It has been quite a while since I've written. For those of you who wonder how the diet plan is coming along...well let's just say there's a reason I haven't blogged for a while. I am holding my own. I'm still down four pounds from Jan 1, 2012, but I've been in a holding pattern. I like to call it winter, and hopefully I will have some amazing one-day-at a time tips for you soon. However, I am going to switch gear today and write down some thoughts about a topic we've been hearing about for decades...what's wrong with American public education?
While I was still working as a teacher (I prefer this term to educator, because it was what I did.) I would become indignant when hearing this question. "Let's look at WHAT'S RIGHT ABOUT IT"! That was my response. Yes, I was in denial. There is so much wrong that it's hard to begin to formulate an answer to that question.
When I retired from my teaching job, I swore (to myself and others) that I would NEVER step foot in a public school again. That life was behind me. Auf Wiedersehen you mess of a system. That vow lasted 3 months. I obtained a substitute teaching certificate and I have been subbing about 3 days a week since then. Today I am going to write about the first thing wrong with the system, and that is the process to become a substitute teacher.
In Illinois, anyone with a college degree can be a substitute teacher. I met this standard. In fact, I had a little more going for me. I had a masters degree in German literature (obtained the old-fashioned way with a thesis and comps), I had 50 + hours of graduate education in curriculum design beyond my masters, and I had held an Illinois teaching certificate for 31 years. Wow, the state should probably be recruiting me, rather than me going to them to ask to be placed on a list to work at the school district I had retired from 3 months prior to my application, right? Well, it certainly wasn't this scenario. Exactly 28 days after beginning the process to become a substitute teacher, I was awarded that coveted honor of an interview to become one...at the school district in which I had worked for 30 years. I had not only proven that I had the college degree (I had to supply a certified copy in a sealed envelope to my school district, although to have a teaching certificate and to work there, which I had done for 30 years, one of the prerequisites had been a college degree.), I was TB tested, I had a signed physical form from a physician, stating that I was physically fit for this duty. (OK, I did ask my opthamologist to sign this, since I didn't want to spend the money for a physical, and I had an eye appointment during the time I was going through this process. He agreed that the "eyes are the window to the body," and that I appeared healthy.), and finally I had a background check. The background check was rescheduled, because the "machine broke." (The day I went in for my background check, the technician running the "machine" wasn't sure that my fingerprints had "taken." I refused to leave the room until she redid the scan, thus holding up a line of 30 other substitute teaching certificate holder wannabes, but oh well. I was not coming back.) And then yes, finally I had my interview with a secretary who put me on "the list."
By the time I got home from my substitute teaching "interview," I had already had 8 requests to substitute. Wow, talk about some "job security" for a temporary job.
I am glad that I am a substitute teacher. It is helping to wean me away from a job I did for 36 years. The cold turkey approach wasn't working...oh and I can make a connection to my diet blog. The cold turkey approach doesn't work for me in dieting either!
Tomorrow's blog: A Fish out of Water: Why I Will Never Again Substitute Teach in Second Grade.
