Posts Tagged ‘english teachers’
Waiting for Superman: A Teacher’s Perspective
The film begins quietly. We are aware more of the silence than the lilting piano strokes that sound every 10 seconds. A father drives his son to school. The father is the narrator of “Waiting for Superman” and also its director, Davis [...]
What Happens Two Months Into the School Year
I am scathingly certain the following circumstances I am about to describe are unique solely to low-income public schools. If I am wrong, forgive me, because I cannot imagine any other institution supposedly dedicated to education executing such [...]
Education’s Dirty Little Secret
Imagine the following scenario. After two years of working at Bank of America, your boss tells you that it would be almost impossible for him to fire you. From here on out, your salary will crawl along a painfully slow path that never reaches [...]
Little Differences in Preparation
My buddy turned 30 on Saturday, and he had a party. He teaches in one of the most affluent school districts in the Bay Area. I teach in one of the poorest. When we get together, I love listening to his unbelievable stories. They are so crazy I [...]
My Boy Arthur, Who Can’t Pass Algebra
I had this kid in my 10th grade “Strategic” class, we’ll call him Arthur. Strategic is what we call sheltered at my school, at your school it’s probably just as strategically named to try to unsuccessfully hide from the students the fact [...]
Should I Be Allowed to Beat My Students With an Enormous Wooden Paddle?
I just read an article "To Paddle or Not to Paddle Students" on CNN. This is crazy, and yes, this article was just written today, in the year 2010.Over 200,000 kids were BEAT last year in the United States of America because they misbehaved in [...]
Commenting on Racism
I play in a Fijian soccer league. The league has a rule that each team can field 4 non-Fijians per game. So I am one of the four, the other seven are Fijian, the five guys on the bench are Fijian, the coaches are Fijian, and all of the fans lined up [...]
A Student Pulls Out a Knife: What Do You Do?
Photography by Jeremy SchulzSomething happened to a good friend of mine during the last week of school. He is an amazing teacher working in the ghetto, and this story is sadly one that isn’t too uncommon. We’ll call my friend Mr. [...]
Accepting the Fact That Nothing Will Ever Change
On the last day of school I was talking to a colleague of mine. I was telling her how even now, at the end of the year, I’m really looking forward to next year. She was delighted. She thought we should all be looking at every year in that light. [...]
Ending the Year on a Real Note
With all the pink slips going out this year, I can’t help but being reminded of a story my mentor told me about when she first began her teaching career. She received her first pink slip in the mail from our district “Postage Due.” That’s [...]