Sub Vision - Returning to work - Chapter 2

 

My previous post described my journey to returning to school after one year of retirement, a journey that started May 2021, and was still going on a year later. In January 2022, I was invited to what I thought was a final interview, to find out that my long one hour trip, each way, was just to submit forms to a lady behind a thick glass, but I was promised that it is just a matter of days now.

So I waited a week, then a second week, and when the third week ended with no signs of communication, I touched base with my latest contact person. It was already mid-February, and I was scheduled to start a jury duty in few days. When, at last, I heard back from them I was well into my jury duty time, followed by few weeks of medical appointments. However, I didn’t waste time, and attempted to complete the next necessary step - some pre-requisite training.

Now, a new adventure started. For some reason the system would not let me log in to the training site. Thus a new, long, correspondence and phone calls, with an extended list of officials, had begun. I was bounced back and forth between the different departments:  IT, HR, Health Office (theorizing that I didn’t upload my vaccination card), Community Health, and supervisors of all the above, alongside with intensive text conversations with a well-intentioned HR employee.

The whole ordeal lasted until May, but with a special permission to postpone my training until the issue is resolved, I was allowed to start working in April. I am still not sure what was the source of the problem, or how it was eventually resolved, but apparently one powerful nurse was able to unblock my access to the training. How and why? I am not sure.

By the time I was able, at last, to start working I was as nervous as if I had never worked before, or been to any of those schools. However, the welcome I received compensated for all the frustration. I found my friends; was delighted to discover that almost every person I care for was still there, including those who told me two years earlier that they would retire. At another school I had a nice lunch reunion with collogues, and here and there reconnected with acquaintances. Best of all –the cafeterias were still the same, run by the same kind ladies, with a c55 coffee and $2.50 lunch, a generous 20 minutes nutrition break and 30-35 lunch break. What else do I need?

Well, I still needed to be paid, of course. Not surprisingly, a new issue surfaced there too. I first assumed that it was related to the previous issue, but when it was not resolved I was wondering what next. This time, however, it was an easy fix. My phone call was answered by an actual person, who was patient enough to listen to my story and knew exactly what to do. It so happened that my previous employee number that worked well for all other functions, was not good for the payroll, and schools needed to use a new assigned number to pay me. Strange, but an easy fix.

Now I was completely ready! Almost a whole year later… And only two short months before summer vacation...

Sub Vision: Graduation 2020

 

It had been a rough year of pandemic and political turmoil... a year that I would have liked to be in a classroom, serving as the educator I wanted to be…

Through the first semester of the 2019-20 school year, before the pandemic had started, I knew that soon I will have to choose my approach to work. It was good to have preferred schools, and be their preferred substitute, yet I wished to be able to select only assignments that I desire and not compromise with schools’ terms.

I realized that while deciding on a new path, retirement seem a reasonable option; quitting and waiting out the cooling period of six months, and then returning to jobs that I prefer to do. But the routine kept me going…

It all came to a halt when we were hit by the pandemic, and with almost no warning schools have closed their doors. As we thought it was temporary and will be over soon, we waited for few weeks, then few months, but as graduation came closer we realized that this is the way 2019-20 school year will be manifested.

It was exciting, yet heart breaking, to see graduation turn into a parade of cars, and diplomas handed through a window. I can imagine seniors’ disappointment staying home instead of becoming kings and queens of the campus, enjoying special activities, festivities, recognition. Exceptional and memorable graduation as it was, never has been like that, never (hopefully) will be, it was an agonizing letdown.  

As summer was drawing to an end and virtual learning seemed to be the only way, I decided the time is right to quit and wait for a better time to be a teacher, or a sub.

I still love teaching math, and still wish one day to be able to show the light to those confused math learners, who say they’ll never understand the subject.

During the long months of staying home I developed a plan for teaching algebra in a logical, commonsense method, with the expectation of using it one day through the right channel, private of established.

