Posts Tagged Education

"Portrait of an Apple as a Young Man" by Michael Krigsman

I have the utmost respect for teachers.

You see, I know what they have to go through. I know what they have to put up with. I’ve been there.  I barely survived it.

It takes a special kind of strength to be a teacher. That’s something that I never quite realized when I  left school with my pretty English degrees in hand and a desire to live the romantic writer’s life – and of course, I could always teach until I got on my feet as a writer.

Not so much, as it happens.  Teenagers are scary.

And I tend to come off as a know-it-all without meaning to.  Even one-on-one, I don’t seem to have the right touch.  I am told that I start to talk to people like they’re stupid – when I don’t think they’re stupid at all.

No, teaching is not for me.  And yet, that is always the first comment I get when people  learn that I have a Master’s Degree in English:

“So, you’re a teacher?” or “So you want to teach?”

The truth is, I wish I could. I wish I had that sort of inner strength and patience (or outright tolerance for pain) that it takes to be a teacher. I’d have health insurance, which would be awesome. I’d be making roughly three times what I make now and actually not have to worry how I’d pay my car payment and buy groceries in the same week. Unfortunately, that job is just not for me.

But to all those teachers out there who can teach: You’re amazing superheroes, all.

“Education is like a communicable disease. It makes you unsuitable for a lot of jobs, and then you have the urge to pass it on.” – Terry Pratchett

These days, more and more, every student who graduates high school is told that they absolutely must go to college.  We have unprecedented access to low-interest federally subsidized loans, scholarship, and grant programs that allow lower-income students to attend relatively easily.  The opportunity to go to college is available to everyone, regardless of background.  This is a very good thing.

That said, not every person is meant for college.  What is more, by pushing students into college who would otherwise attend vocational schools or directly enter the workforce, the colleges themselves are being forced to change to support these students.  Financially, the increase in the number of people attending is a wonderful boon to the universities. However, as a result, colleges and universities are becoming institutions of professional training rather than the refuges of academia.

What’s the difference?  People have always gone to college to get better jobs.  Except now I’m hearing reports of universities phasing out programs that are not specifically career oriented, programs that do not lead to a specific, defined job as the endpoint.  Schools where you can major in “Art Education”, perhaps, but not in “Art” – because the only reason anyone should get an art degree is if they want to be a teacher, right? “Artist” is not a valid career choice.  Neither, apparently, are  “Writer” or “Musician.”

Just as the primary and secondary schools are beginning to phase out Arts programs entirely to save money, post-secondary schools are beginning to limit their funding for the Arts.

There has always been a bit of give-and-take between professional training and academia – that is, the ideal of learning for the sake of learning – but there was always a balance until recently.  The value of learning cultural things – like about the arts and humanities, for instance – has always been a core part of our educational system. More and more, it seems like we have to fight to keep these important elements in place.

It is good to have a well-trained professional workforce – these are the people who make the money move, after all.  But without the arts, culture, the humanities, what’s the point?  The arts are what make us human, not how much money we make.

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There’s a trend out there that I’ve noticed lately where people who are intelligent or who seek to better themselves through higher education and learning are branded as elitists or snobs.

Since when was being smart a bad thing?

I have an excellent education, I’ll admit, and I continually seek to learn new things. In fact, learning is one of my favorite hobbies. I want to know things. So sue me.

But apparently the very fact that I enjoy learning and have sought out that education will cause people to brand me “condescending” or “snobbish” or “elitist” before they even get to know me. This is exactly the tool that is being used by the right-wing to discredit science.  The general gist of the argument is that scientists and/or rational-minded people do not care about the common man because they are smart and look down on everyone else.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. While everyone has their own interests, the most highly educated people I know are all out there working to make things better for everyone.  They’re out there trying to find ways to make things better for the people who are suffering the most.

