Being a proud teacher but hating the system

 

I have several students graduating today from several different colleges. Many of these students came from circumstance that were not optimal for getting an education but they still realized the value of one and worked hard to get to this point. Some of them were challenging to the nth degree and some I realized early on, would shine in whatever they decided to do.

Words do not and cannot convey how proud I am of each and every one of them. I feel this way with each graduating class and hope I have played a small part in each of their lives. Some stay in touch and others I keep track of because of the relationships I formed with parents and grandparents. 

I don't write too much about being a teacher. I never, unless I have prior permission, use real names or even names at all. I also stay aggravated at districts and politicians and government in general because I believe they are failing our students on several levels and teachers continue to get the blame. 

In Florida, the decision to teach another course in government was reached and I was reading what some of the new standards are and became very concerned because they seem to me to be indoctrinating our students to become robots of what the politicians need to get re-elected. 

They have a whole set of standards on patriotism. They even have one on arguments for the necessity of the Electoral College. Not for or against but the necessity of. As I was reading the final draft yesterday, I was reminded of a situation that happened when I was a teenager. 

Remember, I am an Army brat, my father was a sergeant, and I grew up surrounded by patriotism. When I was about 17, this was the height of the civil rights, women's rights era, I came home one day and happened to mention that I would no longer be saying the Pledge of Allegiance because of the inequities in our country. My father gave me a stern warning about living in his house etc. etc. Then he listened to me and my arguments and told me I was old enough to make up my own mind and if things were not the way they should be, I should work on changing them. 

I did for many years. Even when I began teaching I tried to show my students they must ask questions. They must decide what kind of country they wanted. Once, after attending a very interesting, very conservative seminar on government, I posed a question to my students which had been posed to the attendees at the seminar. Is our Constitution Darwinian or Newtonian? 

We had the best discussion/debate/conversation and I was pleased with the outcome. Critical thinking is a must in a history class. Then the phone call came. The next morning,  a father?, began screaming at me for teaching his daughter things he didn't believe in. As I tried to calm him down because I really had no idea why he was upset, he continued to rant about me losing my job and how stupid a teacher was I?

As school began shortly thereafter, the young woman came running in to my classroom, horrified that her mother's boyfriend had called me. At the dinner table the night before, she was trying to get the adults in her life to discuss whether they believed the Constitution was fluid or static. I guess you can tell how that conversation went. She apologized for him and told me he had no right to even speak to me about her education. On a side note, she graduates today and I am proud. 

I have students in my class today that do not stand or say the Pledge of Allegiance. Given the climate of society, they feel they are not a part of the country. I do not force them or even ask them. They are young adults and are finding their way. We push critical thinking and when they think for themselves, we discourage that. Should we only encourage when they fit the mold the politicians set?

I say the Pledge today. I love the United States. I am my father's daughter. My father was smart enough to understand that you cannot force patriotism. I hope I can continue to give my students enough space to think for themselves, throw out dated and old ideas and work to make the country one they can be proud of enough to stand and say the Pledge. 

The first set are graduating today. They will change the world.

There is no quick fix

 Many of you know me only as a teacher but in reality, I was employed by print media for most of my adult life. I wrote, designed, proofread, answered the phone and developed a love of journalism that has not left me since the recession which cost me my job. I also received a BA from the university of South Florida in Political Science. Teaching is my second career and I love it as well. I hate watching what our politicians are doing to our educational system and there doesn't seem to be much that can be done.

I attended more professional development last week provided through Gilder Lehrman, a proponent of history education. The seminar was on the Electoral College and was for Florida teachers. The speaker was Alex Keyssar, a Harvard professor and historian who has written a book on this very subject. He argues for the elimination of the Electoral College and gives some compelling reasons why it should be abolished. He wants debate about it and wonders why we refuse to debate. I wish all my readers and everyone who votes had attended. He gave us lots of information about elections from the first disputed one pitting John Adams against Thomas Jefferson and yes, southern states and race place in many arguments to keep the Electoral College. You can see or order his book, Why do We Still Have the Electoral College?

Our politicians have decided to add more civics to our already overloaded students because they believe we need to indoctrinate them more to patriotism and our way of life before setting them loose on society. I call foul. We history teachers are already the red-headed, unwanted stepchildren of the educational world. We must already add other things in to our curriculum and schedule, on top of trying to teach children concepts which in many cases, they have no prior knowledge of or how to connect this to their lives. Instead of having classes to actually teach these new things, most school districts just throw them in Social Studies and expect the teachers to do it. Every patriotic holiday; every known historical human must be discussed when many teachers must be concerned with making sure their students pass an end of the course exam or test which reflects on whether they are a good teacher or not according to the politicians. 