I do hope to get back to a school, even only as a volunteer, to do just that …

  

Sub Vision: School Closure 4: The Graduating Class

The graduating class, that I will probably not see before they graduate and before they leave school, includes a variety of students that I came to be attached to over the years at my favorite school, and I will miss them…

There is a whole group of students from the special education program, smart, nice, polite and friendly. I have known most of them since they were in 9^th grade and noticed how they grew up over the years… Eduardo, Randy, Samantha, Emmanuel, Nicole, Luis are only some of the faces I am going to miss.

There is a girl in that group that I can’t think of her name but can clearly see her face. She was quiet and reserved, and during her first few years was often absent from class, but projected a strong character. She became teachers’ favorite in her senior year; teachers bestowed responsibilities on her and granted her privileges.

Then there is a student who was in a science class that I taught, an artist, who kept drawing in every class, regardless of the subject. I saw him at a computer art class few weeks before closure, still drawing on paper, not using computer art tools…

Another bunch is a troop of mid-eastern students who are both annoying and charming at the same time, doing the most irritating things. When they are in my class they walk around and talk to each other, shake hands with friends, and find an excuse to leave the class. When I am in a different classroom they pop in their heads and disrupt the order... They call my name during break and pretend it didn’t happen. They recently discovered my phone number and call me with a fake ID… And yet they are charming, cool, and funny enough, they think that I am cool…

There is this student that I remembered from his middle school, and not for a good reason. He had long blond hair and was rude and disruptive. When I tried to show familiarity, he sarcastically rejected my friendliness. Then he started 11^th grade and he changed, working at a nearby supermarket, he became a mature, serious student. His manners became polite, and even his haircut turned short and civilized.

And then, there is this cute boy who was in a 9^th grade math class where I helped a new teacher. He kept appearing at my side as I walked the school holes, checking if I still remember his name, always carrying a big book, dreaming of a big career.

I hope to see some of them in the community college, where I, sometimes, take a class. I would probably not recognize them, but hopefully they would recognize me…

Sub Vision: School Closure 3 - Social Distancing

During the last week of school before the closure, we started to be aware of social distancing, but not quite.

On the last day I worked at school, I was at one of my favorite classes, with one of my favorite assistants, and after a short hesitation we hugged. Later that day, at lunch, I saw a friend, a teacher, and this time I hesitated a little longer as I know her to be quite anxious about germs, but she did not seem to mind a hug. There were six of us at a small lunch room, around a small table, not too aware or worried about social distancing.

In one instance that day, when I worked at a different part of the school where I seldom go, I saw a staff member I haven’t seen in a while. When I offered a hug I noticed a clear hesitation, and this time I thought that I should be more careful not to make people uncomfortable invading their space.

Everything has drastically changed few days later. Schools were closed. People were distancing. Neighbors stopped casual meeting, friends stopped socializing. Media warned us not to get close to anyone, and I started to take it seriously.

Students are now at home, as well as all my friends from school. Occasionally we text each other, or talk, nostalgically, about our fun routine gatherings. We know it will be a while before we congregate for another casual lunch break. Ironically, now even the most frustrating working moments at school are remembered fondly.

I am paid for doing nothing, and feel guilty about that. What about students’ families, many of whom cannot afford staying at home and missing a paycheck? Hopefully feeding programs will continue, but would it be enough? And what about their other needs?

It is a strange and worrisome time, where wonderful people are doing wonderful things, especially health workers, and all I am doing is staying at home and worrying… And at a time when everyone needs at least few warm hugs a day, we are all asked to shelter in place and social distance…

Sub Vision: Dear Substitute Teacher

 It is the start of a new school year and whether you are excited to go back to work or wish you had a longer vacation, your summer vacation will probably last a little longer, as most teachers are still present in class. By the time calls start coming you will be mentally ready…

When that happens, be prepared with few items to help you in case you are sent to a class that is not ready for you. Think ahead of some activities that would occupy students in case they don’t have anything to do. Although many of them would not want to participate, some will, and it will make a difference.

I usually carry with me Sudoku to draw on the board and challenge students to solve it. If they are too lazy to copy it (occasionally I copy for them), some will be happy to do it on the board. You may also look for various brain puzzles. I recently found one with symbols representing expressions, and students really enjoy it...

