a plethora of paperwork to do.  I was able to be extremely creative with projects designed to give my students a reason to be enthusiastic about what I was teaching them.  It's the experience I expected to have when I became an elementary school teacher.

That teaching experience at Edwards had the kind of educational atmosphere every public school in the United States should provide.  But that was an exception.  My first teaching job in my home town and this one at Edwards were worlds apart in every sense.  

After Edwards, I took time off to have our sons and I stayed out of teaching until they got into school.  My next teaching experiences were different, weird, and unusual to say the least but that's for another time.

When I taught, Part 1

When I began teaching, my first assignment was a third grade self-contained classroom.  The city I lived and worked in was a working class, blue collar city.  The children in my class came from a variety of backgrounds.  Some came from one parent families, some from extremely poor families, some from more middle class families with more income than others.  All the kids, however, were eager and happy at the beginning of a new school year.

I looked at my motley crew, laughing and happy, and thought how wonderful they looked and how grateful I was to be able to share my new teaching skills with them.  During the course of the school year I learned things about each student that played into how I taught each of them, individually.  I didn't learn this stuff in college.

One young man, George R. (I still remember his name) came to school many times wearing pajama tops kept together with a piece of rawhide and sweatpants. He seemed to always be hungry and couldn't concentrate. He told me he had several siblings, many with different last names.

Another young girl came in, day after day, with her hair all matted and not smelling clean.  She always looked a little sad.  Her brother was also in my class even though he was two years older.  He looked scruffy most of the time.

Another young girl, however, came to school each day wearing exquisite clothes, diamond studs in her ears and smelling of Je Reviens perfume. I had to ask her mother what the scent was.

Teaching was fun.  Most of my pupils were willing to learn and as the year advanced I could see that they were succeeding, for the most part, in their lessons.  But there were times when my heart was breaking.  My little matted-haired girl came in one morning, looking so sad.  The day, for her, didn't improve.  At the end of the day, I asked her to stay behind for a minute after everyone else left.  And we talked, softly and quietly. She told me the family had no hot water in the apartment and she couldn't stand taking a bath in cold water, that the family didn't have a lot of food, that her dad liked to run his fingers through her hair and a bunch of other ugly stuff.  I managed to get her hair washed and cut, found some clean used clothes for her and made sure I had food for her in school.

George was in a similar situation at his house with not having enough food.  And yes, there were others experiencing the same problems.  I started loading up my desk drawers with packages of food, crackers, nutrition bars, etc. and told these kids to come up to my desk at any time and take whatever they needed or wanted.  It cost me a lot during the year but there was not an agency I could find, at that time, where I could get help for these kids.

Over the course of my teaching career, I shelled out a lot of money on school supplies and food.  And I never begrudged that money.  It was necessary and vital to the well being of my pupils.  Schools have NEVER had enough money to provide sufficiently for all the needs of their primary reason for being, the kids who attend.  They are entitled to excellent educations, taught by well-compensated teachers and having the essential materials to foster that eduction.  Every single kid in every single city, town and village in this country deserves the very best education we can give them.  It should never be based on a family's ability to pay.  Public school should be as great as any private school.
"Wouldn't it be nice of the military had to hold bake sales and schools were totally funded?"  That saying has been round for a very long time and is still relevant.

Ah, but there's more.  But that's for a different time. 

ANOTHER GUN RANT

I can tell you as a former teacher I would do anything to protect the pupils in my care. But if I was a teacher now and was expected to protect them with a gun, you'd have to pay me, at the very least, the salary of a police officer in addition to my teacher's salary. If I had to be someone who works two professions, I better be paid that way!  And of course the multimillion dollar NRA would never put up the money to pay for all the security they're proposing for schools.

Given my background regarding how I feel about guns, (see my previous post of January 22nd) never in a million years would I take up a gun thinking that I would really be able to shoot the damn thing straight enough to take the bad guy out.  So, arming teachers, most of whom don't want to be armed, is the answer?

And then after we arm teachers, what's the next place to be armed and who?  How about arming the ticket takers, ushers and concessionaires at theaters, the cabana people at resorts, waitresses and waiters in all restaurants, all members of sports teams (they'd have to be extra careful not to bump into each other while they carry) T.V. news camera operators while they're filming reporters doing their jobs on scene, cashiers and stock people at grocery stores, all the seniors who walk the halls of the local mall, every medical person in hospitals and clinics, every student in high school and college, everyone in all office buildings from janitors to secretaries to the business people, : in other words, let's make EVERY SINGLE PERSON living in the country carry a gun.  Will the F***** gun manufacturers and their parasitic NRA be happy then?????

In light of all the guns then being carried by literally everyone, how many tourists would want to come here?  How many scientists, exchange students, business people?  When the thought of everyone you pass on the street or in buildings in the United States is carrying and given the huge amount of nut jobs, gang members and generally pissed off assholes who think (and I use that term loosely) the "guvmint" is coming for their guns and stamping on their "rights" roaming the streets who are also carrying (because the NRA is against background checks and closing the gun show loopholes), why would anyone come here?  There are other countries to visit that are just as beautiful.  There are other ways to do business without actually stepping foot on US soil.  There are other universities in other countries just as good as what we have to offer here.  There is nothing here in the United States that is not offered by other countries.

And please don't start yelling that we have a democracy..... and freedom..... and rights..... That's a bunch of bullshit.  With the crap dished out by the Republican/Tea Party, women's freedom and rights are going down the toilet, along with voting rights, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  What we have is a desperate war for the very soul of this country and it's being stolen by the rich who don't give a rat's ass for those who are not in their sphere of society.  Those bastards must be stopped but given the bazillion dollars being poured into Republican coffers it's an uphill battle.  If we have any students left in the coming years who haven't been blown away and haven't been infected by the dumbing down of all things taught in those schools which disdain math, science and critical thinking, maybe, just maybe the future can be saved for the good, the intelligent, the caring, the  people who have hearts and souls.

Teachers should be extolled, not castigated!

Why do so many people think teachers have 8 to 12 weeks of "vacation" each year?  Do they really think teachers are taking it easy and enjoying a relaxing time away from their jobs? 

They work more than 8 hours a day, taking home work to correct, myriad reports to write, calls made or written progress reports sent to their students' parents, updating teaching plans.  During their so-called free time they schedule and take additional continuing education at personal cost (many times they are mandatory) to better serve their students. 

During the school year they deal with a dearth of school supplies which they then purchase with their own money and do not get reimbursed.  They are confronted with dilapidated buildings.  They are confronted with parents who don't care much about their kids but blame the teacher with any and all shortcomings their children display.  Teachers become caregivers when their pupils come in hungry so their teachers buy them food. Teachers have to watch out for obvious signs of abuse which has to be reported.  Teachers try to keep the kids safe during school.  They do this and so much more while maintaining a family household with all that that entails.

And they get paid, per hour, less than most people pay their babysitters!

Teachers are shaping the minds of the future of this country.  If you don't think teaching is THE MOST important job in this country, you're nuts!