A Little Education Rant ...

I haven't written about my job lately.  Quite frankly, even though I'm at work more than I'm anywhere else, it's not usually what I want to write about.  I want to write about my sweet husband who has been working nights the last few evenings and whom I miss terribly.  Seeing him from 4:45 - 6:30 just ain't cutting it.  I want to write about my little girl who started big girl daycare recently and is kicking butt at it.  She's crawling, pulling up, saying quite a few words, and pointing to EVERYTHING in sight while giggling about it.  I want to write about our house in Little Rock and the one here.  The one in Lubbock is officially on the market and has had 4 showings, but no offers yet.  We're hoping it sells soon.  We think our home here is pretty darn incredible and anybody would be lucky to have it.  I still haven't seen our home in Little Rock, but Evan has.  He went last Friday for the inspection and while, of course, the inspection report wasn't perfect (the house was built in the 70's so naturally things happen), it was apparently quite good for a house of that age and especially in our budget.

BUT today, I'll talk about my job.  For the most part, I like it.  I think the day flies by.  I mean, in general, I start getting a little flustered around 2:30, but by that part of the day, I have so little left that I don't mind it.

The kids continue to be VERY behavioral.  We have so many problems with about 15 kids per grade level that it causes the entire school sometimes to go crazy.  For the most part, I love the staff.  They're all in it together, are smart teachers, and work hard.  Of course everynow and then, one of them has a weak day, but who doesn't?  I definetely have days where I'm not at 100% and just feel like curling up in a little ball without accomplishing anything.  NOW that I'm an adult, I realize those were our favorite 'movie days.'  Ha.

HOWEVER, I've made a few observations since I've started teaching and I wanted to jot them down.  They're opinionated observations, I realize that, but I can finally say that I have enough knowledge to make solid observations:

(1) There is no way Liliana will be attending a public middle school until Texas gets their laws in order.  Currently in Texas, there is no limit as to how many students you can have in a classroom.  Even GREAT school districts have some classrooms with 30 students in there.  That's TOO many for one teacher to handle!  I am a HUGE believer in small classroom size.  The students get more indivudal attention.  Additionally, I'm not sure we challenge our kids enough.  We have some kids here that are BRILLIANT, but since they act just fine, they're not getting the attention they need.  I want teachers that NOTICE their good qualities and run with it.  I also want teachers that have the ABILITY to challenge them. 

(2) Teachers aren't the only important people in the system.  The vast majority of teachers at the school are actually quite smart.  I've been very impressed.  However, the system needs to remember that children see EVERYONE, not just the teachers in a classroom.  I hear some of the ways others speak to the kids and their grammar is horrendous.  If we want children to speak properly, we have to speak properly to them in the first place!  If we sound like idiots, they'll start sounding like idiots too!

(3) My children, whether they like it or not, will be CHALLENGED.  I've always known education is important, that's part of the reason I went to law school and part of the reason I found my spouse so attractive.  A well spoken educated man is incredibly sexy in my book.  But teaching has shown me the importance of education.  When I say education, I don't just mean being book smart.  I think extracurricular activities are almost as important.  I will STRESS EDUCATION until they're sick of it.  They need to be reading, they need to be trying their best, and most importantly, I need to make sure they're being CHALLENGED. 

Our children will go to a great school, maybe public maybe private...I'll have to do my research when the time comes.  But you can bet I'll make sure they're being challenged.