Jake’s Original Article, which I strongly empathize with, later shared here on Washington Post
My Reflections:
Tightening up the system doesn’t promote efficiency and stave off student apathy. It takes the creative minds who are the heart and soul of education and puts them in an environment that stifles the best gifts they have to offer.
Our students are the ones who suffer. Kids may have more in the way of government approved academic skills. They have less in the way of college and career preparation. They have much less in the way of time devoted toward building them up as PEOPLE. Mentoring. Encouragement. Engendering a will to succeed. These–along with teaching students the personal mentality necessary to overcome our nation’s growing gap between education and career readiness–take the backseat to management, motivation, entertainment, behavioral modification, and “student engagement.”
That’s not to say teachers are giving up. Hats off to the people who work in this system every day and exhaust themselves trying to be a good government employee and a good teacher at the same time.
Jacobonia 