From the trenches of our Education System

I recently read an article by second year teacher speaking of her first day teaching.  While I felt sorry that the school who hired her was so ill prepared for her arrival and clearly she had not been well-trained for by her certification program, I felt more sorry for her students and angry at the system she came through. Essentially, she complained that her curriculum was not handed to her in a box. 

That she arrived not having even a plan for her first day or goals for the year outside the content was ludicrous.   That her whole focus was on that she should teach not what the children needed to learn was disturbing if unfortunately not shocking.  And the veteran teachers whose great words of wisdom were Teach literary elements and techniques. They need to re-learn those every year, and prepare them for the state test, and teach them some grammar and vocabulary as well as whatever concepts each book calls for."  I blame none of these "characters." Most went in to the system with positive goals to educate students.  But in a highly flawed system, the stories of success are few and far between.  Even the most creative teachers can be bogged down.