Saturday, July 10, 2010

Coffee, slide rules, and educated children



What matters?

If a child had true control over her education, and she truly understood what matters, would she sit in my class?

Ah, yes, interesting question, but it is our job as
the wise teachers to help her understand what matters....


Do we? Would you risk your livelihood by doing what's in the best interest of our children?

Of course, we're professionals, we are advocates,
can you not hear our self-righteous chest-beating?


Do you proctor state tests you noisily condemn in the faculty lounge?

Ah, well, yes, I see your point, but that's really out of our hands.

What would a well-educated, thinking young adult look like in my classroom?
Would I recognize her?

Ah, yes, the problem child, the one in black
reading Dante's Inferno, not even pretending to hide the book.

I once told a bright, fascinating student reading an interesting book that she needed to learn to be more discrete in the classroom.

Are we creating the kinds of adults we need to create?





Kids start drinking coffee in high school.
We don't use slide rules anymore, we use far more powerful tools.
What are we doing?

2 comments:

Mr. P said...

I enjoy reading your blog. I am a new biology teacher in one of the toughest schools in the country, and will next year be delving fully into delivering biology to students who are already far behind grade level. I look forward to future posts.

Mr. P

doyle said...

Dear Mr. P,

Thanks for the words, and good luck teaching! It's a lot of fun, a lot of work, a lot of sweat, and most important, it matters.