Becoming a Teacher III

Not having a viable alternative I followed along with other teachers and used the basal reading program and the language arts book. I hated it but I did it for a while at least. Then things begin to happen. Things I loved and the kids loved began to creep in to the day. I started reading aloud to the kids more, using poetry more, and letting the kids do their self-selection of literature from the library. We started writing a lot more, too. Still commercially produced materials dominated my classroom.

But the tide began to shift. I saw the rumbling of discontent in the professional journals. I knew I had to be a better teacher. I knew I couldn’t continue to do something I didn’t believe in…something I was convinced was actually doing harm to the kids.

Other teachers wanted to do more but were afraid. Teachers generally are a very cautious group. Contrary to popular belief they don’t take on every new thing that comes down the pike. Generally teachers teach they way they were taught and only do things differently if there is powerful research and support for it.

Parents demand their children be taught just the same way they were taught. Parents have stopped more than one significant educational innovation simply because it was new and different. When I hear politicians tell us education has got to change I always think they are talking to the wrong people. They need to talk to the parents.

Publishers and parents got the pieces but not the picture and, unfortunately many others were in the same boat. The goal of reading and writing instruction should be to produce readers and writers.

The model of public education we use today came from another time and was tailored to produce good citizens and level the playing field by offering the education to everyone. In Europe only the very wealthy could afford to be educated and the thinking in the new world was that it should be for everyone. It was only later that things like producing good workers for the business world became important. The one size fits all model we were using in Mt. Pleasant and most other schools wasn’t working because large numbers of kids were failing to become readers and writers.

So I was faced with the dilemma. Follow the rules and just go along with the others, or ask a lot of questions and try to find a better way. There had to be a better way! But, would the school district let me find it and use it if I did? What about my colleagues? What would they say? What about parents? I was sure they expected a traditional education much the same as they one they had. And last, but most important, would the kids prosper and grow up to be readers and writers?

Up to that time I had been influenced by a lot of different people and things. Out of my experience I began to form my beliefs about education and learning. (Continued)