Final Project Udate

Not much has changed except that I have observed for nearly 80 more hours at Kingsley Junior High School. I have been taking notes and drawing pictures religiously, but I still need to write more reflections about each week. Then, I am planning on writing a final paper about how my observations and classroom experiences have changed me. Is this what I am supposed to do?

"Waiting for Superman"

What can I say? I am not even sure how I feel after watching the film "Waiting for Superman" about our current education system. I was really excited to see it, thinking that it was going to greatly impact my life and someone inspire me. I guess it has, but not exactly how I suspected it would.

I knew that our education system was poor. Worse than poor. I know that it has been failing students and than there are a lot of politics involved that have corrupted it. One sad fact about me, however, is that I do not follow politics all that well. I know I should. But I don't. Therefore, I am not well versed in all the laws and legislation involved in our education system. This film really opened my eyes to some of the politics. For example, I understand the idea of tenure, but I never really saw how terrible it can be for a teacher to have all the power that goes along with that title. The scene in the film when Michelle Leeds is at the Teachers' Union in attempts to sway its members to accept a pay increase instead of having tenure, and the mass refuses to even vote on the issue, made me sick to my stomach. I understand that directors of films, such as this one, put specific scenes in certain lights, but I just felt like every teacher in the audience appeared to be pure scum. As if they knew that they were terrible teachers and did not deserve their jobs, but were holding on with all their strength to not be fired. I was disgusted by them, and I honestly still am if I think back on that scene.

But maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am disgusted in the wrong people. Sure, some of those teachers are probably worthy of my disgust, but perhaps the others are good. Maybe it is just the whole education system in general that has corrupted some teachers into lazy, uninspired "educators" that care more about themselves that their students. If so, the education system includes countless people and factors. Where do we go from here? How do we fix it for good? Is it by getting rid of all the "bad" teachers? What does the rubric for that teacher grading process look like? Is there something above teachers that needs to be changed? I am not sure. I am also unsure if I should take it upon myself to answer these questions, or if I should just sit back and wait like everyone else appears to be doing.