I left the classroom, after teaching second grade for 6 years, in 2014. I left because of atrocious leadership—like seriously abusive to an unbelievable extent. I would sit in the faculty meetings in shock but also a little entertained. Remember the staff meetings from The Office where Michael was completely inappropriate? Yeah, like that, though sometimes our ED would target a specific teacher and lay into them, red-faced, raised voice, and shaming—those times were less amusing. Once I’d done all I could to try to shift the culture of the school—to no avail—I left with somewhat of a lame plan, knowing I could no longer tolerate the toxic environment.
Here’s the deal: I couldn’t be more grateful for that guy. Had he not been a tyrant, I think I would have spent many more years forcing myself into a painful box that was breaking me. Though I couldn’t have explained it at the time, it was breaking me because I was breaking them—the kids I mean. There was a nagging feeling that things shouldn’t be so hard. And as far as school teachers go, I was a darn good one. Parents of my former students still stop me at the grocery store or when I’m out and about to tell me that they miss me as their child’s teacher. But here’s the deal; when 7 year-old children enter second grade believing that learning sucks, we’re doing something terribly wrong.
It’s not the teachers’ faults for the most part. Many manage to confer lots of relevant and useful learning to their students which is a miracle based on the system we’ve created where most of what kids are learning is how to be a questionable human. As a recovering school teacher who has spent lots of time researching and thinking about this topic, not only have I come to the conclusion that school is the root of most of our social problems, but it’s also at the heart of our health crisis.
This is Post One of a 60-day blogging challenge. There are really no rules to the challenge except to publish something every day. I plan to mostly get my thoughts on this topic out of my head, but there may be an occasional unrelated post. (Though I’m not even sure that’s possible. My kids tease me that I can bring everything that’s wrong with the world back to school. It’s true—and it’s easier than Kevin Bacon to get there in 6 degrees of separation or less.) My current plan for tomorrow is to present an outline of the ways that school is crippling children and I will follow that with posts that go into more detail about each of the listed ways.
Yes, I know that this is a provocative topic. I’ve tried to temper my disdain and find more positive ways to share my ideas, but this is where I obsess so it’s the easiest content for me to produce. There are existing solutions to our current schooling problems, but they’re, of course, out the box and most parents won’t consider them because we’ve been so effectively schooled ourselves. Still, I feel compelled to share in the hopes of inspiring action toward a better way.
Restoring Justis 