I am going to be a teacher of English when I grow up (please don't e-mail me every grammatical error I make here). High school to be exact. This is my final year. I am now in my pedagogy classes. For you lay-persons, it's pretty much learning how to teach.
A really great bunch of people, and I mean that, sit beside me everyday fully aware of the fact that people who drive ice-cream trucks will make more than us and have more of a positive influence on children then we will. Pavlovian as it may be. Yet we all press on. Convinced we can make a difference. Positive we are the agents of social change. Assured the emotional rewards will outweigh the toll on our psyche.
And yet I can't help but wonder, if statistics are correct, which 10 (out of 30) will not make it to our second year in the schools. After today's display I have an idea who a couple of them might be.
Exhibit A:
She is a future gym teacher, a Scorpio, and bronze goddess who models on the side. Sadly, she is not as mentally bright as her tan.
Example One: Her "CURRENT" educational issue to report on to the class was Title 9 (passed in 1972 - 8 years before she was born). Her evidence of the sucess of Title 9 was the increase of enrollment and graduation of women from college from 1974-1994. Because we all know NOTHING ELSE but organized sports could be responsible for that increase.
Her other evidence was my LEAST favorite statistic (yes I do have one, so should you). Which is women who participate in sports are 78% less likely to have an unwanted pregnancy. This is a relational study folks. Just because you see two things that happen to the same group of people does not mean one leads to the other. This is what the uppity folks call a causation fallacy. (http://www.spalding.edu/faculty/dwheat/sld018.htm)
Example Two: When our professor asked us as a class; "When is a time in your career you might rely heavily upon your instructional textbook for information?"
(Answer the professor was looking for--"the start of my career", other possible answer, "When I have a sub")
The bronze godess shouted out with glee and mixed with confusion: "Math!"
Exhibit B:
She is a current dance teacher, turned English major because she likes to read, and the call for dance teachers is a bit low at present.
Example: While discussing in our English Pedagogy class the essential areas to teaching a writing course, this future Martha Grahm shared this gem with the class, "I think it's important to have some sort of discussion and exposure to all the different kinds of writing Jen-rah-s."
I pause dear reader to highlight my thought proces. "Oh my! What is this Jen-rah? My god I have been in school for years and never heard of a Jen-rah!"
Lucky for me no one else had heard of a Jen-rah, and when the professor asked for clarification we realized she meant, Genre. No she is not a native Spanish speaker.
Exhibit C:
He is a Biology major and NRA member.
Example: While I sat before class reading my Sarah Vowell book when he came over to ask, "What class is that for?"
Me: "Oh--this isn't for a class, I'm just reading it for fun."
Him: (gales of laugher) "For fun?? Who reads for fun?! Man, I hate to read. I don't even read the assigned stuff for class!"
God Bless State Universities!
I love them all. I really do. Those three givers of knowledge. But they scare the crapolies out of me, and I don't even have children. It is at this point in my career that I realize perhaps we do need content testing for teachers.
Wish me luck on my Praxis II. And pray for us all.
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