Gender

Female

Location

Norfolk, NE

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I was fascinated by the email I received from Mr. H. It encapsulated and expressed clearly what I’ve always believed about school. It expressed what I know in my heart and gut about our education system. I was lucky. I understood the game and it’s rules early on. I got it. I did well at school. Others I know did not. I understood it so well that I became a teacher to help others play along. I taught ESL (English as a Second Language) for 23 of my 26 years as a public school teacher in rural Nebraska. I taught immigrant children what school was about. I ultimate taught them how to conform to a foreign society. Sometimes the students also got. Others didn’t believe themselves capable of jumping through all the hoops. Too many gave up on themselves and quit school early. Breaks my heart. Ultimately school is about conformity to the rules - written and unwritten. My son was not always a “conform-er.” At home his parents taught him how to do school, but so many of his friends weren’ts seen as one of the “good learners” and I saw many of them think that school was a mandatory thing to suffer through - to get by. They graduated and then most of their parents kicked them out of the house. They didn’t do well at school either. These songs and daughters were forced to pay rent, and work at low-paying jobs that barely got them through the month’s expenses. They were “good” kids who might have done better, but never had a mentor to show them the ropes, as it were. I see so many young people sell themselves short of succeeding in the game because their parents didn’t either. I met a lot of frustrated, mistrustful parents at parent/teacher conferences. They hated school when they were in it. School was out to get them and their children. As a teacher, I found myself having to conform to whatever education theory was praised at the moment. When our school adopted APL I couldn’t follow it or accept it. It didn’t conform to my idea of how to help my students. My last year as a teacher, administrators told all the teachers say our gathering before school began that the older teachers who didn’t adopt APL would not have a job at their school. I resigned that spring-5 years or so before I could have retired. I’d lost the game. I will never put myself through it in another brick and mortar school. I get physically ill at the idea. I’m now teaching Chinese students English online. It’s a beautiful thing. Still there are the rules to follow, but it all works for me. I teach one on one children whose parents pay for my class. They choose me. It’sa whole ‘mother ballgame. That’s enough to maybe show you where I’m coming from.

You are a:

Parent, Teacher

About you:

I received my BAE degree in education with emphasis in English and Spanish in 1987. In 1993 I received my MAE in British and American literature in 1993. I taught at a couple high schools for a total of 5 years before accepting the job at my last post which lasted 23 years. I taught high school Spanish and ESL. I am married for 32 years to my hubby whose a banker. Our son just graduated last December from university and hasn’t found a job in the area that he studied-yet.