Category: School

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Dear Journal: School Ties

Paisley-Brown-Chocolate-Mens-Ties-Neckties-100-Silk-Jacquard-Woven-Ties-For-Men-Brands-Ties-ForDear Journal,

Tomorrow is the start of summer school for this year, and even though I’ve taught it for three years in a row this year is going to be its own particular challenge. For starters there are only two teachers for 8th grade instead of the traditional four, and instead of having all major subject areas represented there will only be two — math and English. Since I teach English that’s good for me because it means I still have a summer job, but I have a bad feeling most of the kids who need summer school aren’t going to be there because they failed English. At least, that’s been my experience the past three years. But I’m going to be all about literacy, so even if they didn’t fail English, everyone has something to learn about being more literate.

Even more than that, though, is that fact that I’m the only returner from the 8th grade crew we had last year, and my new partner just got hired three days ago, so we have a lot of work to do to get those units going, and to find the connections between math and English that are oh-so-hard, but we need to do it because it will make our lives easier being able to team teach on occasion throughout the summer. Oh, and the kids aren’t being bused to school so it will be up to the parents to make sure they get to school on time, something that scares me because the school isn’t right in the center of town. It’s a bit of a haul to get there, and school starts at 8 every morning. I wonder how many we will consistently have there.

I wish I could wear dress shorts just one day. I do own a pair of dress shorts, and I heard somewhere lately that they’re in style for summer weddings, so why not for summer school? I wore them once when I was taking a summer writing course at university, and I paired them with a lovely polka dot bow tie. Someone took a photo, I’m sure, but I can’t seem to find anyone who admits to having seen it. But I know I looked good. Continue reading “Dear Journal: School Ties”

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Games & Rhetoric

Student at teachers deskI always did well in school because I knew how to play the games, and because I bought into the rhetoric. I mean, teachers are still people, right? And they want the same type of accolades everyone else does. So, it was easy to be that good kid. You know the one, the one who the other students call the teacher’s pet, the one who sits near the front of the class and likes to answer questions.

Well, I’ll tell you a secret. I didn’t like to answer questions, but when the teacher knew she could use me to “bail her out” when no one else would admit to knowing an answer, that can certainly come back into her mind come time to grade a test, or an essay, or a research project.

Now, that’s not to say I’m not book smart, because I am, but you know as well as I do that it’s not always the smartest people who get ahead. It’s most times the people who can see advantageous situations and put themselves smack dab in the middle of them. In school, that was me. Straight A’s throughout elementary and middle school, and mostly A’s (when I felt like it) in high school. I had a pleasant attitude. More teachers were nice to me than students, and the work itself was easy.

Maybe in the end that was the biggest problem, though. If I had ever had to actually work hard for grades maybe I would have appreciated the exercise of education more after the fact. As it was, I was able to play the games, to get the grades, and to be pleased with myself, but only because I bought into the rhetoric that schools sell, the rhetoric that says school is an important building block for life.

Yet, when looking at it objectively, there are so many people who didn’t even graduate from high school who are doing fantastic things in life, who are healthy, happy, and successful by most yardsticks’ lengths. And don’t even get me started on the number of people who have gone on to higher education only to find out that the job market is saturated with people who already have the same degree they are so proud of obtaining. Continue reading “Games & Rhetoric”

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Reunion

Check the acid-wash jeans.

My 20 – year high school reunion is next month and I have been reliving some of the highs and lows of the experience. Hard to believe that it has been 20 years since high school. Some days I can almost convince myself I’m still a gangly 15-year-old with acne and a distinct lack of facial hair. Now the facial hair I do have has quite a bit of gray scattered throughout, so when I look in the mirror I can believe it’s been 20 years.

I went back after 15 years, when I was searching for some kind of anchor or foothold I had been missing back then. And I did reconnect with several people I knew, but it was transitory. It wasn’t solid. But this is 20 years. Everyone will be there, and I am at once both elated and frightened over that.

Everyone remembers high school differently. Some recall only the good parts, the “best years of my life” that is often bandied about by middle-aged people who need to relive their glory years, the metaphorical heyday. While others remember the bullying and tears.  Still others reflect on how invisible they felt even in the midst of so many others. I was in this latter group.

Don’t get me wrong. I had a small network of people I would have called friends for lack of a better term, and they were separated into black, white, and other. Not by me, but by them. My black friends were courtesy of my skin color and my sister. My white friends were because we shared the nerd trait. And the others played table tennis with me. Back then those were the lines, but perhaps looking back they were only in my head. Continue reading “Reunion”

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Saying Hello

Every afternoon when it’s time to go, she’s does her rock star approximation, flashing that beautiful smile and waving at everyone. “Bye, Lisa,” and “Bye, Mike,” she says as she is escorted out of the building, with everyone excited that she decided to speak to them. I am that escort most days and I smile … Continue reading Saying Hello

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Fifteen Credits

Temple University (aka the first three years)

I tell that joke whenever people ask me what college was like, but it’s a joke only insomuch as it wasn’t the best part of my life. The ten years part was very real. But at least it was only 10 years when you add in my two years of graduate school. That makes it better, right?

What I miss about college:

* Wearing sweatpants every day, all day Continue reading “Fifteen Credits”