Can we fix it?

If the Fix is in, can we fix the fix?

I become weary as I lay out the challenges that face educators today, and more weary still as I attempt to teach within the framework these challenges create. The ghost of Jacob Marley probably felt like I do. I’ll grant that I get regular time off and I’m not condemned to carry chains and heavy weights through all eternity, but I walk through every teaching day carrying a list of invisible weights. The list is long: NCLB and the standardized testing frenzy that resulted, Power Standards, RTI, unreadable books, inflated grading, irrational curricula, inappropriate classroom placements, unattainable lesson plans matched to those pie-in-the-sky books and standards, changing demographics, technological gaps that leave my students with little and sometimes no access to modern technology. These have been my chains.

The technology situation has improved dramatically, but most of the rest of the list remains as my status quo.

This is why I blog.

I teach because I love the little blighters. My computer flashes pictures from my photo library across my screen as a screensaver. I have photos from so many places and times. Many of them are classroom pics. I look at students from past years and often I smile at Ceydi, Arturo and the many others.