Most classrooms are equipped with an electronic device that can run a movie. You may want to fetch few DVDs, as they are easy to carry. I usually bring a classic, not anything students would watch on their own, to introduce them to good old, yet entertaining, movies, like Charlie Chaplin’s or the Marx Brothers’.

For your own entertainment, bring something to read in case students are busy. Try not to use your cell phone, as it looks unprofessional. Reading a book or magazine will make you look professional, and will give students a good example. I usually carry with me the Time Magazine; it contains current news, fun facts and stories…

Take with you a snack and a bottle of water; you never know what the school cafeteria provides. Bring a hat in case you are to supervise an outside action, and a light sweater in case air-conditioning is too chilly.

Make sure you are cozy and mobile. Use a light handbag, comfortable shoes and be as self-sustained as possible; you may be at an unfamiliar school, or doing unplanned activity at the gym, out on the field, or in an office filing papers...

And my favorite… go to the cafeteria for nutrition and lunch (make sure you have few one dollar bills), and talk to someone; There is nothing as effective in relieving daily stress as talking to another adult who deals with similar situations...

Sub Vision: The Price of the Freedom to Choose

It is the dream of every full time employee to be able to choose, spontaneously, days to be absent from work. Working full time at a software company, and later as a full time teacher, I didn’t have that luxury. For a teacher, taking a day off, for any good reason, is often more of a headache than going to works…

As a substitute teacher, I do have this privilege. I can plan ahead my vacation days, and even decide not to accept a job the evening before, or the morning of. I don’t usually take advantage of that when I am committed to an assignment, but when I am on daily calls it is just too tempting to say ‘No’ to a job…

However, there is a price for that. A day not worked is a day not paid. It is hard to plan a schedule, as there is no guarantee to getting a job on the next day. So, I am left to gamble on my financial situation.

Many of our trips are coordinated by friends overseas, and according to their holidays and days off. It helps the expense of the trips since these are not necessarily at top US travel season, but then it costs workdays. A trip in September caused me to miss work at the start of the school year, and a second trip, carefully crafted not to miss quality time with my family here, and keep flight prices low, left me with only few working days both in November and in December.

I chose to travel at the end of November, thus working half of the month, enjoying Thanksgivings with my family, and then taking off, planning to return early enough in December to work for at least ten days.

It almost worked. I had a job planned for right after I arrived, and were hoping to work more on the following week, before the holidays’ vacation starts. However, I arrived at the midst of a bad fire season and school was cancelled, and the following week was finals week and my services were not needed...

It would have not been as alarming had it not been for the fact that I needed at least one working day a month to keep my health insurance, and I was worried I won’t get even that one day. Luckily, a friend had asked me to cover her class on the Monday of the last week of the semester. During the following days of finals, the phone was completely silent...

By Friday of that week, I realized I am now in a long stretch of school vacation that started on the week of Thanksgiving and would end after the first week of January… seven weeks of vacation, with only one day of work… (almost) by my choice…

Sub Vision: Calculation and Education

It was quite embarrassing… I was part of a group arranging a large tea party. The kitchen was crowded with many good willed individuals trying to help. Two of us were assigned to the tea preparation that included separating small thin bags, opening them up, pouring in a quarter cup of tea leaves, and sealing them with a curling iron…

Then came the real challenge… this time a mathematical one:

There are 105 cups in the water container. The right amount of tea per one gallon is half a cup of tea leaves. How many (1/4 cup) bags should we put in the water container?

I am sure it had to do with all the pressure around, the people, the time limit, the noise, getting ready for the big event, yet I don’t understand why I just could not figure out the right number of tea bags needed… The people around me were ready to accept any answer I came up with, and I got an OK for anything from 4 to 27 bags per container…

It took me a while but at last I came up with the right answer, confirmed by recalculation on the next day, at home. But back then I still doubted my calculation and was afraid the tea was too strong for all the older people participating, so I took out the bags as soon as the color seemed dark enough, and kept adding hot water to the containers…