For my part, one of the most intelligent people I know only has a high-school diploma. There was never any money for anything more, but just because he could never go to college doesn’t mean he just stopped learning at the age of 18. My grandfather continued his education on his own, reading whatever he could get his hands on to read. And nothing about that thirst for learning turned him into an elitist or a snob. He was a farmer and a postman who did a bit of book-keeping on the side for friends and neighbors who weren’t as good with numbers.  He still visits illiterate neighbors to read their mail to them.

Being smart isn’t about how many letters you have behind your name, and being smart doesn’t make someone any sort of elitist or snob, unless they choose to let it.  Most of the time, it does the opposite.  Through learning, you can’t help but become more aware of the world around you.  Turning that education and the brain you were gifted with to trying to help where you can can’t be anything but a good thing.

So tell me, again, when did being smart become bad?

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As mentioned before, I will be participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month, as I have for several years.  It’s always an event full of fun and craziness and caffeine jitters.  If nothing else, NaNoWriMo has taught me just how many words I can cram into one day, and that it is indeed possible to write a 50,000 word manuscript in 30.  It teaches discipline, something I tend to be sorely in need of.

Once NaNo starts, I’ll put a nice little counter up in the corner of my blog somewhere over there →  where you’ll be able to watch my wordcount (hopefully) tick upwards day-by-day.  I haven’t decided yet if I will post my novel as I write it, but if I do, it’ll be here.

For other WriMos, my NaNo profile is IntellectualBlather, and feel free to list me as a Writing Buddy and let me know, and I’ll list you back! I love having writing buddies to keep me spurred along and provide some friendly competition.  If anyone would like to challenge me to a word-war, I’ll be happy to take you up on that offer!

Just as I did last year, I’ll be asking folks who wish to do so to sponsor me in my quest for those 50,000 words.  The money donated by my sponsors will go to the Office of Letters and Light, the non-profit organization that sponsors NaNo, the Youth Writing Program, and various other writing education programs across the country.  My sponsorship goal this year is $100.

I always like to encourage any people who like to write, whether for fun or profit, to give NaNoWriMo a try at least once. 50,000 words in 30 days isn’t as much as it sounds, once you break it down, and it’s definitely an accomplishment to feel warm and toasty about.

In one of those mind-boggling episodes of backwards and bigoted thinking that tends to run rampant here in the South, a teen attending school at North Cobb County High School was told that he either needed to dress more manly, or consider being home-schooled.

Now, there’s a little secret of the educational system down here: Frequently, drop-outs are instead classified as being “home-schooled” so that the school they dropped out from doesn’t have to count them as dropouts for AYP standards, and risk losing funding.  This child would have no educational resources at home, so for him, being “home schooled” would mean “dropping out.”

So, what the administrators were telling  Jonathan Escobar was that he either had to stop wearing feminine clothes - clothes which, on a girl, would not have been against dress code, and which were in fact a good deal more tasteful and modest than what many teenage girls in attendance wear – or he would have to give up his constitutionally guaranteed right to an education.

The school administrators are blustering and making excuses about being worried about the boy’s safety, but rather than punishing the boy in question for being different, they could have turned this situation into a learning experience for the other children.  Rather than making bigotry into school policy and enforcing that bigotry, any students who were threatening or bullying this student for his difference should have been punished and taught that such behavior is not acceptable.

Instead, those students are getting taught the exact opposite: That bigotry is okay, that it’s perfectly alright to beat up, threaten, and bully children who are different because it’s those children who are going to get punished, rather than the bullies.

For those of you who would like to help Jonathan, give him your support and express your opinions on the matter to the North Cobb High School, your letters can be sent to the following addresses:

Principal Philip D. Page
North Cobb High School
3400 Highway 293 North
Kennesaw, Georgia 30144

Principal’s Email: Phillip.Page@cobbk12.org

Cobb County Board of Education: http://www.cobbk12.org/board/

Other Email Addresses: http://www.cobbk12.org/NorthCobb/admin.htm

There’s also a Facebook Group.  If you make a blog post or send a letter, please copy the address, comment, etc. to that group to show your support of Jonathan, and email your post to the school administrators.

This is something that cannot stand.

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