Last Friday I had my first substitute teaching gig in the Greater Boston area (the school shall remain nameless). It was a pre-K special education class with two teacher’s aids. One of them took the lead and I just sat back and did as I was told throughout the day.
Overall, it was a good experience. I happened to come in on the one day of the month when they celebrate the corresponding teachers’ birthdays. Needless to say, there were plenty of sweets and cakes and yummy goodies. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong day to start having breakfast before work (boo).
I felt like a fish out of water most of the time. The teachers were 45 years and older, and they seemed to have been doing this forever. This just seemed like THE place to be for women between 45 and 65 who have children. I wonder where all the women my age are. Are there careers where women in their late-20s/early-30s conglomerate? Where are you, girls???
In the classroom, the slow pace of the class was driving me crazy! I am and probably always will be an extremely energetic type A personality, and I really felt like we could have made the class far more educationally entertaining and dynamic for these 4-year-olds. They definitely need to burn off some energy themselves, and sitting around "drawing" on outlined shapes did not really challenge them. I put "drawing" in quotation marks because most of them were not even encouraged to use more colors or draw withing the lines. They literally just scratched the outlined figured with a single crayon back and forth. Now, I’m not one to judge on what constitutes "art" and "freedom of expression," but kids are there to LEARN. If nobody ever encourages them to try different things and approaches, do they ever expand their skills and knowledge at all? Maybe the teachers could have them draw on two figures: one within the lines and try to copy a model (for hand and color coordination skills, as well as following directions), and another one whatever way they see fit (encouraging their creativity).
One thing is for sure: kids have very malleable minds. If you set expectations high, they will stretch to try to meet those goals. If you set expectations low, they will remain in their comfort zone and never really challenge themselves. In other words, and pardon my candor: treat kids like morons, and you will raise morons.
One clear example was when the main aid asked another aid whether she had ever used the laminating machine. The other aid, who is a high school senior, said no, but that she could easily figure it out. For the record, I believe her. The main aid said, "mm, no, I better show you." It is NOT rocket science! It is that kind of hand holding that makes for very "comfortable" and unchallenged kids. I could tell the high school senior felt the same way as I did about it.
Those were just a couple of the things that I had an opinion about (oh yes, there’s more!). At one point in the day, the main aid asked us for what word, besides "Kite", could we think of for the kids to learn about the letter "K" in an upcoming class — does anybody else find it strange/silly/stupid that the figure they used for the letter E was a guy with a shirt that said "Ed", and for the letter "I" it was a monkey which, apparently, was scratching an ITCH? — The other aid came up with "Kangaroo" which I thought was a great one. The main aid dismissed it and asked us to keep thinking. "Kitten" was out, because the kids had already learned about "Cat." We couldn’t think of anything else, so I asked her what was wrong with Kangaroo after all? Her answer: "oh, I can’t cut out a kangaroo in construction paper…" !???! Are you telling me that the future leaders of this country will not be able to learn about kangaroos because YOU can’t DRAW a kangaroo???? She is a 65-year-old woman who has been teaching small kids for 27 years, and at this point is simply unable to meet the demands of the job. I asked the aid if she needed help with that, and I proceeded to draw and cut out 25 kangaroos for the next class project. The problem here is that it is EXTREMELY difficult for unionized teachers in Massachusetts to get fired, and they will not leave until they can realize their full pension potential upon retirement. And THAT is the formula to the failure of the school system in the US. That, my friends, is how you end up with burnt-out individuals who have been repeatedly doing the exact same thing over 20, 30 and 40 years in some cases. Check out this article in the Boston Globe. It describes what the state is doing to make strides towards higher quality of education, despite the unions.
Anyways, it was only my first class and I was there playing second fiddle (actually, more like third, since there were 2 more senior aids). I wonder what it would be like to lead my own classroom and have full say on how the lessons play out. Would that be fun? Exhausting? Would I get sick of it quickly? Would I hate the fact that I would get no recognition or rewards from my "bosses"?
As I was leaving, I said goodbye to the teachers, who were incredibly kind to me, and really considered whether this is a life I would like to lead. I don’t have these answers yet… but I’ll keep you posted 🙂
Are you a teacher or have you had experience in this? What is your opinion of the current school system?
ina