Teaching: It's the easiest job in the world

Literary Luminator

Daniela Elliott

Blog #4

pages 87-126

Part Two, Chapter 3: The Ultimate Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom:

1. page 94:

"All my life I’d known boys but this thing, right in front of me, had been blocked in my mind.  I never wanted to admit that boys’ [behavior] could be instigated by girls.  I wanted to see girls as kind and boys as having aggression problems.  I see things differently now."

I chose this first passage because of what I see in myself, currently as a student of education, trying to learn what it takes to be a good educator.  This is an idea that I believed for a long time as well.  The change came with the presence of young children in my family and so I finally had the chance to sit back and observe them at family gatherings.  Aviana, my cousin’s 7 year old daughter, is as mean as they come when she doesn’t get her way. She cries, pouts, calls others names until she gets her way or has someone (usually her grandmother, my aunt) pay her some attention.  I have some idea of how she must be acting in school.  This is such an important passage because I know I’m not the only one who has this same generalization in their head about young girls.  It’s very difficult, I think, to change this idea when most of the population doesn’t have the time or opportunity to observe, as the teacher who wrote this, boys and girls in school.  This is an idea you have to go out and look for.  If you’re a parent and the most you know about your child's behavior is what you see at home, that doesn’t let you know how they act in school.  Sometimes, parents don’t even want to believe that their child could act one way at home and in another way at school.  There is so much to know and understand about a child that you have to ask: how could we ever know enough to be good parents/caregivers/educators, etc.?

2. page 99:

"One key to improving discipline is the presence of older people.  Our research indicates that discipline and behavior of children is heavily affected by the presence of elders in a classroom or other learning environment.  Whether a grandparent visits or comes in for tutorials or is a teacher, the old teach the young."

My graduate program of study is Business & Marketing Education, after having worked in sales, marketing, public relations and medial administration for the past few years I decided to change careers.  What I felt was missing from working in the business world was a sense of satisfaction or success.  Not because I hadn’t accomplished anything or had grown to different levels in the company I worked for but because it wasn’t enough to make happy.  This passage above spoke to me because I believe this is a great idea that I would want to enforce in my classroom.  I think back and wish I had had an opportunity to have gotten a real-world look at business or the chance to talk to someone about it.  The best way to learn about a business industry is to go straight to the source and being able to bring in parents, elders, or any person working in any field of business to speak to young adults is an amazing chance that is rarely given.  Some might say that in high school, business courses are meant to develop a foundation, that going as far as bringing in other adults to speak to students is not necessary at such a young age. I believe the opposite. As a high school junior or senior, when it’s time to make a life decision as important as your college program of study, why not give these students as much real-life, hands-on information as possible?  Offer them more than a textbook version of what business is, which in fact, is not what you find in the real world. 

page 121:

“What is most frightening about the rapid increase in drug use among young children is the fact that so many presumed presenting behaviors of disorder are actually not indications of read disorder but rather indications of (1) caregivers’ and parents’ lack of training in normal child development and (2) cultural pressure to create a kind of uniformity in children that is, ultimately, unnatural.

This passage, in corporation with the whole section that spoke to the use of psychotropic medication, was a real eye opening section with a lot of statistics and facts related to the use of Ritalin, Adderall and Prozac on children seven and under.  It was shocking to think that so many parents/adults believe medication is the answer to problematic children, when in fact medication it's not.  Although it was unclear just how many children are on medication, the estimated number of one half million to one million, is enough to draw concern.  It makes sense, in one aspect, to think that if a simple pill could help control a child, even a little bit, then why such a big fuss.  “More than 90 percent of the medication taken by children younger than seven should not have been prescribed.”  Those incorrectly prescribed children are those who, instead, are only lacking in attachment, bonding and gender-brain based learning strategies.  On top of which, these psychotropic medications are gateway drugs.   

What I question is with so much knowledge and research done on children without diagnosed disorders and children with learning and behavior disorders, where is this loss in communication? Why is so much information available yet so few teachers, counselors, psychologists, school boards, school districts, political authority figures not all informed and taking action?  According to Gurian, there has been an increase in diagnosed learning and behavioral disorders, is solving this issue easier said than done? It makes me wonder, is there enough time in a day, days in a week, month or the year to learn all there is to know when dealing with such children. As a future educator, how can I ever ensure that I have and give enough time each day to all my students as well as my family? Being an educator is over-looked by many as an “easy job,” and perhaps I thought that once too. Now I see the truth, wanting to be a good teacher requires so much more than a non-educator would ever understand.  You could try to explain to someone else the challenges a teacher faces each day and night but would they ever truly understand? I think not.