The Leaders of Tomorrow

Being a teacher, there are many things that we have to do. We also have to endure many things as well. I recently read an article on CNN about teacher and is caused me to think some about where education and teaching stand at this particular juncture in time within our country. If you are interested to read the article, here is the url:

http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/15/why-they-teach-despite-it-all/?iref=allsearch

I have sat back and watched this election with relatively moderate interest, as I am sure many of us have. However, something I see constantly is a misguided desire to help education that results in policy ideas that hurt more than help our situation within education. Experts in education who slog it out in the trenches of teaching everyday should be the ones to help create policy that influences education. There are too many people that sit behind a desk in a building far from any school and even further from any experience that students have, particularly the ones who have little money or family to support them as they fight to understand how to keep a positive outlook on life while friends and neighbors become victims of violent crimes. All the while, they are trying to figure out a way to survive themselves.

I ask myself, when was the last time one of our politicians sat in a classroom wondering how they would get food later that day or make it home in one piece. Do they ever think how that affects test scores? Most every teacher I know want a to make sure all of the students can achieve success in their education, but the task becomes exponentially harder when more and more students are jammed into classes and there are less materials to go around, sometimes not even enough books for each student to use while they are in class.

How many obstacles can be put in front of the youth of this country and expect them not only to achieve, but to excel as well? The problems that are facing students run much deeper and further than what goes on inside any school and classroom. Societies and communities as a whole have to implement changes that look at things as a whole. Looking at things in separate parts will not create greater change for the better, it will only stop something for a moment before it shows up somewhere else in a different form.

Sadly, while many teachers love what they do and remain extremely dedicated to helping others, there is a hopelessness that is starting to take hold sometimes. I have heard so many comments in so many places at so many different times that show the futility that teachers are up against. I remember someone in politics said that the youth of our country are our greatest resource. If that is true, then we need to have highly motivated and educated teachers teaching them. However, it is hard to stay motivated when the context of the teaching experience looks so bleak and futile at times.

Personally, I feel very optimistic about the field of education and teaching. I believe people have this unbelievable resiliency to succeed and overcome. The youth and the students of our country have amazing potential if we simply show them they anything is possible if they just allow themselves the one simple thing of believing in themselves. If we can show them how to believe in themselves, then amazing things are possible for the future for the students and this country who depends on the students becoming the leaders of tomorrow.