I'm Done

It is the last week of school for the year, and I have only one more year of public school to worry about with my own children.  I've spent a lot of years--a decade and a half, in fact--worrying about my own kids as well as any others that went to the local public school with mine.  I spent a few years worrying and working for all the children that went to school anywhere in our town and another couple working and worrying for all children in our district.

But I'm done.

Last night at Costco I ran across a book by Glenn Beck that feeds the conspiracy theorists' rhetoric against the Common Core.  I'm done fighting that fight. 

In a purely selfish move, I'm going to say that I'm thrilled that my younger child, The Boy, is the final grade level that has nothing to do with the CC "roll out" in our district.  He avoided it by being a year ahead in math and his English grade level stuff, while some elements have been integrated in but none of the required pieces are demanded until the year after his.  And I'm not sorry about that at all.

I have volunteered in my kids' school for 15 years now.  I have sat on committees of concerned parents every time I've been asked.  I have worked with wonderful teachers--who aren't paid NEARLY what they deserve to do what is asked of them by society at large, much less the district they work for--and still they see the positive in the most recent changes that have taken the conservative right to grab their pitchfork and torches and demand change.  I've seen administrators try to jump through the needs legal and district mandated hoops to help their teachers do what they do best--TEACH.

You see, the change happens every 4-8 years.  Very similar to certain presidential administration changes.  That is not a coincidence.  Every national leader KNOWS the system is broken, but not a single one will put the money where his/her mouth is to make things right enough for the best to happen for our kids.  But that is another topic completely.  Educational theories come and go.  Good teachers are coming less often, and the bad ones hang on for too long.  But changes to the system/curriculum/methodology change on a regular basis.  and good teachers take what works, fit it to their subject matter, try to breathe life into their topic with more energy and enthusiasm than a three ring circus ringmaster for the attention deficit, virtual world believing, entitlement driven students of today.

Today, I'm ranting about the anti-Common Core fanatics.  I was sorry to see Glenn Beck is now their poster boy.  I don't listen to his show but I admired him for not backing down on his religious beliefs in light of national attention and criticism--especially during the Prop 8 debacle in California some years ago.  But now, the Tea Partiers must keep buying his books so he has found a new sublect to appease they and take their money.

For me, I'm just done.  I'm done trying to explain what I have seen and heard and done in my local schools.  I'm done trying to help others understand the reasoning for the changes.  And I'm definitely done making head-banging-against-the-bricks attempts to persuade the conspiracy theorists to see the situation as I do.  That opposition is too strong.  And I'm just one person.  And I'm tired of fighting.

Like Chief Joseph, Nez Pierce leader in the late 1800s, said "on this spot I'll fight no more forever".  It is just too exhausting.