School

It's September and kids are going back to school. Some are staying in the protective arms of their parents who are their teachers and call that school. That's a topic for another day. Having spent  thirty years plying the hallways and classrooms of school, and now with the perspective of being retired, I have a few thoughts about what education is. First, I don't know any teachers whether considered "good" or not, who don't like their work. You can't be a teacher for long, and not love what you do. It's too hard a job. Lots of people think that teaching is easy. They may say, ha, you go in at nine and you're out at three; what's hard about that? First of all, I don't know any teacher who could accomplish that time frame. When you ask the same parent to come into the classroom and spend time there, they soon drop the "teaching is easy" fallacy. Teaching is a profession because, as in most professions, you have the responsibility of the way you do your work. You have a guide to follow, certainly, but it doesn't tell you how you will present the material. It doesn't tell you how you will use your ideas and resources to hope that your students enjoy learning. Those aspects are up to you, the teacher.  The first day of school, there will be large group of children looking at you and expecting to learn during the year, some important skills designed specifically for them. That alone is an onerous task when you really think about it.  There is enormous complexity in teaching thirty, more or less, young minds with their varied backgrounds and multitudes of unique qualities, a program  that tells you what to teach but not exactly how to get it across. You go to teacher's college to learn the how parts but putting your own personality into the mix on the job, is what makes it work or not.  And it doesn't always fit every child's needs no matter how hard you try. Every child has a different learning rate and style. As in real life, sometimes there are occasional natural classroom conflicts. Parents hear what "goes on" in the classroom through their children and while they don't filter any other important information in their lives that way, they believe, literally what their kids say. Most of what is said when parents ask their children, how did it go in school today?, is "okay" or "fine" but sometimes it's not, and that's when teacher and parent have to get together. The first teachers in life are parents. But when schools and home get together as teachers, that's when education is complete. It's the best opportunity you can give your child. But the two of you educators, are not the only teachers your youngsters have in this complex world. School happens everywhere and in everything the child sees, hears, does and senses. Serious business, schooling. Serious world, they meet.