Quiet Time

Laptop..check. Action plan..check. Glass of red wine..check. Courage to spend the next two hours of my Friday night focusing on homework...we'll see. My wife has kindly agreed to take my daughter out of the house for a bit to allow me the happiness that is quiet and motion free nothingness. Oh did you hear that? Me neither. Total bliss.

So my attention turns to the nearly 800 pages of reading that has been assigned to my class for this week. Most of the reading concerns ideas behind the foundations and history of schools. Why is the classroom arena dominated by woman and the administration arena dominated by men? Is the assembly line method of teaching really working? Why isn't Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure part of the history curriculum? You know, the basics.

One book that did stand out is one titled "To Teach: The Journey of Becoming a Teacher" written by William Ayers. Excuse you? Yes, that William Ayers. Turns out if you accidentally start a domestic terrorism group in your young years you can make up for it by becoming one of the best educators of your day. I didn't know much about Ayers until I began reading this book, and man can he communicate an idea. I was struck with the realism of his writing. He gives examples of teachers going to orientation for their first job out of school and being informed by the principal not to expect too much from the kids, but to simply try and make it through without making anyone mad. Good to know Mr. Ayers. Thanks for the good mojo. He made it clear that the one thing that will make you a success is the drive to change the world. It is up to the individual teacher to decide what that means to them, but in the end you need to truly believe you can make this world a better place by imparting your experience and knowledge on the youth in the classroom, and the jaded administration behind the scenes.

I want to read more of the book but we were required to read only chapter one. I do want to change the world, but only one chapter at a time, as I have 740 more pages to read by Monday.

Cheers