So back to my professional development and what that has to do with all this?  While we were asking questions, I learned from a civics teacher that one of the new, proposed standards for civics is to be able to discuss why the electoral college is the best for the country and we should leave it as it is. Huh? What happened to discourse and debate? No pros or cons, just teach it to stay forever. This is ludicrous and dangerous. We have the ability to keep our democracy and change things if we need to. Can we not teach both sides?

When I was in high school in Florida, I had to take a semester course in Americanism vs. Communism. My teacher was a veteran who was injured during Vietnam. Not having the discussions we had in that class and were allowed to have in that class is unimaginable. Sometimes they became very heated. We all came away with a great appreciation for debate and an understanding of both political systems. I cannot say that about the students I teach today. 

I will be retiring in a few years and the state of education in Florida is probably going to determine exactly when. It has nothing to do with the students or money or any other reason most people might think. It has to do with our elected officials and seeing exactly how low they will go before someone or some group of people actually stand up and say, "Enough is enough". I am not sure it will happen and that makes me very sad for the future students of this state.  

In 83 years, not much has changed.

 I was lucky enough to be born in a military family. I was not exposed to the hatred of people of color when I was younger because the military had been integrated since the 1950s. I remember moving to Germany in 1962 and becoming best friends with Diane, whose family lived in the apartment right below us. We became inseparable until her father was transferred and another family moved in her apartment. 

By the time my father was looking at retirement and the decision was made to move back to Florida to be closer to my grandparents, the courts had ruled to integrate all the public schools in the state. I was in 9th grade and really had no idea what the fuss was about, but boy, was there a fuss. By the time I entered high school, the tensions were still thick between black and white students. 

I became the president of a new organization on campus, TEMPO, which stood for Teens, Educators, Moms and Pops Organization. We had a diverse membership and strived to make the student population more aware of why we needed to all work together to get along. We did some good things but ultimately the racism that existed with some, never went away. I made many friends during that time, some still around today, but lost some who seemed to not be able to change their attitudes. They very freely used the term "nigger lover" to apply to me and whomever else tried to ease tensions on campus.

I was fortunate as well in the choice offerings of classes we were allowed to take. This was before the experts (I use that term very loosely) were allowed to revamp the high school system to the totally boring and uninspired system that I must teach in today. One of the classes I chose to take to fulfill part of my 4 years of English requirement was with a class titled, "Black Literature." I had a wonderful teacher, Thelma McCann, who introduced me to some wonderful writers as well as history of the Harlem Renaissance, the Jim Crow South, and lots of things in between. I think of her often, she is still teaching the little ones, and have hopes of having lunch with her once Covid-19 has calmed enough for us to go back to a small bit of normalcy. 

On Friday this week, I cautioned all my kids to please be safe this weekend. I don't think I could handle one of them dying simply because of the color of their skin. I asked them all to think about what they were doing and not to take chances. I should not have to caution my students in this way. I thought about that this morning when a friend shared a poem on Facebook. I had forgotten the poem, but not the author. Langston Hughes was always one of my favorites. How terrible that in 83 years, this poem still has such meaning. I will leave you with his words, written in 1938. 

This is for the kids who die,
Black and white,
For kids will die certainly.
The old and rich will live on awhile,
As always,
Eating blood and gold,
Letting kids die.

Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi
Organizing sharecroppers
Kids will die in the streets of Chicago
Organizing workers
Kids will die in the orange groves of California
Telling others to get together
Whites and Filipinos,
Negroes and Mexicans,
All kinds of kids will die
Who don't believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment
And a lousy peace.

Of course, the wise and the learned
Who pen editorials in the papers,
And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names
White and black,
Who make surveys and write books
Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die,
And the sleazy courts,
And the bribe-reaching police,
And the blood-loving generals,
And the money-loving preachers
Will all raise their hands against the kids who die,
Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bullets
To frighten the people—
For the kids who die are like iron in the blood of the people—
And the old and rich don't want the people
To taste the iron of the kids who die,
Don't want the people to get wise to their own power,
To believe an Angelo Herndon, or even get together

Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies'll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potter's field,
Or the rivers where you're drowned like Leibknecht
But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die.

Langston Hughes

Why I keep teaching

 

For those of you who follow my blog, which I admit is not many, teaching is my second career. I made the choice to become a teacher several years after I was laid off from my first career in print media. 

