It's not the kids

It's not the kids that make this job difficult at times. It's all the other stuff, the parents, the assessments, the silly requirements...

If you let me be with my students, teach them as I want and help them realize their potential that'd be great. I hate having to assign a point value to their achievement. I hate keeping track of who completed what and who needs to stay after for homework help. I want to inspire, not force kids to learn. Why can't education be compelling enough in itself? We have to assign grades, track kids, and give them a certain ranking in the order of things.

Some of my greatest successes this year have come out of my more struggling students. They're not fabulous readers but now they are starting to care, they are more interested than they originally were, they take risks and try. What will that F or D- do to their effort and motivation?

It's also hard for me to handle parents that do all the work for their child. I receive some pretty regular communication from some parents that want their child to have more extra credit, to have an opportunity to earn more points, to get a second chance on a project. Don't they get it, it's not about points or some letter- it's about growth, achievement, an inner yearning to know more. Some kids will always be C students, there's no getting around it, that's where they are. As long as they work their butts off for that C why the hell should it matter?

Being a teacher makes me think a lot about what I'll be like as a parent. It will be tempting to e-mail that teacher and try and get my child another chance when they've failed to give their best effort or worse, to even try at all. But when does my kid learn how to assert for themselves? When do they learn the weight of consequence or the value of responsibility?

I guess I best get off this soapbox for now. Truly, if I could cut away the garbage and just work with students, things would look so different...