#education problems

To be an educator in America is to already know how to barricade doors that don’t lock and to teach children to throw things at a gunman because it’s harder to fire that way.

To be an educator in America is to understand deeply how much this country claims to value children and how hollow those claims are.

Another day, another school shooting. I was sickened by comments from Governor Abbott that this is unimaginable. I was horrified as congressmen suggested these shooters would find another way to harm people if reasonable gun legislation was in place. Maybe, yes, but any other method wouldn’t be as quick or as deadly. I was dismayed as Dan Hodges suggested that the gun debate ended with Sandy Hook in 2011. No, the debate on what America valued more, guns or children, was decided in 1998 in the wake of Columbine High School. The first should have been the last. Instead we are 24 years in the future and it hasn’t changed.

I have known my escape route and hiding spot in every school I have ever worked in. Educators across America are trained what to do in the event of an active shooter. However, unlike fire drills which have brought the school fatalities in a fire down to zero since their inception, active shooter drills haven’t done the same.

To the educators of America, I send you all my love. I know, like me, you will cry in your car and wonder how to enter your school and pretend to be a functioning human in the wake of this travesty adding to the pile of some of the worst three years education has seen. And you will wipe your tears and get out of your car and walk into your schools and greet your students with a smile. Same as always. Because that’s what we do until we can’t anymore.

In my four years of high school I had approximately 32 different teachers. And even though the majority of them were smart people. The fact that only four of them I look up to and trusted tells me there is something wrong with the system. I have had teachers I’ve been afraid of, teachers who fall asleep in class and teachers who will get up and walk out of the classroom without explanation.

out of the four teachers I really trusted, only one of them saw and helped me work towards the future I wanted. One of them was the only teacher who would give me moments to myself when having an anxiety attack. The third was the first teacher ever, to remark on my talents outside of STEM classes to my parents and the last was and still is, the only teacher who curbed my social anxiety in the classroom. 

4/32 teachers would equal 12.5% which means that only 12% of the adults who educated the ‘most important years of my life’ were ones I felt did a good job. That would register as an i on a report card because the number is so low they wouldn't bother writing it down. 

I support religion fully. I just want to say that so you dont think im actively trying to disrespect anyone, but please. For the love of god, please dont send your kid to a religious primary school if you have any other non-ab/sive options. My freind seriously did not know that the earth was older than 3000 years old until she was 10. I just- it makes me so ducking mad that theyre out spreading this kind of thing and not specifying otherwise. 

It’s detrimental to neurotypicals, you say? 

The non-ableist response is “then they should stop using it”, not “then we should ban them and keep them from kids who need them”. 

That’s like banning prescription glasses for everyone because it’s harmful to the vision of kids with 20-20 vision, without any regard for the impact on the health, well-being, and quality of education it would have on people who need glasses.

That's like blaming prescription glasses for making the vision of kids with 20/20 vision blurry. 

Let’s talk about accessibility in education.

As most of you know, I teach the core sciences (Bio, Chem and Phys) to high school students with learning disabilities. My school has several levels of education for students with learning deficit IEPs: regular education classes, resource classes like mine, Life Skills for students who will require a carer for their entire lives, and a mid-way point between me and Life Skills that’s for students who need entirely different curricula for their core classes. This is a lot better than some schools, though we don’t do inclusion classes. However, my position in particular is poorly understood. Read on to learn why.

This is a topic I want to touch on briefly. I might come back to this from time to time.

When you hear that people “dropped out” of school, your first thought it either college or high school.

Yet, there are some who drop out when they’re in middle school.

MIDDLE SCHOOL.

If that doesn’t give you a sense of how the education system is doing something wrong to help students succeed, I don’t know what do tell you.

I have nothing against those who drop out. Everyone has their struggles. I wish those regulating how school operated understood that everyone’s background is different, and that we all don’t have the same resources available.

It’s easy to compliment those who regularly do well, but it takes extra effort, time, dedication, to help those who need it.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t help those who already present themselves to do well, but we definitely should be making the effort to help those who struggle.