Back to School: Heading into year 22…..
As a teacher, my summer break is quickly coming to an end. When I return to the classroom on August 16th, I will begin the twenty-second year of teaching Social Studies curriculum, primarily American History to public high school students in North Carolina. I never intended to become a teacher when I went off to college so many years ago. Personal choices, and to some degree, fate plopped me down into a rural classroom in August of 2000 and it was just the place I was meant to be. Since then, I have taught in almost every educational environment that exists: rural and poor, suburban and affluent, urban with mixed socioeconomic levels. Great diversity and very little. I’ve taught in a school with only 450 students, and one with 3200. And I have loved the role I have been able to play in shaping the lives of many of the students I have taught. But staring down the barrel of year 22 feels quite a bit different. Certainly the seismic shift of Covid has worn me down, as it has millions of students and teachers all over the world. It will be unpopular to say, but I believe that the pandemic has done irreparable damage to public education in the United States, and I’m not sure that I want to be along for the ride that reshapes how education is delivered in public schools long-term. Student attendance was a serious issue before Covid, and the leniency in attendance policies put into place to accommodate legitimate inability to access online learning has conditioned some students that attendance really isn’t that important. The concessions made in academic expectations and grading implemented for the same reasons are going to be hard to realign once in-person learning resumes. I am not saying that measures were not necessary to help students succeed in the environment we have been living through, just that reestablishing relevance and rigor may be a very steep climb. But that’s only half of my anxiety. I teach American History. The history of our nation and how to appropriately teach it has been politicized so much that some states are actually threatening million dollar fines if schools have certain kinds of discussions based on race. New curriculums are being discussed and what to include and how those curriculums should be implemented are hot topics in the general public and amongst my colleagues. I have been teaching American History for twenty-one years. I have a thousand things to worry about on a daily basis. Did Johnny have food this weekend? Was Suzy exposed to abuse at home last night? Is Kaia being challenged enough because she’s gifted? Is Damien being supported enough because he’s dyslexic? Will Amy be able to stay awake in class because she works every day after school until 11 pm? Do I have all the accommodations on my IEPs met? Are lesson plans uploaded? Have I called every parent whose child has 3 absences already? Do I have enough paper to make it to the end of the semester? (And isn’t the last question totally ludicrous in and of itself?)I don’t need to worry that my explanation about the roots of slavery or systemic racism may cause me to be reprimanded or even fired. But this is where we are in a very politically polarized nation. I still LOVE teaching. American History is my passion. The students I teach become my children. I want them to thrive and find their worth and self-confidence as they navigate their way into adulthood. But I, like so many of my colleagues, are questioning what our profession has become and is becoming. I don’t think I can bear another year that includes remote learning, or even so-called “hybrid” learning. And I’m not sure many of our students can either.
