SimplyJenW

(Mini rant affirmed.) As a veteran kids’ worker at church, I think there’s a universal movement afoot, and not a healthy one, to churn out children on the assembly line method rather than invest in relationships with small groups.

I’ll mention that this sounds absolutely tasty so I won’t be 100% off topic. Craving marshmallow creme now.

I am not sure the universal movement is just in regard to children. I think we are seeing the results of putting emphasis in the wrong things at all levels of society….. It is very disturbing. I guess the way our culture is leaning is to no longer value investing in people. Just the things they THINK people want. I know you lost a great deal in the tornado, but did you get a feeling that quite a bit of what you had was nice but unneccessary? I can’t even imagine what you have had to deal with, but I know I could get by with significantly less than what I have. There are quite a few niceties in my life, and it is so easy to take them for granted. (Yes, off topic and I will get off my soap box now……)

gmathis and SimplyJenW, I hear you! I try and keep my ears open to the education news and I am petrified. All the standardized testing, setting salaries to the results (not to mention firing teachers) etc speaks to the assembly line, bottom line horror that you guys are speaking of. I…just want to become a hermit and drink tea!

Camping at Shabby House this summer has definitely affirmed that it is possible to live small. Also that it’s hard not to be acquisition-oriented! (I can’t keep sticky fingers off tea, books, and craft stuff, even in our crazy straitened circumstances.)

My beef (uh-oh, here I go) in my line of volunteer work is that it is so hard to find leaders who will invest an hour in real preparation and an hour in real, engaged teaching, that we have to compensate by herding kids into huge groups where you never really get to know them.

Tea, tea, tea, tea, tea. Come over and sit on my porch; I’ll make us a pot and we can rock like old grannies and discuss the way things ought to be!

Good volunteers are hard to come by, and then to keep them for burning out is nearly impossible. Life is just too overscheduled.

I hear you on the tea, books and craft stuff…. I do keep getting my books at the library, and have been able to keep the craft supplies to necessities ;). The tea, however, is a problem for me….so I will jsut have some more… :D

It wold be fun to all get together for a cuppa!

May I join the rant? My best friend is a special ed. teacher. ALL of her students are special needs, yet her performance is graded on how well the children score, and they DON’T get a take a special test. Just the same one as everyone else!

My son works for an autism society. He makes rather low wages, and spent the whole weekend making books for two adults that he takes care of…unpaid overtime. He was completely into what he was doing, because he really CARES for them. Wen budget cuts required that an all adult social group be cancelled, the autistic adults were upset. It was all they had. Some of the workers got together and agreed to keep it going FOR FREE!

So yes, sometimes we have to fight the machine. Sometimes the machine isn’t fair. But great teachers like Melissa, John, my dad when he ws alive, and soon JacquelineM, can and do make such a difference.

So here is the tea part…I raise my glass to you! To the GS leaders, the church volunteers, the teachers, Rhodes who help the young, the vulnerable, and the weak…Cheers! May your cup of satisfaction overflow!

LOL! Autocorrect again! Those, not Rhodes!

Wow, inspiring story ashmanra.
So wonderful to know that we can change the world, one person at a time. And those are the people we interact with every day!

I lose such hope in humanity when I hear acts that are being passed that seem so… inhumane. I’ll leave that purposely vague, but to see a community such as this really does inspire me to connect to the people around me, and that there ARE real, caring, passionate people out there!

… tea grannies 4 evr.

I just wanted to say that I completely agree with a lot of this conversation. I love to teach and I love my students, but all the pushing towards test scores can be demoralizing at times. Yes, test scores are necessary, but that shouldn’t be the biggest focus.

Thanks ashmanra – I know you’re right! I’m getting closer to my practicums + student teaching as the news in the nation gets more and more distressing. My heart knows what’s right, but my brain says “What are you getting yourself into?!” which I guess is its job ;) I’m just going to have to go into it full of major underdog energy!!!

…and I echo SimplyJenW – it would be an honor to all get together for a cuppa!

Mrawlins2: Hooray for teachers! You are gems to do what you do! And I realize there are no easy answers. I wish things were as simple as the Miss Read books! I had forgotten that you are a teacher, too!