Turn Turn Turn
Look. i know that many of the libertarian views of Ron Paul are not feasible. We’re most likely not going to dissolve the FBI or the CIA or withdraw from NATO. Extreme isolationism and a return pre imperial America are not in the works.
But, I do agree with his education stances. Again, I know there isn’t much support out there for eliminating the Dept. of Education. Despite the fact that the federal government is given no authority in regards to education in the Constitution, and that the 10th Amendment reserves all non delegated powers to the states, i realize that most are not that strict on the interpretation of the founding document. (I believe that members should offer up an amendment to repeal the 10th amendment–what’s it for anyway?)
I digress… Maybe it’s because it’s so dark early these days and so cold. But I’m down. My heart is just not in my profession at this point. I just feel like I work on a conveyor belt. We start the kids as early as 4 or 5 and then begin to fill their heads with knowledge and skills. There is little time to educate per se, but there is ample time to prep for tests.
I am the high school conveyer belt tech. I have classes of more than 20 in which %90 + need individual attention. I am given a curriculum that was decided by bureaucrats in raleigh and am given a 90 day time frame in which the students must have all of the prescribed knowledge in their heads in order to pass the End of Coure exam. This is accountability you see. This is education.
I just don’t feel like I’m accomplishing much. These kids grow up without any sense of meaning or purpose. There is no sense of civic responsibility. I don’t have time or flexibility to assist the students with the ability to discern what information is good information. They don’t know how to search the internet. They don’t know how to read to find informaton. They certainly cannot express their ideas in writing even if they have any ideas. And the sad part is that they don’t really wanna bother with ideas. They want information fed to them. They want to be entertained.
Don’t get me wrong, I like entertaining. I take pride in the fact that students want to take my classes; that they speak well of me for the most part when they do; and that I have some minor impact on a few of the students that cross my way.
But we are leaving more than a few behind. I don’t just mean academically, although that is a major deficit. The soft skills of communication, and polite behavior are absent. The motivation to contribute is absent.
I don’t know, maybe i’m almost 30 years old and i just don’t understand this younger generation. It just seems that there is much to do in the name of reform, but we are stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire. Not to mention the complacency of the average citizen which often translates into apathy.
I feel an awful lot like an outsider these days. I am developing a refined personal vision of many things, but my thoughts don’t seem to mesh very well with the direction of the society and culture.
dt
Wow, DT, I couldn’t believe that last paragraph. I cannot tell you how much I feel for you there. I know the outsider feeling well. And I am even in a situation where it seems I should have an awful lot in common with the people around me. But instead I feel like somehow I am looking at everything from a completely different standpoint from the people around me, especially other Christians. Anyway, I don’t have any answers, but I just wanted you to know that I feel your ‘down-ness’ that comes from never really being understood. I think God must honor the fact that you try so hard to live out what you are learning–even if that honor doesn’t come from feeling like an effective person. Regardless of how much your kids at school glean from what you teach them, your kids at home are growing up with something far more valuable than education as we know it. They are getting a whole understanding of the world through the lens of the kingdom of God and what that means. And, DT, THAT is huge. That is a big part of your mark on the world, I think. That changes the future. Be encouraged.