Our Corrupt School System

I cried today. I cried because of so many stressful things. I cried because of the realization that becoming a teacher is not all that I hoped it would be. I cried because even in college graduate classes, the curriculum is not catered toward poor college waitresses that work 14 hour days on the weekends. I cried because I need a good grade in this one class to get my teaching certificate, that's it, just this one, and I've already missed two assignments because of scheduling and assignment conflicts. I cried because I want to be one of those teachers that inspire students, that teach them life-long learning, and provide them with creative meaningful lessons...but that is just not the way our school system is set up. 

I cried because I wanted to quit, and I haven't even got started.

I found this video that explains my frustrations perfectly. It is from the viewpoint of an older, more experienced teacher, who has started, and tried, and found that a corrupt school system got in his way. He is quitting. It makes me wonder, if I'm going to be faced with the same problems, should I just quit before I start?

Everything he said in the beginning of his letter, about wanting to make a difference and produce life-long learners, is exactly what would be in the letter in my resume. Excited to start a teaching job, I would have written every word of how I want to change the world in my resume. I have volunteered at elementary schools and he describes them perfectly, "You can't play at recess because you were disruptive in class" and "It's getting too loud in this lunchroom". Field trips and guest speakers were non-existent. I've even had trouble in my graduate classes making lesson plans, because what I want to teach, what I think students will learn meaningful things from, are not in the state standards for that grade level.

It's understandable that the first designers of curriculum thought, we need to place the range of middle and high school curriculum from the easiest concepts to the hardest, or from the beginning of history to current times. In social studies alone, the curriculum progresses through a time line. World History is learned in 3rd grade, 6th grade, and 9th grade. American History is learned in 5th grade, 8th grade, and 11th grade. As well, each of these subjects of history are taught in different classes. No kid will ever learn in school that World History connects to American History in any way. Furthermore, by the time we teach and reteach kids in all the different histories, there is no time for now. No time to talk about the present, current issues and trends, where we are headed in the future, where we will be if we continue on this path. When I was taught in school, the school's grades culminated with American History...like we were the answer to all the problems that were experienced in the whole of human history. As much as history also included the history of scientific thinkers, history of innovators, history of women, history of blacks and Spanish-speaking people, history of influential people, historians, how we find out about our human history, biographies of people who changed history...I did not learn any of that. I learned about political and economic systems, not about the political and economic systems of tribal people or of China or India or Europe, but about the American political and economic system and why it "works so well".

Now, forgive me for not being optimistic but I am a college graduate, with a Bachelors in Anthropology, a minor in Studio Art, and a with a teaching certification and a Gifted Education endorsement almost completed. I have a 3.8 GPA. I have been in college for 8 years now. I am still a waitress at two restaurant jobs. My best friend Katie is 32 years old. She has a Finance degree, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. She got a restaurant waitress job when she was struggling through college, she couldn't find a finance job so she continued working there in order to pay off the loans and debt that college had accrued. She is still there 10 years later. Things haven't gotten better for us or anyone. Schools are so set on kids "making the grade" on high-stakes tests so they could look good, but what do students get out of it? 

Students get skills to get through college quickly, to ace tests, to read 40 pages of textbook each week, to write 8 page papers, to get everything handed in on time, to get high grades and GPA's....but not to learn valuable information, not to produce a great resume, not to get experience in your job field that could be put on a resume, not to learn how to do tax returns, take out mortgages, or get out of debt, not to collaborate with others, not to communicate your views.  

Everything that is needed to succeed in life is left out of school. The school system teaches students how to succeed in school...not in reality. School is not going to be reality forever. Eventually there will come a time when one must leave school and be independent and self-sufficient. School does not prepare for this time, and students are left floundering in the real world without the help of a mentor or teacher. They are forced to start at the lowest bottom, because employers will not look twice at their resume that states "No experience, but I have a 3.8 GPA and I can write papers about topics and can ace tests" The employer shuffles the application into their stack and mutters "Who cares?"

In reading class you are taught to separate fact from opinion. Students are taught to separate and discard the opinion of the author and look at just the facts. Fact might tell you something completely different than someone's opinion. But fact is ALWAYS more accurate than opinion. No one attempts to see that opinions are based off fact. Opinions are based on the author's fact, how the author sees the fact or situation from their point of view.

We only perpetuate and support systems that work for us. 

Does that sound like a fact? That may lead a student to conclude, "The fact is that our educational system is working just fine, because we keep perpetuating it and supporting it just the way it is" and a teacher who is knee-deep in the educational system says to the student "I don't think the system is working".

Who would you believe?