Later on I learned that miscalculation was not the only problem with the tea; the water was not hot, tea distribution was not even, with no supply to some tables… but I was just thankful that no heart problems were reported… still I was bothered by my inability to solve this simple math problem, being a reasonably mathematically inclined person…

Interestingly enough, what grounded me at last was an old method that I have never learned at school, nor had I ever seen it being taught… I found it out by listening to a neighbor, (not an educated person), explaining it to another neighbor... He called it the ‘Triangle Value’, similar to proportion, but written differently, in a simpler way:

The top line (in my case) is:         1 gallon (water)  –  ½ a cup (tea leaves)

The second line is:                       6.5 gallons        -    X  cups

To find the X: multiply the value above the X by the value next to it, and divide it by the value diagonal to the X…

So… after so many years of education, and in education, what really helped me solve a real life math problem was a method I overheard from a neighbor… isn’t it interesting?

Yet, this is not the only time I resorted to methods and terms I did not learn at school. The basics for algebra and geometry I learned from my cousin. Understanding fractions, setting up equations and understanding their meaning, I learned from my grandfather… From my parents I learned values, logic, history, geography, politics, and much more…

Maybe we don’t need schools, after all, only good, informed, adults around us…

Ch 8 of 20: School Size

Have you heard of “a Bank too big to fail”? How about “a School too big to succeed”? I bet you have never heard this one, yet it reflects a sad reality…

Schools became industrial monsters with a mission to input as many students as possible and output them as fast as possible; preferably never beyond four years… what happens in between is a black box…

How do schools do that? How do they enter thousands of students through their gates and make sure that they do not entangle on their way out four years later? Well, this is a very big, well-oiled, machine that uses a huge amount of resources. With years of practice and history of experience, the system runs, technically, quite smoothly, but on the way to efficiency, it forgets its exclusive purpose – educating young people; it loses its human factor. Who has time for that?

Deans of discipline have tens of students lining up in front of their office every single day. Counselors never have enough time to catch up, being responsible for programming hundreds of students and for other endless duties, while their real job, counseling, is at the bottom of the list due to lack of time.

And what about teachers? Teachers at a public school see, typically, two hundred students a day! Imagine, first, trying to learn names of two hundred kids, and this is without counting those who come and leave, especially at the beginning of the school year. A good way to handle it is creating seating charts. It really helps, but it takes a long time to create, and even longer to maintain …

One of my yearlong assignments was teaching algebra to 9^th graders, replacing a teacher who left for maternity leave. It was the beginning of the school year and I had a pretty good start. However, as soon as I created seating charts, a special education teacher came to tell me that they are re-arranging class assignment for their students, and thus, number of students from each class had been replaced with new students… Few days later an administrator said that due to a crowding situation they are moving students around to create a satellite campus… again certain number of students were removed and others joined… Less than a week passed when another teacher announced that he is switching some of his students with mine so that he can continue a program that he started during the summer… By that time I realized that all my good students were replaced with not so good students, my seating charts are worthless, and it is going to be tough. And it was…

Even at classes that do not change that dramatically, sometimes it takes almost a whole semester to master all 200 names. At one school, where I started mid-year, teaching math lab to students who failed algebra, I had a tougher than usual time putting names and faces together. It was a new school, new material, and new students’ population, where, to my inexperienced eyes, many of them looked alike… To make it more confusing, some first names were similar, and even worse – numerous last names were the same. It took me almost the whole semester to learn who is who… At last, when I thought that I had it all figured out, all of a sudden I realized that during third period, there is a student that I could swear I had already seen at first period. I didn’t give it much thought until the next day when I had that same déjà vu. When, at last, I decided to check it out I discovered, to my great embarrassment, that these students were identical twins…

The amount of work that goes into monitoring two hundred students is quite impossible. A weekly quiz of only 5-10 problems, one minute each to check, becomes more than three hours job, without rechecking any. Add few rechecks, several notes and, of course, recording grades, and you have spent well over five hours a week checking just one tiny quiz. What about a chapter test every few weeks, a semi-final or final test? How about a project? An assay? And of course it will be nice to be able to check homework assignments from time to time, just spot checking, only twice a week… It will be eight AFTER HOURS hours!

