A teacher of only a few years called me last week with a question. She gave me permission to post it here for your thoughts.
"It's painful to see my colleagues in such stress. What's worse it feels like the kids are the ones that pay for it." She talked of meetings and faculty lunchroom talk that was negative about kids and their parents. As one whose family had struggled with job loss and frequent moves when she was growing up, she knew how hard times affected kids, families, and their relationship with school. She didn't feel comfortable talking with colleagues in the building about this but she thought she could let kids in her class know she'd been there too. She didn't know if this would open up a can of worms, if she should just stick with the curriculum, or if she had a responsibility to talk about hard times with her students. What do you think?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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I think that she should go ahead and share and edit as necessary. Too often, teachers feel the need to portray themselves as these all knowing, perfect beings who talk down to students. Kids respond so much better to us aseducators when they see that we are also people with our own set of challenges.
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