Teach

Another week past, another week of teaching in the Bronx now behind me. (It's also another year of the mayor telling me that I'm going to lose my job but those are thoughts for another post.)

Had an up and down week with my students who were a mix of brilliant and maddeningly apathetic over the last four days. I'm now just past the halfway point of the year and each week/day/class has presented both challenges and rewards, although complete honesty would say there have been many more of the former. Each challenge that I face has built a resolve that makes me ask "How can I make this work?", a question whose answer I have yet to find. However, this question has led to a deeper reflection on both my practice and educational philosophy.

Today a co-worker and I had an extended discussion about the role that home plays in education of a child. As someone who was academically lazy throughout my childhood, I feel that I know better than most just how uninteresting school can be for adolescence (perhaps one of the reasons that I wanted to become a teacher in the first place.) While I thought school was boring at times, I always knew that in some way, it was important. Why? Because my parents told me that it was. Kids are stupid- and I mean that in the nicest way possible,- which is to say that a child between the ages of 5-11 can be convinced about anything (see the Tooth Fairy) so if a parent tells them that school is important when they're young, they just might listen. By no means does this predict academic success, but it doesn't hurt for a student to hear that school and their education have value because if they doesn't happen then, they probably won't care too much when they get to high school. Unfortunately, I work with a handful of students who might not have gotten that message growing up, which leaves an uphill challenge for myself and my colleagues.

So, once again, how can I make this work? I don't know. However, I'm beginning to realize that if I can get them to think,than I would be doing my part in moving them along in life. More on that in the future.

Two more weeks till Winter Break with many more challenges (both known and unknown) on the horizon. As time passes, I continue to learn these lessons which will prepare me for what awaits in the future.