It might not be the right place to talk about preparation since teachers have to do lesson plans regardless of number of students. It is, however, the place to mention that a teacher is supposed to create three different lesson plans – one for average students, one for the special need students that are probably part of your class, and one for the high achievers who need extra challenge. I don’t know too many teachers who actually do that on a regular basis, but this is what a teacher is expected to do!!! …And if you are in a teaching credentialing program, or some other program to upgrade your qualifications, (and teachers are always in one program or another), you are sure to be required to obey this rule…

So how did the system make this impossible time-frame possible? One of the most genius inventions of the twentieth century was the multiple-choice tests and the beloved scantron.  The happy noise of the scantron machine grading your students’ finals can be only compared to the noise of a gambling machine pouring rain of coins when you hit the winning combination (and they don’t even have those anymore L). Listening to the scantron doing the work for you and thus saving you hours and hours of work is just as exciting as winning big! Real big!

Yes, it is such an efficient tool – yet, with so many deficiencies… We are losing to its effortlessness a big part of teaching and learning. Using it, teachers are unable to see where students are mistaken, what part of the learning needs re-enforcement, and do students know the material or just guess the answers. To make it worse - we created a whole system that trains students in being good at guessing the right answer; a whole industry for teaching students how to work around the need of actually understanding the material, how to fake a knowledge… We teach them how to be successful test takers, not successful learners…

Do you think that students don’t get the message? You bet they do! They learn early in their school life that the main goal is to ace the test. They don’t bother too much with the journey, then, they just want a shortcut to the results. By the time they are in high school they are accomplished test swindlers… Seconds after receiving the test form, they already figure out how many versions the test has, and who is their best copying resource. They have more ways of doing that than we can imagine, including using technology. We, the teachers, joke that if students were only half as resourceful learners as they are swindlers, they would be ‘A’ students. Yes, the system is smart about mass evaluation, but students outsmart the system.

One of my colleagues tried a way to control different test versions. Being a very well organized person, he created color-coded versions. This method might have worked for him, having excellent class control, but it didn’t work quite as well for me. As soon as the students realized what the colors meant, a secret trade started immediately. As naïve as I was I didn’t catch the trade on time, and was quite surprised to find a pink next to a pink and green next to a green. It was not until I saw an actual trade happening in front of my eyes that I realized what was going on… students were making sure they have the same color as their resource …

I tried to outsmart the students by numbering all the tests and secretly coding the version (even numbers, numbers ending with 5). I don’t know that it worked. I suspect that, somehow, they managed to break the code (never underestimate students) but one thing is sure, it didn’t help my reputation with students…

Additional, interesting, comment about copying - it always surprised me that some students would rather copy a test from someone, anyone, and not try themselves …

Another masses nightmare is communicating with parents. To shield teachers from the need to meet with all 200 parents, frequent report cards are mandated, 8 report cards a year!  If you are not a teacher you don’t know how much work it involves. Every single grade has to be well thought and well documented; it is a very time consuming process that has to be done every 5 weeks! Is it a good system? Better than nothing, but the problem is that it cannot replace the value of meeting with parents face to face. For one thing – some parents never see those report cards. Their students have a way of hiding them. Others do not know the whole picture or cannot use their authority to push the student in the right direction, and when at last they realize how poor their student’s performance is, in many cases it is too late…

Some schools use automated phone system to inform parents about students’ absence from school or class. Some schools use automated calls to inform about bad behavior or academic problems… And yes, it is better than nothing… but in order to really solve problems and keep students on track there should be a direct communication between teachers and parents. But with all good intentions, it is not realistic for a teacher to call periodically every student’s home, let alone schedule a10 minutes meeting with 200 hundred parents, because 200 appointments times 10 minutes each, equals 2000 minutes… over 30 hours of extra work…

Ch 7 of 20: Books

Remember those light weighted books that our parents would buy us at the beginning of the school year? Well, maybe what I remember from a different country, in a different era, does not apply to my generation’s experience in the US, but I am sure someone remembers, even here, a time when a textbook was just that – a text book. Not an artistic creation with colorful pictures and short sophisticated clips, but just a book with text. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for enrichment of the mind and the senses, and teaching with open horizons is more than just a good idea… but…

