Crazy Liberal Bashers

So yeah, I'm a liberal, I'll say it loud, proud, whatever. I've recently come across a lot of articles, due to my research, lately. They tend to be very... uh how shall I say, right wing nut job. In these articles I have found multiple untruths here are the corrections:

1. Yes, teachers are underpaid, we don't get off 3 months a year, its more like 1 1/2 to 2 with in-service. Only bad teachers only work from 8-3 good teacher spends a minimum of 2-4 hours grading papers, revising lessons, preparing for later in the week, and revising everything. Plus we have to deal with loads of bureaucracy, helicopter and non-existent parents, and NCLB. Trust me, if it's so easy why aren't you doing it.

2. You can care about two causes at a time. I can care about human rights, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and animal rights. I can care about spreading peace and supporting individual troops. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, amazing how the complicated human mind can work huh?

3. Religion and Intellectualism can exist at the same time. I know this is a pretty amazing concept, but I can be a good Catholic and still have an acute intellectual mind. I can believe there is a God, but also think science exists. Powerful stuff there people.

4. Finally its either black or white. Sorry people, it's all shades of grey, always has been and always will be. End of Story. I don't know who started this rumor but its not true, Sorry.

What's going on in our schools today?

I recently discovered the KIPP program through a class called "Health and Learning", and it made me think, is this what students respond from. Now don't get me wrong, I don't know a lot about the KIPP Academy, but from what I saw it's very traditional teaching in the form of drill and kill... A LOT. I'm a hard-core constructivist, I definitely believe in the teachings of Piaget, Vygotsky, and the lot. I've implemented them while student teaching and had great results. However, I think I saw the consistency in both the KIPP academy video and my teaching style and that is expectations. While it may be unrealistic to feel that all students can succeed, a good teacher does not rely on feel. They rely on think, know, and truly believe. I believe the difference is high expectations. I have taught in inner city classrooms, suburban classrooms, and a rural classroom. In all of these, the students who did the best were the ones who had expectations upon them.

I have not had a behavioral problem yet, well one that I wasn't able to take care of and I do believe that's because of expectations. I expect my students to succeed, I don't expect them to screw around, not do the assignment, and not pay attention and I think that is the difference for me. Expectations. If we allow our students a week to turn in a single worksheet that should take twenty minutes, we do not encourage them to take responsibility. When things are due, they are due. Students get F's they earn A's and that's the way it should be, if we do not have high expectations of our students, and just say kids will be kids, we give them a cop out. I've seen a lot of people who rely on cop outs in my life, and very few I know are successful. But those who have put in the hard work... I know very few who aren't successful. It's not about 10 hour school days, 300 days of school a year. It's about creating responsible, participating members of our society. To allow a child to fail is negligent teaching in my opinion, unless you just decided to teach due to the three months "off". I personally know, that I did not give up a degree where I could be earning 150K+ in five years to go back and teach for the benefits, I did it for the kids, end of story.