Years ago Department of Defense Schools [DoD] did not like to hire military wives or husbands, who were certified teachers to teach in overseas schools. First off, they wanted a five-year contract and most military families tended to be reassigned every 15 months or sometimes you stayed 4 or 5 years at an overseas base/post. Students taught in DoD schools were American military children and Embassy kids as well as some local children, especially those whose parents worked for the military.
DoD teachers were paid well --- I don’t know how the formula worked or how this was done exactly, but many young teachers would cheerfully sign these contracts and loved being in a foreign country. After a few months these same people wanted to explore the country and travel around Europe, Asia or wherever. Hey, who could blame them, this was a chance of a lifetime and weekend and holiday travel was always rushing and not really seeing all you wished to see and do. As I understood it, some deduction was taken from their salaries to discourage this kind of behavior but it was never so much that it stopped it from happening and hence Subs were called and they too were paid quite well too. Hey, whatever worked, teachers toured and Sub’s taught, it was that simple.
Come on, we all know how were reacted to a Sub, right? Most of the time (if your memory is still intact) you blew these people off. They were nothing more than room monitors and usually said and did little other than take attendance and say; “okay, read chapters 4-6, and oh ya, there’s an exam scheduled for next week, so you might want to use this time to study.” But occasionally a Sub would be there more than just a day or two and now, you really had to do more than just be a room monitor.
Lesson plans are made and approved and even if not yours, as a Sub you do your best to follow them. The only thing you got going for you is your own method of implementation (within boundaries and guidelines of course). My thing was to bring this sign and put it right in the front of the classroom: STUPID IS FOREVER, IGNORANCE WE CAN FIX. And just watch kids read it and mull it over and even listen to their muttered comments. Oh man, some of the comments were precious and some cannot be written here even today!
The point of this somewhat winded dissertation is that all too often we mistake stupidity for ignorance. Look, it is quite simple, if you are stupid there isn’t much we can do about it, but if its determined the reason for this so called stupidity is ignorance, then we can do something. Many times it’s the latter because nobody took the time to show, teach, explain, help or encourage kids to do this or that; it was just easier to label them and move on – sad but true!
Names hurt and sadly stick with you for a lifetime. Luckily some can and do overcome the names and prove that name totally wrong, others never recover and carry that sick name all their lives. All I am suggesting is that we look a bit deeper and don’t brush kids aside thinking they are stupid when in essence they are ignorant because nobody has shown them differently. Amen!
Now on a lighter note, what would you say or do if someone said to you; “My favorite color is clear!” What? You expected some philosophical question here – give me a break – this is a bloody blog, not a classroom!
Oh come on, laugh, smile or giggle and don’t tell me you won’t be using this line – it’s just too damn cute not to use (thank you Troy).
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