Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 23, 2005 Dual Perspectives Teachers’ burden is greater than the credit they get Nourishment in the home is a frequent focus when we appraise child-rearing practices, while nurturance within the school environment receives rather minimal attention. The overriding emphasis is placed instead on academic achievement, excellent test results and sports activities, while nurturance takes a back seat. Anne & Al Bodin Nevertheless it should be all too apparent that with children spending a major part of their day in a learning environment, much, if not more takes place within the classroom on a psychological level wherein teachers play a unique role. Their positive contribution to our youngsters’ emotional development markedly effects important inter-personal changes and teachers are often taken for granted and given minimal tribute for the vital part they play in this realm of influence. Germain to this subject, we submit the following anonymous piece which describes current expectations of teachers, the enormous responsibilities they undertake and yet despite all when our children are placed in their care, so many take that extra mile to provide this vital sustenance whenever possible. Please Teachers, Forgive Us Public school teachers, please forgive us. We send you our tired, muddled, poorly prepared of just flat-out poor masses of children yearning to sleep in. We expect — no, we demand — that you work miracles by refining our precious raw materials into brilliant gems. We offer you little pay, limited help and unlimited interference. Then we criticize, blame, punish you and try to control you for “failing” to do what none of us could or would attempt. Your days are scripted, scheduled, assessed and burdened by “reforms” you rarely if ever have time to stop and rest and think or talk to a child. We want you to teach every minute of the school day, but we also want you to document every one of those minutes so we can try to figure out why you can’t teach. We want you to test every child at every turn, so we can test you. Student testing is supposed to be used as a diagnostic tool to help you measure and help our children. Instead, we misuse it as a political weapon to show us how you don’t measure up. We put so much emphasis on the tests that we force you to choose between teaching the idealized curriculum or the standardized tests. Neither of which has much to do with needs and interests of each of the too-many children in your classroom. Remarkably, in spite of everything, we have dumped on you or taken from you over the years, you continue to show up for work every day. You continue to show more faith in our children than we ever show in you. Would it not be a positive step forward if we were to recognize that teachers need a less pressured atmosphere in which they had the opportunity to also provide, quite capably, the emotional supportive elements for our students’ well-being? Clearly, children can benefit equally from this as well as attention to their academics, neither of which is exclusive of the other. And — as if it were not enough for teachers and children to handle in today’s difficult times, among other cuts, Bush has callously called for cuts in emergency medical services for children, and cuts in K-12 education funding. With our president’s compassionate $4.3 billion cut in education, it clearly indicates his disinvestment in the future. “Leave some children behind. ...” is his motto. Al and Anne Bodin are retired licensed marriage, family and child therapists with former practices in Ashland and California. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Free Musick Downloads Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress tcg student loan consolidation home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms Tatoos student loans African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Student Loans Tatoo Poker Games Homeschooling Click Here .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams