Saturday, 21 March 2009

• Currently The First Days Of School: How To Be An Effective Teacher By Harry K. Wong; Rosemary T. Wong see related

  In The Midst of It All

  I'm back to seeing things at least more done than they have been and can relax a bit for now. Things like Spring Break allow that from time to time. There is still a lot of writing that needs to be done, a couple of appointments to be kept, and still another seven weeks of teaching before summer vacation hits. Still, all is well. Or at least I believed it to be so.
  
  In the midst of my busiest time ever in college, I received an e-mail from a 'friend' here on Xanga. Those of you who know me and those of you who have taken time to understand me know that I just do not ever bracket that word to set it aside because I simply tend to love people and consider them my friends until they prove otherwise. I just wasn't sure how to take the words given me in the e-mail and I began to question myself and the goal at hand. I reached out and sought advice to make sure I really was who I thought I was. I know that is clear as mud but let me explain.
  
  The writer wrote:
  
  "I know that this is a cultural  thing over there; to carry on amassing qualifications long after they can be of any use.
   
  

  I know someone else who is literally killing herself as you are; and for what?
  
  When all that skill and caring and energy is so needed in a hurting world.
  
  Just makes no sense any more.

   

  My own qualifications are high and all the skills are used and hourly; there would thus be no point, except for some kind of ??self?? thing of studying any more.

   

  Not at our age, when all our accumulated wisdom can be passed on pure and simple.

   

  And if it is for self?

   

  How is that of Jesus?"

  
  To which my response is: Attaining an education in our country is mandatory to teach. A Master's Degree is almost the norm and certainly almost mandatory these days to enter a classroom. To even suggest that the qualifications I seek are of no use at my age is WRONG. Hiring guidelines nation wide call for instructors to be "Highly Qualified".
  
  When I walk into a classroom every morning, I straighten the desks and wipe them down. At the same time, I pray for each child who will sit in them throughout the day and because my room is set up by assigned seating, I pray for them all by name. Yes, of my 117 students, I know their names and I know the many problems they face every day, at home and at school. My students have suffered the deaths of parents this year, of brothers and sisters, of grandparents. They enter the classroom every day with old as well as new challenges.
  
  I know nothing of what others may do in their reaching out to a hurting world, but I have led mission teams to rebuild inner city schools to reach out to other hurting children and find the work to be gratifying and worthwhile. I have spent a week writing a year's lesson plans to serve a school being founded out of the ashes of another and using the only supplies they had left to do the work.
  
  Passing on accumulated wisdom is not something pure and simple in today's world. In the United States, teachers have had to hold licensure to teach for well over 100 years. My grandmother began to teach at the age of 14 in a one-room schoolhouse in Indian Territory and the exam she had to take lasted over three days. She began teaching in 1886 and taught for over thirty years.
  
  As for "??self??", with job scarcity at the moment (it was announced yesterday that unemployment in Tennessee has hit 9.3%), a lack of funding to hire new teachers, and the cost of the education for which I am paying (education in our country is far from free), I must accept the following as my own reasons behind what I do. My paycheck will never be large. My students will always be in need of prayer. But if something in one of my lessons  turns out to be the word that saves one child from dying young in an alley or, worse yet, a lifetime of ignorance or lack of caring, then every thing I do, share, or teach will be worth every dime and minute of it.
  
  I also sought the thoughts of other teachers regarding what they thought of this "??self??" suggestion. They were appalled. "Self" indeed. Teaching is a calling of God and one with which I bring Jesus into the classroom daily. To those who will say that prayer is forbidden in the classroom, you have never taught 117 eighth graders in a day and done it every day for five days straight. Believe me, teachers pray. A LOT!
  
  

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