Teaching has become very important to me, not for the money or adulation, but for the students and what I have learned from them. You can talk about how students have changed; they have. You can bemoan the fact that discipline at home and school has declined; it has. You can talk about what is going to happen when the students of today are in charge of the world tomorrow; it won't end as some believe. These children need what we can provide for them. 

I teach high school but have taught middle school. I like both. I like the challenge of middle school and all the drama associated with the students but high school has shown me where the growth from middle school goes.

I have a pretty good relationship with my students, or my kids as I call them. I know who wants to travel and I know who wants to spend her senior year as an exchange student. I know who misses school because their mom is sick and they must care for her and who feels like he has no one who cares. I also know they want to learn, circumstances just make it easier for some.

They asked pointed questions. Sometimes I don't know the answer. The girls giggle a LOT. I was not a giggler. They believe they can sneak air pods and cell phones past me. They can't but sometimes I am too tired to admonish them to put them away. 

This past week I participated in 2 webinars. One through the Bill of Rights Institute and one with Gilder Lehrman. I have two more scheduled for this week. I had stopped viewing so much professional development because I had spent so much time on the computer in the past year that I was burned out. This week showed me I needed to continue to educate myself for my kids.

The first webinar was on storytelling. Erin Gruwell from Freedom Writers fame reinforced what my students have told me since I began to teach. Stories are what pull students in; then show them the history. I came away re-energized. 

The second one was on the United States' world involvement pre-World War I through World War II. For two and one half hours, listened to lecture and questions. I learned so much and since we are studying this period in World History, it fit right in. I now have a game plan to help my students understand the relationships which came together and fell apart during this time. I have primary documents, essential questions, higher order thinking questions and I feel much more comfortable to be a sounding board for their questions.

I will admit to you now, I am a certified history geek. I become so excited when that lightbulb goes off for one of my students and when one of them says, "Calm down, Mrs. Faulk. You are way too excited." I take that as a compliment. I want them to get excited as well. I want them to view history, not as dusty tomes of old men opining, but as something alive and exciting and ready to see what history they can make. 

Retirement is on my radar. I am closer than even I like to think. Then a students gets a perfect score or answers a hard question or poses a well thought out opinion for a lesson I thought bombed and I realize that retirement means I lose all this. I am not sure I am ready to give up watching those lightbulbs flicker and then burn bright. 

My dislike of insurance companies

 

I dislike insurance companies. All of them. Vehicle, home, medical, whatever it is, it is really not worth the money we have to pay for years, especially when they continue to try and find ways to not pay claims?

I first became very disgruntled with insurance companies when dealing with homeowners' insurance. I lived on an island for 25 years, filed only one claim (not a hurricane claim), never owned flood or wind insurance, and the cost was average. 

Now I live in town. I pay three times as much for a much less vulnerable house and a deductible that would guarantee one of my credit cards would be maxed out. I swore when my house was close to being paid for and I could get out of the requirements they demand, I would carry fire insurance only. 

One of my first reasons came to light when I first became a volunteer with a humane society in Sarasota. It seems if you owned a certain breed or breeds of dog, they would threaten to cancel you. Now, I had owned Rottweilers for years, still had two, and thought that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. As I watched people returned their loved pets to shelters, I threw up my hands in disgust. Fight back. Tell them to take their policies and put them where the sun doesn't shine. You don't have to take that. But, as mostly happens when my inner self talks, no one listened. 

Then my insurance cancelled after groups began pulling out of Florida because of Hurricane Andrew and I was put under Florida's safety net insurance. They had no animal policy. I stayed with them for over 4 years when the letter came that stated another private insurance was interested in buying my policy but I could opt out. This policy was less expensive, based in Clearwater, and seemed to have their ducks in a row. So I switched and never heard from them. Or so I thought. 

Three years later, I received a form letter asking me if I owned dogs and what breed they were. They were checking on banned breeds. I called them and told them it was none of their business. They did not insure against dog bites and I didn't choose to tell them my business. They sent me another letter. I threw it away. After the third letter, they gave up. Had they not given up, I would have found another insurance carrier. 

This morning WFLA had a story about a woman whose insurance company flew a drone over her roof, apparently all the roofs of customers, and sent her a letter telling her she needed a new roof. She had not one, but two inspectors come out and tell her the roof was good for at least 5 more years. The company wouldn't listen, told her she would be cancelled by a certain date so she took her letters from the inspectors and found new insurance. 

That is your protection. There are hundreds of insurance companies. Find one that treats you like you deserve. Remember, they are supposed to serve you, not the other way around.