Fantastic post from my colleague, Beth Hughes!
Teaching is a lot like childbirth. If we told teachers-to-be the truth about their futures, education majors everywhere would take their college loans and head for the hills.
Instead, we use educator Newspeak, gingerly telling these trainees that “no textbook can fully prepare them,” that their first year will be “baptism by fire,” and even that “it’s a lot of work but so incredibly worth it.”
I heard these same euphemisms as my cape-clad self sauntered into my first classroom. In those early years, the only time I took off my pinkish-hued spectacles was to polish them. Pollyanna or not, I entered teaching to inspire young minds.
Twenty years later, I’m feeling anything but inspiring. Don’t get me wrong: I still love what I do and adore my students. However, tonight is Progress Report Eve, and as I choke and gasp and flail in this sea of grading, I know that most of…
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