Saturday, March 6, 2010

Teaching follow-up, et al

I just came from the gym. I hadn't been at all this week due to The Boy's hospitalization. I was there once last weekend and missed the week before due to illness.

So Musical Daddy recommended that I do squats, deadlifts, bench press, and military press, and that would be my workout. Four major multi-joint exercises would hit many of the muscles. I've decided to stick with this workout for about a month, and just do that every time I go into the gym.

That's HARD!!! I need a bit of coaching with my squats and I need a refresher on deadlifts, but if I'm doing only this, I can get help from Musical Daddy next time we're in the gym together. But wow--that's a hard workout. Because...it's four major multi-joint exercises.

My "fitness goal" is to get rid of a little excess weight/fat that can mostly be attributed to having two children in under two years, and to maintain a healthy level of physical fitness. I'm not necessarily making any numeric goals, although I might, once I get on Wii Fit again. I don't want to say that I'm looking to lose x number of pounds or to be down to a certain clothing size, because I found that the last time I was exercising consistently and eating well, things fell into place in their own time.

On a mostly unrelated topic, I had a few more thoughts about the whole teacher issue, some of which may be offensive. So, true to form, I'll start with the most offensive statement:

The best and brightest high school and college students usually do not become teachers.


Keep in mind that I did not make an absolute blanket statement about ALL teachers. If you are a teacher who disagrees with this statement, particularly as an absolute, you are probably a part of the minority as a teacher who WAS a very high achiever in high school and college.

Consider, also, that there just isn't enough incentive for "top talent" to go into teaching. Not when there are so many other career options that offer potential for growth, more prestige, more money, and a lot less nonsense.

Different schools with different types of students require different types of teachers.

If you have a conversation with a teacher about his school climate, you will either get an answer about why that type of school is preferred or why he would like to be elsewhere. Many teachers who like teaching in urban settings will tell you that they like to be in a place where they feel needed. But then, there are issues in urban schools and even some suburban schools that other teachers prefer to bypass.

People who know nothing about education will swoop in and proceed to treat the teachers like children.

Come on. You know it's true. Have you been to an in-service brought to you by some outside company? Have you been to an in-service where they say the same thing over and over again?

Okay, enough about that.

Nurses sometimes have the same sets of complaints as teachers. Not surprisingly, nursing and education have been traditionally women's jobs. Nurses do horrific amounts of work and have huge amounts of patient contact. Nurses don't get paid nearly what they are worth.

But the way that nurses, and teachers, do their jobs and continue to perform despite the difficulties is that they care about the people who really matter--the patients, and the students. It takes very special people to become nurses. A certain kind of intelligence is required...and we've noticed that it's not necessarily something that can be learned. Some have it; some don't. Same goes for teachers. Intelligence alone isn't what gets the job done.

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

Actually a lot of people I went to H.S. with that were in the top of the class became teachers. I'm really not sure what is wrong with them(us)...there's got to be something. lol I know what you mean though. Those with "more potential" can do and make much more than a teacher.

All the issues with education has been frustrating. A lot of people just don't "get it." They don't know what it's like. Kids are changing - values, morals, priorities, etc. Unlike many professions, teaching is two-way process. We cannot force kids to learn. Students have to do their part and, unfortunately, many aren't.

It's insane what teachers are having to go through. I'm at an Elementary school and our discipline has gone to...well nothing. Major issues not being dealt with by administration (ie teacher's hit, knife at school, threats to bring guns, sexual harassment, etc) I had a nightmare that I was attacked by a student. This is just one of the many things our teachers get to deal with.

I get tired of everyone wanting to blame the teacher for kids not learning. We have kids K-1 that don't know their first and last name. My 2 year old can say her first and last name. Everyone wants to find an easy "blame," but not look at the whole system to find the problem. There are MANY problems, as you know, and they are not all the teachers.

Sorry...I'm done ranting. :) :)