Lottery

It’s kind of sad how ‘lucky’ i feel when we get a good teacher. Having worked in the education field for a few years, i have firsthand knowledge of what CAN happen in SOME classrooms… and in some teacher’s minds. I have seen jaded teachers who sincerely do it for a paycheck… undeservedly small as it may be. I have seen bright-eyed ignorantly naive teachers who feel they are contributing and making a difference simply because they have the title ‘teacher’ and it ends there. And once in a great while, like a mirage, i have witnessed really good teachers. The great ones are seemingly wives tales of ‘so and so’s cousins sister’s aunt’s husband’. The end of the proverbial rainbow.

I have a challenging kid. My son is a great kid, but he has a couple challenges when thrown into a cage  classroom with the other animals students. Socializing is not his thing, unless you agree first and foremost he IS the authority. (or authoriTAH) Also, you must realize that any imaginative play is his idea, his world and his realm. You may go a different direction with your own imagination, but it’s only with a hall pass from Sheriff Gage E. P. (Gagey-P)  As far as in the classroom, he will allow a teacher to teach, but only if it’s relevant to what he would like to learn that day. Do not fill the room with idle chit chat about calendars and weather. It is not of interest! Cease your chatter of lunch counts and classroom helpers at ONCE!

Ok, i may have gotten caught up in my own head there. He’s not THAT bad, but let’s just say it’s a story based on reality. So this is my kid. I can’t and wouldn’t change him … well, not completely. So my choice is to send him to public school like everyone else in our neighborhood and cross my fingers, or keep him at home and do something extreme called “Home Schooling”. I hear it’s a practice only taken on by the strong-willed and bravehearted. Also attempted by now babbling psychotropic-dependent voice-hearing recluses. Certainly something i do not possess the sensibilities for. Neither of us would come out alive. .. and i’d put my money on the kid.

Isn’t it sad that getting a teacher for your kid is the equivalent of winning the lottery?! It’s not like a daycare provider. You look for someone to take care of your child who can manage a diaper change, not overheat a bottle, and possibly play a little tea party or blocks with your kid for a few hours. A hard job, yes, but not responsible for giving your kid the foundation of an entire educational career. Alphabet, colors, math, geography.

It’s hard to say where things have gone so wrong. Having experienced only a small amount of ‘the other side’ and seeing it from the perspective of the school staff, it’s scary how much power parents have over the staff. Teachers/Psychologists/Therapists, support staff, etc. The fear and anxiety some teachers have over providing the right tutelage for a kid is based on how crazy psycho the parent is. You don’t want teachers teaching out of fear. You want them instilling that fear in your children! What happened to the ruler-thumping witch teachers? Those teachers got results!!

Would i ever allow another person to put a hand on any of my children? F-ck no, but we don’t need to tell the kids that!! You want to reveal the truth about the Tooth Fairy and Santa next? ! Take away the power of a teacher over her students, and what do you have? A handicapped teacher. Everyone has an ogre in their elementary closet. Mine was my second grade teacher, Mrs Egan. I was in a bilingual class and we were learning Spanish. She had a Spanish accent, and she was El Diablo. I feared and respected the hell out of that teacher. Did i like her? HELL no. Did i do my homework? Claro que SI!!

It’s like expecting a child to be raised as a rule-respecting, upright citizen by a ‘friend mom’. “Honey, i’m not just your mom, i’m your FRIEND.”

and your dope-pusher.

It isn’t possible!!

So as a parent , what do i do? I seem like a parent who isn’t the biggest fan of her kid, i’m sure. Every new teacher gets the rundown on my guy. Its a long list. It ends with me having to say, “He’s not a monster, i promise! He’s really a good kid, he just has some issues.”

Like that doesn’t put up a giant red flag in a teacher’s brain, right?

Well today we finally had some sort of breakthrough. I was dreading this parent/teacher conference with my son’s first grade teacher today. It was requested he come with me .. i wasn’t sure what that meant. Well it turns out, he’s been doing great! I was SO proud!! He still has some issues, but it seems my little guy is learning how to handle his own brain and body. I am so tickled he has a teacher who is allowing that. She isn’t reporting to me every single “poopy head” shout or “butt fart” announcement. She doesn’t have him under a microscope, and she is allowing a little room for a 1st grade boy to be just that.

Is he the star student? No, but she did make sure to mention to me very pointedly that he is such a polite and caring boy, and so very smart.

What mom doesn’t want to hear that?! Why is this the first time i’ve been told this?! Did she find the zipper and finally let the good Gage out of the monster boy disguise? No. She just does her job well.

His kindergarten teacher was amazing, i don’t want that to go unsaid, but i feel like i have to repay some sort of cosmic debt that we got two teachers IN A ROW that knew how to work with my son.

This is a sad sad statement here in the old US of A. Why aren’t we taking what we pay the Real Housewives of ……  and giving 30% to the teachers in those counties? And let me tell you, i LOVE me some Real Housewives garbage, but honestly, the teachers deserve it more. (Definitely more that Teresa Giudice!!)

On the flip side, the sour apples that take what the good ones work so hard to get respect and recognition for, need to be culled. Put them in with some other form of education. Prisoners or parolees or community college. Find a match that works, not just be allowed to teach because they qualify on a piece of paper. The great teachers work too hard to let ignorance force two steps back. … this seems eerily parallel to the Stay At Home Mom/Housewife struggle. We aren’t all Martha Stewart, but do not base your sole opinion of ALL stay at home moms on Teresa Giudice, either. I have the hairline of an upright walking human being, thank you very much.

i dunno .. just my two cents.