These are just some of the added hours, outside of the school day, at the same time our insurance rates have out-increased our pay raises, the federal government has been more and more restrictive increasingly less tolerant of teachers who think creatively, and rich guys buy their uneducated beliefs onto the ballots in an attempt to require even more costly and more restrictive assessments on public education.
For those of you who are keeping track, it takes between six and eight hours for a teacher to prepare quarterly report cards, these days, if s/he is attempting to do everything correctly. The technology used in the process has made things so much easier for us. When I started teaching, 25 years ago, we had to average all the grades using a calculator and record the grades using a pencil. Back in those days, a couple of hours would take care of it.
These are just some of the added hours, outside of the school day, at the same time our insurance rates have out-increased our pay raises, the federal government has been more and more restrictive increasingly less tolerant of teachers who think creatively, and rich guys buy their uneducated beliefs onto the ballots in an attempt to require even more costly and more restrictive assessments on public education. Here boy! Sit! Roll over! Fetch! Good boy? No! Now do it all again blindfolded. Do it again while carrying 50 pounds of chains around your neck. And again while tethered to a stake. Four times. This time fetch six balls simultaneously, juggling them on your way back. Good puppy? No! If you drop a ball, you have failed. If you break the rope, you fail. If you fall down from the weight, you fail. Bump into something? Fail. Step off the grassy area? Fail. And if anything gets in the way, you have failed. Do parents, teachers, bosses, administrators, or elected officials ever overreach? Do we ever expect more than someone can give? Do we ever demand so much that it becomes incomprehensible? Do we ever overload someone's shoulders that we break a person? How we treat others makes a difference in their reactions to us. Whether stranger, foe, friend, family member, or employee we must be aware of the ways in which people - not dogs - react to our words and actions. We must open our eyes to how our expectations for a person can affect their opinions of us and their desires to remain in their relational role to us. Do I want you to be my friend? Then I must be friendly to you. Do I want an employee to respect me? Then I should treat my employee with respect, with full understanding that I may be expecting more than the employee is capable of producing. Do I want my children to enjoy learning? Then I need to teach my children with love, with the idea that I can frustrate him/her with pie-in-the-sky goals. Do I desire a happy life with the people I love? Then I must not expect those people to give me more than I give them. I cannot treat my employees like slaves, my children like workhorses, or my constituents like minions and expect them not to despise me, resent their relationships with me, and dare I say, hate me. There must be a balance struck between setting and stretching toward a goal and burdening people with unreasonable expectations. Have I done this with my students? With my own children? With my employees? With my constituents? If so, then I probably should reevaluate my own actions toward them and adjust my treatments accordingly. Good dog? Yes. Now let's improve. Together. "Fathers, do not exasperate your children,
so that they will not lose heart." (Colossians 3:21, NASB). I believe there are times when our economy works against us. Not only do we think we need to get something for our money, our time, and our effort, but we tend to want to get the most for our money, time, and effort. We tend to believe that someone must give us something in trade for the things we give to them. We tend to work for money, serve for a thank-you, and pay for our needs and wants. Some might even evoke the eastern term of karma, or whatever you put into the world will come back to you in kind.
But that’s messed up, and it’s not exactly what the intended when He inspired Paul to write, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). It’s not the same thing as 1 Corinthians 13: “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." Trading good deeds does not constitute true love. Look, I understand the concept of doing “Random Acts of Kindness”. But why perform random acts instead of just being kind all the time? I get this whole “Pay It Forward” idea. I understand that people are trying to inspire others to be nice. But I’m afraid we pass along the wrong idea if we wait for someone to do something for us before we will do something for someone else. Do we do it out of guilt or a sense of duty, or do we serve others because it’s the right – or righteous – thing to do? |
AuthorD. Ed. Hoggatt is an award-winning fourth grade teacher. Click Titles to Order Now
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July 2017
RECOMMENDED READING
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea Charlotte's Web by E. B. White Chippin Cleats by D. Ed. Hoggatt Crumbling Spirit by D. Ed. Hoggatt Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Holes by Louis Sachar Loser by Jerry Spinelli Mumsket by D. Ed. Hoggatt Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Out of the Wind by D. Ed. Hoggatt Petey by Ben Mikaelsen Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls Yankee Girl by Mary Ann Rodman |