Wicked men obey for fear, but the good for love.
– Aristotle.
Inspired, once again, by TheJLV.
When I told my parents I was going to become a teacher neither of them told me they disapproved of my decision…they both just hit me with blank stares. See, I was supposed to be one of the best and brightest and the best and the brightest don’t waste their lives as teachers. After all, teachers don’t make any money.
I didn’t know how to convince them, or anyone else in my circle at the time, that what I was doing was worth more than some change in my pocket. What I wanted to do was make school a place where a kid like me was acceptable.
I’m a young Black man raised on Hip Hop, rampant consumer consumption, pop culture, and the internet. I, and those like me, are the present and the future of this country. And we have a lot of people scared to death.
They don’t know what to make of how we embrace, use and abuse our love of technology, pop culture, and all things improper to make math and all of school make sense to the most unlikely candidates. My teaching style in particular has made me enemies and caused me all sorts of grief at work. I could easily tow the line and do as the Romans do but then my students wouldn’t be as engaged in class as they are. I would become one of THEM instead of being one of ME.
My close friend and co-worker Mike Jones ( name changed to protect the innocent ) tells me all the time that the way we do things is intimidating to the old school and to those that subscribe to the old school mentality. He says things like “Jo, they’ve never seen it done the way we do it…and that scares them.” Does he mean that its too Black, too young, or just too different ? I don’t know…and most of the time I don’t care.
I do what I do because I love to do it. I’m good at what I do because I love to do it. How can you not be on board with that?!
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1 response so far ↓
“Mike Jones” got it right. They are scared, but they are scared of the unknown. Realize we, as educators, are working with people who have doing “their thang” for YEARS! And here comes this new group who thinks they know a little bit of something and they don’t know what to think?
But when the same thing is not getting results, the old school don’t feel like THEY need to change. “It’s the kids”, “they don’t want to learn”, “They just don’t want to succeed”. It’s hard for someone who has been doing it like that for 30+ years to say “Hey, I might need to change something”. Because the way they were raised, you stayed at the same job/school for your entire career…. you never changed!
So the quickest thing to do is to resist and think badly upon those who feel as if change is needed. I told my mom (who taught for 20+ years at the same school) that we are now preparing kids for jobs that don’t exist. And that is scary. But what I love about my job is that it is ever changing. I don’t see the same thing everyday. I love it!
Keep doing what you are doing! It is working…