How many students do you know that are looking at those additions just because they find them interesting? We do; the teachers, the parents, the adults who are holding the textbooks, but most of the children do not. “So what?” you would say – “if only one in a hundred students looks at the enriching part then it is well worth it…” And you may be right. However, this enrichment comes with a price… each text book weighs more than an average person can hold for several minutes… if I need to move two or three books at a time I really have a problem – and I am a fit adult who is able to handle more stress than many teachers I know. “Well, students are younger and stronger” you may claim, and you may be right again, but what happened when they have to carry five or six books that are just as heavy? My daughter suffers from backaches for years now, since she was in middle school. Being the ‘A’ student that she is, she carried all her books back and forth, as she was told to do, in a backpack that was as heavy as her skinny early teens figure… I used to watch her with pain as she carried those torturous heavy books, and I would frantically call the middle school office begging them to delay the school bus departure for several minutes so that students would have enough time to get to their lockers and get rid of the weighty burden at the end of the day, but of course my appeal was never listened to.  Yet, as a parent, I was quite impressed by the quality and richness of the textbooks, and considered their weight as a trade-off. I changed my mind when I became a teacher…

I realized that no one of my students had ever read or paid any attention to the extra information. Few of them might have found some of the information mildly interesting if I read it to them, and even that slight interest happened only in the higher-level classes. I found the over-loaded information too confusing for the average student, the pages too busy, and the important information too hard to find. My favorite Algebra and Geometry textbooks were two simple books that were assigned to me when I was teaching special education class on my first year; basic, colorless small books, with the learned material simple, clear and easy to find. I used those books whenever I could do so without risking my career…

One of the hardest and least effective battle that I had to fight with my students was making them bring textbooks to class. It was just a losing game. Once you sent the books home with students, at the beginning of the school year, as you were supposed to do, most probably you would never see them until the end of the year (usually still brand new and untouched...) If you allowed students to leave their books in your classroom, most probably they will soon disappear, and not only that would not be used, but you, the teacher, will be blamed for their loss. Officially, teachers are not allowed to store students’ books in their classroom.

So… many schools came up with a solution – they offer a class set. Sounds like a great idea? (especially for the books’ publisher…)  Not so fast! These books are not assigned to a specific student since they are being used by all learners that take the same class, and thus they are subjected to neglect and abuse… I saw classroom books flying in the air toward unsuspecting student, being torn, left on the floor and stepped on, being transported to random locations at the school grounds, and most of all – being an open space for graffiti, innocent in the better case, but quite often inappropriate and vulgar.      

Different teachers have different solutions for the books dilemma. One of my colleagues, whose classroom was next to mine, a tough guy who was also a respected coach, did not give in to the books situation. He did not agree to have a class set and demanded that students bring their own textbooks. Students that came empty-handed had to stay standing up for the entire period… It took me a while to figure out why some of his students would come to my classroom and ask to borrow an algebra book, with a solemn promise to bring it back (and they did). But, when more and more students showed up with the same request … I, at last, asked him what was going on and found out what the reason was…

Other teachers’ answer to this impossible situation is not using textbooks at all – they use only worksheets… Imagine the expense that results. Not only that the school spends hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars on textbooks (and they are mandated by the district!) it wastes many additional thousands of dollars on duplications. Most of those papers are just for a one time use and being tossed (or become flying objects) very soon afterwards. And the worst part of using worksheets is not even the waste, but its poor value as learning materials. Students get into a bad habit of just plugging in an answer in the “fill in the blank” area (makes the job of copying real easy...). I was shocked to discover, when teaching Algebra II to eleventh graders, that doing homework means for them just writing the answers on a piece of paper, without even copying the problems (and in most cases just copying the solution from the back of the book…)

