MY BOGGY BLOG: find your way through the murk

In the Classroom

School stuff has been on my mind a lot lately. And I've been in my kids' K-8 school many times this week, too. Unfortunately, there is the pessimistic side of the school system going on for me... all the budget cuts, the lack of money, this lame-o "No Child Left Behind" stuff that in reality is leaving more and more children behind in numerous ways. We had the incident in our middle school recently where my kids' language arts teacher (a really excellent, dedicated teacher) was knocked down by a student in the hallway when she tried to get him to stop running. She was injured in the fall and now has such problems with her leg that she has been on crutches for weeks and will likely have to undergo surgery. The kid had an in-school suspension for two days, but otherwise there were no consequences, and the administration is not really supporting the teacher... and she is feeling so down about this that I'm afraid we could lose her. The middle school is loud and chaotic and there is such a lack of respect by the students for each other and for the teachers. My twins said there was a food fight in the lunch room yesterday, and all students were made to clean up the mess... it seems that the good students who are respectful and don't do all the deviant behavior are just always being penalized by the behavior of the wild kids. Even my third grader has a class that is hard to control... just getting the kids to be quiet and listen to the teacher. What is happening to our schools?

And yet, I went to the middle school yesterday because the kids in that same Language Arts teacher's class are performing biographies this week-- dressing up like the person they wrote their biography on, and speaking as if they were that person. DD did Joan of Arc yesterday, and DS is doing Carl Sagan today. I've been going in to see the performances, and it was wonderful. The kids were really getting into it, using costumes, giving their speeches, then asnwering questions from classmates. I got to see Gerry Garcia, Anne Frank, Thurgood Marshall, an Orphan Train kid, Franklin Roosevelt, and of course, St. Joan. It was such a fun, creative environment, and lots of learning going on, too, in a kids-teaching-kids kind of way. I'm excited to go back today. So this is the stuff that makes me optimistic about the schools, and I sure wish there was more of it! When kids are engaged and interested and challenged, you see how good it can be, how the wildness and swearing and disrespect falls away.

Please, please, let there be more of this for our kids. Teachers, don't give up! You are truly the miracle-workers!