A letter to Wayne Dolcefino and the local ABC affiliate I will henceforth be boycotting
So maybe you've heard about this heinous story. Maybe not. My letters have already been mailed.
To Whom It May Concern:
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
In case you were unaware, education is not a field for everyone. Teaching requires a sense of dedication and commitment not required for other occupations. Teaching takes heart. Teaching takes being spit on by a student, getting called a “bitch,” and then having the strength of character to come back the very next day with a smile, to encourage and support that same child who would rather be doing anything else than sitting in your classroom.
Teachers do not choose their profession for the glory. Teachers certainly do not choose their profession for the financial gain. We are the last remaining stronghold of hope for many, many children.
A huge problem I find with the media is the constant need to find someone to blame. When something goes wrong, the reports immediately turn to “who can we blame? Who is at fault?” For some reason, your ignoramus of an “investigational reporter” has chosen to place blame on some of the hardest working, most dedicated individuals left in our society. Some of those individuals may have stumbled along their path, but they persevered until they attained success, a quality not often found in our youth, and one that is certainly not being emphasized at home. How can you blame them for continuing to work until they’ve achieved success? What message are you sending to our kids? That if you fail at something a few times, you might as well give up because some day the media will tear you down for your determination?
If you are looking for someone to blame, why don’t you start by looking at some of the children’s parents? More than half of my 7th grade students cannot tell time on a traditional clock. Most of them have never read a book that wasn’t required reading for school. I have some who have never turned in a homework assignment the entire school year, despite repeated phone calls home. Why is this happening? Because to many parents, their child and their child’s education is in no way a priority. I talk with my students. I hear what they have to say. Many of them don’t even see their parent every day. They go home unsupervised, they watch some TV, play some video games, and hang out with their friends. Many of these kids live a life in which their parents are at no point taking an active role in their education.
Education begins and ends in the HOME. If a child has no encouragement or reinforcement from their parents, why should he or she care that he or she is earning a 44 in my class? Why should our kids care about their education if their parents don’t? Parents: Open a book with your children. Talk with them, not just to them. Care about them: their development, their character, their future! But for God’s sake, don’t go blaming their teachers because the schools can’t miraculously fix what you did to them by ignoring their development the majority of their lives.
So what was the purpose of your story? To humiliate us? Embarrass us? Destroy our fortitude? Quality educators are retiring or leaving for other careers at an alarming rate because the education field has become too challenging. The children have become too unruly and disrespectful, the strenuous standards have become unattainable without parental support and, and as an added bonus from the media, we are now rapidly losing the respect we deserve. I once slept well at night because I knew my job mattered, and because I care about the lives of children who might not otherwise be cared about. I’m a role model and a confidante.
And you have the audacity to tell me that I might not “make the grade.”
Sincerely,
Ms. Flipside
7th grade math teacher
To Whom It May Concern:
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
In case you were unaware, education is not a field for everyone. Teaching requires a sense of dedication and commitment not required for other occupations. Teaching takes heart. Teaching takes being spit on by a student, getting called a “bitch,” and then having the strength of character to come back the very next day with a smile, to encourage and support that same child who would rather be doing anything else than sitting in your classroom.
Teachers do not choose their profession for the glory. Teachers certainly do not choose their profession for the financial gain. We are the last remaining stronghold of hope for many, many children.
A huge problem I find with the media is the constant need to find someone to blame. When something goes wrong, the reports immediately turn to “who can we blame? Who is at fault?” For some reason, your ignoramus of an “investigational reporter” has chosen to place blame on some of the hardest working, most dedicated individuals left in our society. Some of those individuals may have stumbled along their path, but they persevered until they attained success, a quality not often found in our youth, and one that is certainly not being emphasized at home. How can you blame them for continuing to work until they’ve achieved success? What message are you sending to our kids? That if you fail at something a few times, you might as well give up because some day the media will tear you down for your determination?
If you are looking for someone to blame, why don’t you start by looking at some of the children’s parents? More than half of my 7th grade students cannot tell time on a traditional clock. Most of them have never read a book that wasn’t required reading for school. I have some who have never turned in a homework assignment the entire school year, despite repeated phone calls home. Why is this happening? Because to many parents, their child and their child’s education is in no way a priority. I talk with my students. I hear what they have to say. Many of them don’t even see their parent every day. They go home unsupervised, they watch some TV, play some video games, and hang out with their friends. Many of these kids live a life in which their parents are at no point taking an active role in their education.
Education begins and ends in the HOME. If a child has no encouragement or reinforcement from their parents, why should he or she care that he or she is earning a 44 in my class? Why should our kids care about their education if their parents don’t? Parents: Open a book with your children. Talk with them, not just to them. Care about them: their development, their character, their future! But for God’s sake, don’t go blaming their teachers because the schools can’t miraculously fix what you did to them by ignoring their development the majority of their lives.
So what was the purpose of your story? To humiliate us? Embarrass us? Destroy our fortitude? Quality educators are retiring or leaving for other careers at an alarming rate because the education field has become too challenging. The children have become too unruly and disrespectful, the strenuous standards have become unattainable without parental support and, and as an added bonus from the media, we are now rapidly losing the respect we deserve. I once slept well at night because I knew my job mattered, and because I care about the lives of children who might not otherwise be cared about. I’m a role model and a confidante.
And you have the audacity to tell me that I might not “make the grade.”
Sincerely,
Ms. Flipside
7th grade math teacher
posted by Flipside at 2:35 PM
1 comments
