Thursday, February 5, 2009

Get out of the way

Maybe I'm just cranky today.

It sure seems that when you get a bunch of adults who are in the education world in a room, they tend to lose sight of what our job is: We teach kids.

It's the kids who matter. What do we need to do to help them? To help them learn, think, read, write, do math.

Adults, who are sometimes well-meaning, tend to screw that up and forget about our business. We are not a business. Well, maybe we are, but our clients are short, young, impetuous, curious, wound up.

Adults talk too much about teaching and don't just sit down next to a kid on the ground and find out what they're thinking, what they need. They impose lots of rules on kids instead of asking them what they are curious about, what questions they have about life.

I went to a reading conference today, and many people were talking about inquiry, questions, getting kids out of their desks asking questions, looking for answers.

Maybe I'm still a 14-year-old in mind and heart. If you're not going to help me support my kids, help me teach them, work with me to make them as strong a person as they can be mentally and emotionally, then please leave me alone. Thank you.

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