| The Schechter Saga, Part III | for everyone |
I am pleased that school/work life has settled into something of a routine and I've found some rhythm that allows me to come home reasonably satisfied with the whole situation.
Have I accomplished this by changing the world (the school atmosphere)? Not hardly. My current state of general peace has been achieved by accommodating reality (lowering my standards?).
First, and I'm guessing this is generally true of religious schools in general, but certainly this one in particular, I have come to terms with the indisputable fact that the religious culture (which at this school not only includes Judaism, but Hebrew, Israel, etc.) trumps all other priorities. I say this not in criticism, but in recognition. The parents are paying for those facets of their children's education and entitled to have those priorities. I have no objection to losing class time to the cultural priority du jour, but I'm not going to beat myself up worrying about how much content I cover. I'll get done what I can and not lose sleep.
Case in point. A couple weeks ago, our last long-session Friday until the return of Daylight Savings Time, we gave up 45 minutes to watch the tortured efforts of an "Israeli Folk Dance" group (actually, college students from Columbia, Bard and Jewish Theological Seminary) who would never be mistaken for professionals. These obviously intelligent young women were brought to St. Louis to perform and stopped in for a few hours to "entertain" us in exchange for rides from the airport.
Second case in point, alluded to above. Starting next week the schedule changes and our extra-long Friday classes (55 minutes instead of the mere 40 the rest of the week) are reduced to 30 minutes. Did we shorten the long Friday lunch? No, that's still 45 minutes, with an extra-long recess. To my mind the priorities seem skewed, but I'm content to deal with the situation as it presents itself. My wave-making days are long since past.
I've also altered my obsession with content. Teaching AP and college classes gave me too narrow a view of my role and I'm returning to my roots as a learning facilitator. I just finished a project that I used to run at Hancock, oral reports on various and sundry founding fathers (and mothers). The worst of the reports was really decent, with some creative powerpoint shows and even one costumed character. They paid attention to each other and were respectful (okay, I included that as part of their grade); I'm pretty sure they even learned stuff, not only from their own research but from each other. I also, in the words of one parent, "hit a home run" with a writing assignment on which almost every kid has worked really hard, if not exactly at publication quality.
So I'm pretty happy at the moment. I'm revising my approach, getting the kids more actively involved, and feeling reasonably optimistic about the future, even if I know they're not going to learn anywhere near as much as they could have. But they're eighth graders, and I doubt that there's any vital historical information that they need right now.
Parent teacher conferences went well. I was warned by any number of staff to dread them, but it seems to me they overreact to parents. Of course, most of them probably need their jobs; I just like mine and while I enjoy the extra income, it's not the be all or end all of my life. But it was flattering to be told by so many parents how pleased they were and how much their kids like my class. I also kind of liked getting served wine in the office after; at Hancock we had to go buy our own at a bar!
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