"The personal is political" is a phrase that really allows the mind to consider issues in almost any subject, elementary schools' "specials" being taken away is no acception. As a former cadet teacher, I wittnessed the politics in elementary schools to control the overall atmosphere and learning environment for the children, and working environment for the teachers. The state standards that teachers are required to meet at the end of every year have grown into such a long list that there is little time to do anything extra for the children, this is not because the teachers don't feel these extras are important anymore, but someone higher up then them has. It is unfortunate that politics control so many of the decisions made for the children however, because their knowledge of working with children and helping them best accomplish goals is very minimal I would guess. Each classroom teacher would better be able to assess the most effective way to teach his or her group of children, this would allow a more personal take on education rather than the broad view that every teacher in every school should be able to teach the same way, and have the same effect on students. Personal attention to each student may also be getting cut as jobs get cut because of the bad economy. When aid's such as special ed or reading specialists jobs are being taken away, so is the extra attention for those children who need it. Once again politicians are taking away jobs that they see as needless, because they are not the ones in the schools everyday to see how helpful these positions are to the children. Without these extra aids, children who need extra attention and care will fall behind at no fault to their teacher, but because politics would not allow them the extra push they needed to succeed.
Elizabeth, my children had a great fourth grade teacher, who stayed after school every single day for about two hours working with kids who were having various challenges. In addition to this, she planned all manner of extra-curricular projects during the year including a wonderful trip to Chicago. Do you believe that teachers should be willing to give up "personal" time to make up for the extras that they don't have the time to give their students during the school day?
ReplyDeleteStudent aids and collorabtion with teachers are needed in order for success in the classroom. Teachers cant always do everything on their own,so a little extra help is wonderful from time to time. I agree that politics have no idea about the classroom and all the resources needed because they are all about money and they dont have to teach the students. But what they have forgotten is that a teacher helped them to where they are today. Without a teacher they wouldnt have had the common knowlege or any extra to do what they needed to do to succeed.
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