So how did we get ourselves in such an impossible book situation? The answer is, unfortunately, quite common in the education business – money! Someone is making money, a lot of money, out of those textbooks. Think about a large school district that enforces a certain textbook on all students in its domain. Each of these hard covered, heavy with hundreds of pages, books, cost the district many tens, if not hundreds, of dollars. How can the publisher charge so much for its product? By padding it with very many un-necessary colorful pages so it can justify the price. This is not a new trick by any means. Restaurants, for example, give us enormous and unreasonable amount of food just so that they can charge us a lot more…

Of course, this is not the only way to get the district pay unbelievable amount of money for textbooks… Every so often, the school district is committed to buy a new edition of the same books… well, hard covered books don’t get destroyed very easily so there must be another way to move and re-vitalize the book business -  new edition... They do that also to the colleges and universities textbooks, although probably not with as much revenue as in the K-12 industry.

So, here we are again… Teachers (and students) pay the price for a system that is completely ignoring their needs. Books that are impractical for use by teachers and don’t fit the needs of students. A situation where teachers are scrambling to find a way around the system to supply their students with what they really need. And in doing so, not only they, quite often, use their own money to supplement a budget of millions of dollars used inefficiently, but they are also prevented from doing what they really want to do – teach efficiently…

Ch 4 of 20: What is wrong with our education system?

EVERYTHING! Everything EXCEPT FOR … believe it or not… THE TEACHERS…

to teachers with love...

For the past ten years of being in education, I have NEVER met a bad teacher. I met teachers whose teaching methods might have not been ideal, in my opinion. I met teachers with whose opinion I did not agree. I met teachers that were not as organized as I thought they should have been, teachers whose response to a situation was different from mine, but not even one of them was a bad teacher!

All the teachers that I know love their job and try to do their best. They are very intelligent people with knowledge that goes far beyond what they teach, in their subjects and in general. They show up to school when they are well or sick, fresh or tiered, making almost impossible arrangements for their families to take care of their sick children, aging parents, or incapacitated spouses. They come to school early, some of them very early, and often stay late after school hours, long after their learners had gone. They remain at their rooms during lunch to accommodate struggling students, and they come in the evenings to endless required, or even only recommended, meetings.

Teaches spend a weekend after weekend preparing lessons, projects and tests, checking endless amount of papers, and planning new policies and methods in hope that maybe this time their effort will bring better results. They answer emails and phone calls from administrators, parents and students. They are available for anyone at any time, almost twenty-four hours a day, almost every day of the year.

Yes, there might be some CEO’s out there who are responding to communication coming their way at all times, maybe even on vacations and off time, but shall we compare compensations?

A teacher is paid for six hours of teaching a day. Yes, it does include, sometimes, one “free” hour, conference, for preparation time. I don’t remember too many conference hours that I actually used for ‘future’ preparations, let alone “free” time. There is, always, so much to do that teachers use conference hours to catch up on school errands, and they barely make it.

On average, and this is quite an accurate assessment, for each classroom instruction hour there is at least one, out of class, additional hour of work. It means that at the end of every school day a teacher had already worked two school days. It means that by the end of the school year the teacher had already worked for every single day of the summer vacation, winter vacation, and every other vacation. In most cases teachers had “covered” most of their weekends, as well, and probably more than that…

So – what IS, really, wrong with the education system?

NOT the teachers! Yet they are the ones who are being blamed for all the ailing of our education system, and why not? They are the easiest target…

It always reminds me of a joke about a man who is looking for his lost key near the street light. When a neighbor asks him where he lost the key, he points to the other side of the street. “So why are you looking for the key here?” asks the confused neighbor. “Well, it is too dark over there…” answers the man, “it is much easier to look for it here…”

We are looking at the easy place, in the light, instead of looking where is right… The real problems and solutions are not under the comfort of the streetlights, but at the dark corners, far away from the easy and bright…

Yes, we all heard about cases of bad teachers, and yes, there are bad apples everywhere, but if there is one field where it is very rare, it is in education.

Why should a person want to become a teacher? For the money? For the respect? For the support?

No, a person who wants to become a teacher is an idealist (or a fool…), an optimist who just does not know how hard it will be to make his dream a reality; who does not realize that the system will consistently be against him and will continuously stand between him and the dream…

What do I mean? …Where shall I start…?