Six Word Saturday

Do we want to implement rigor?



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We say we do - but, do we really? Here, if you make it rigorous - go for the depth - the students complain, dig in their heels, their parents complain to the school, and more work is added to the teacher and the student is off the hook.

A very dear friend (who is a master teacher and the mentor who helped me decide I wouldn't destroy kids if I went into teaching) is known for being rigorous. It has caused her problems in a couple of schools because other teachers are easier. Not as good, you don't learn as much, but they are easier.

She was hired by the private school she is in now because of her talents and her penchant for rigor - and given free rein. For a year - then the parents complained about their darlings' grades and how hard it was - and she was asked to tone it down.

This bothered her until her daughter (a college professor who, again, followed her mother's lead) told her to look at this way: teaching allows her time with her grandchildren and brings in a decent paycheck. Stop looking at teaching as a calling and look at it as a job. Do your time, resent every second of your own time you spend on schoolwork (so cut that short) and relish the parts of your life that you have control over.

And I see the loss to the future that our instant gratification society has done to itself. And I do not think the future is better for it.