I had a post describing the affair all written out, and then decided against posting it. The whole incident is public knowledge, so it's not as though I'd be revealing something classified or whatever.
But as someone who's actively looking for another job, I realize that future employers might stumble upon my blog and pass over me as a troublemaker (even though I'm not).
I'm totally aware that anyone and everyone can read my blog if they come here. I'm not afraid of it, really, because I'm just not a particularly private person. I don't mind having my bidness known, mainly because I can pick and choose what you read about. I certainly don't blog about everything and everyone in my life, partially because I don't find some things interesting enough, and partially out of respect for my friends who ARE extremely private people.
There's been a kerfuffle lately at church among the youth workers who have discovered that many of the youth in our church have created pages at MySpace or Xanga or other such sites, and that some of the material they found is inappropriate or overly revealing. Some folks are extremely alarmed at the information that kids put out there for anyone to see.
I can see their point; parents ought to be very aware of what their teens are doing online. But I also realize that I can't be aware of every single thing because they're more independent and can find ways to do things they want to do. Plus, the culture today is very different from that of my teenage years. The internet is a culture all to itself, with rules and language and such; some of what the grownups are freaked out over, I'm just not that bothered by. I've been chatting and surfing and posting and e-mail looping and a-href-ing for ten years; it's all normal to me. Perhaps not so much to someone who hasn't kept up with that aspect of life. You can be an extremely tech-savvy computer geek and not be familiar with popular internet culture; it requires a level of engagement and participation that most grownups just aren't inclined toward. Me, I'm not really a grownup in many ways, and I find that I relate better to the students at school when I "get" their culture. I don't have to be childish, but it helps if I'm not completely unaware of their lives and the things that matter to them. They listen to me because I listen to them and take them seriously.
That's called "doing my job," in my opinion.
When I take on a task, I immerse myself in it -- but only if I see a purpose behind it. I hate busywork or meaningless activity, and much of what a SPED teacher's job entails is a great deal of CYA paperwork that nobody ever reads or cares about. For that matter, there's a lot that the State of Iowa requires of all its teachers that's really just pigpoop designed to make life more difficult (in the guise of "professional development" or "rigorous standards"). It gets in the way of actually educating kids.
Back to the incident at school -- the teacher's been put on leave pending an investigation, and the kid's been suspended (it's highly unlikely she'll return to this school). The climate among teachers and administrators is as hostile as I've ever witnessed, and I'm just going to see if maybe I can quietly exit the scene. I hate to leave my students, but I also realize that things are getting bad enough that I don't think I want to be here when the eventual nuclear explosion occurs. They've treated us abominably and have required more of us than is possible. We've even been told to "cook" the IEPs, or basically to make them up.
Something about that bothers me. Maybe it's the whole legality thing?
No comments:
Post a Comment