“Arbolist… look up the word. I don’t know; maybe I made it up. Anyway, it’s an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees.” — George Bush, as quoted in USA Today, August 21, 2001.
This is a fairly typical quote from our current president, and fitting for the man who is proud of the No Child Left Behind Act, or, as it is known in educational circles, the Test Till There’s No Time to Teach Act.
Yesterday was an inservice day, rather than a day off, for most of our teachers, and we saw a lot of them, but many were feeling rather bitter. Many had spent the day being reminded of the main focus of teaching nowadays: practicing for the test. “Why listen to us? We’re just teachers,” as one put it. Many said things like “It’s ridiculous” and “It’s so stupid,” and I knew just what they meant. The Poster Queen was out sick, so it was too busy for much unpacking. It was more a matter of helping to find materials that would allow some elements of actual teaching to slip into the classroom without getting the teacher into too much trouble. It bothers me, too, that all these children are having to watch their teachers fudge, jump through hoops, and do things they know are wrong (and often tell the kids so, too). What message does that give the kids about honor? It reminds me to appreciate my job.
One unusual person who came to the store yesterday was Son-in-Law’s grandmother, returning a book I had loaned her. It was The Yarn Girls Guide, which I had taken to her rather apologetically when I couldn’t find my Vogue Knitting Hats and Caps book. She had already made three hats from it, and bought herself a copy, so forget what I might have said about that book being only for the young, new knitter. Fortunately, I had the VK book with me, having found it and planned to drop it by her house. So we made our book trade and she told me how much she loved my daughter and I told her how much I loved her grandson and a good time was had by all. Or at least by the two of us.
And, speaking of grandmothers, Ozarque (who is an authority on the subject) is having a lively discussion on the subject of grandparents here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/ozarque/
My girlfriend, who is a 7th grade science teacher, and I were discussing over the weekend how it seems that children are not being truly taught anymore. Here they are taught only to do well on the CSAP test, as Colorado schools are judged by the test scores. My youngest son works himself into stomachaches because of tests, I’ve offered to homeschool him but he says he likes getting to play with his friends at school and he likes some of the classes. I think that teachers have one of the most difficult jobs, and it’s a very honorable job. It would be nice if the government would be supportive of education, especially since it is our future.
I have always thought that the most important job in the world was being a parent, the second-most, being a teacher. From 7 to 18 yrs old my goal was to become a teacher. I got into Teacher’s College just before my 18th birthday and left three weeks after I started. Seeing the mess our NZ education system is in I am so glad I got out.
Presbyterian emphasis on education is the calling card of Dn. Settled by presbyterian Scots, first university in NZ, first secondary school in Dn (Otago Boys’ High), at least one primary school in each suburb. Although not a churchgoing family my siblings and I had to attend Sunday School as youngsters – my parents belief being that to make a choice about religion we needed to know a little about our nominative religion – we were at a presbyterian Sunday School.
Although we went to state schools we had religious education at primary and secondary school level (this is no longer the case in NZ unfortunately) and, as a child living in Auckland I was good friend with our neighbour’s son. The neighbours were Catholic and my friend and I spent many an interesting hour sitting on the grass in the Auckland sun discussing the differences between catholicism and protestanism. He was 12, I was 9.