Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Time to Breathe

It seems in education as in other businesses, I'm sure, there is never time to just step back, exhale, and admire your craft. Just as soon as you have mastered something and start to feel pleased with the outcome, WHOOSH! the expectation, technique or process changes. I like to feel progressive and with it. I really do! I just wish the pace could relax just a little. It seems things are dished out in the same method that a crazy parent throws a kid in deep water to learn to swim. It forces you to react quickly but can be quite exhausting with all the flailing and gasping. I wonder if the kids feel the same way. Each time we change a schedule, add new curriculum, increase an expectation, are they thinking, "Just slow down, let me breath, let me catch up, your never stopping!"? How in the world should that sentence be punctuated? It seems we are running a race and in the end who will be the winner?

1 comment:

Becky said...

I'm sure the kids feel as confused/overwhelmed. Like you said, we keep changing the expectations, for us (teachers) and them (students). Plus, they have benchmarks, TAKS, and other accountability to contend with, not to mention tutoring after school, friends, and extracurricular stuff. It is hard for me to relate to the struggling students, as school was easy for me right up til college. However, I think we are on the same dizzying boat on this issue.