What’s a thing you wish schools actually taught?
As a teacher myself, I think I’d bring kind of a unique perspective to this question. A lot of people will tell you: I wish they taught a life skills class in my high school. They need to have a class where students can learn things like how to balance a checkbook, learning about interest, learning about finances, and paying bills.
Yeah. I agree. Those would all be great skills to learn. I do think that schools should bring back the traditional “home ec” class—short for home economics—but have it be all of those things that I just mentioned, while actually teaching kids about nutrition while they’re at it. Teach them how to cook a hunk of meat and be sure that it’s not undercooked so they don’t get sick. Teach them why processed foods are so bad for them.
It doesn’t take much more than a trip to your local grocery store to see that fresh foods are explicitly higher priced than frozen and processed meals. It seems completely bass-backward to me. But the truth is, we live in a society where processed food is big business. It’s almost like the invention of nylon using a fiber to actually replace hemp—hemp is naturally grown and stronger, but you can build a factory, put hundreds of people to work treating nylon, and create an industry from scratch, or you can just get something that grows naturally outside. But I digress.
I’ve never been much of a big school lunch person. In fact, I don’t think I ever ate school lunches as a kid. I always brought food from home, for which I was very fortunate to be able to do. But as crappy as school lunches were when I was a kid, I can tell you they are even worse today. The problem isn’t necessarily that cafeteria food is fundamentally different than it was thirty years ago; it’s that kids today are living in a perfect storm of budget cuts and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. A lot of nutritionists and dietitians will tell you that it’s not just the calories in the food we eat, but the sheer portion sizes.
And maybe I’m a little naive to it all, but I am truly perplexed by the number of people who either qualify for or get free lunches today in schools. My kids qualify for them. In fact, in Michigan, free breakfasts and lunches are universal. The only problem is that money can only go so far.
I’m always reminded of that bumper sticker I’ve seen a few times. It says something along the lines of: “It will truly be a great day in America when every school has all the money they ever need, and the Air Force will have to hold a bake sale to build a new bomber.”
That is the America I want to live in.
Unfortunately, at least in the United States right now, our entire nationwide curriculum is so driven by standardized test scores. Honestly, if I had it my way, I would completely eliminate standardized tests as they’ve been known in American schools for the last twenty years. I would go back to how things were when I was a kid growing up in the ’80s. Yeah, we took standardized tests. I remember taking the basics. But it was a guideline. It was a benchmark of sorts. People looked at it; they acknowledged the scores, but the entire academic school year didn’t hinge upon them. My teachers’ jobs didn’t depend on how I did on that test, and their effectiveness wasn’t judged solely on a score sheet. There is so much to be said about watching students show actual academic growth over a year versus just cramming for a high-stakes test. Curriculums weren’t written to “teach to the test”; they were written to teach students the skills they actually need—like deductive reasoning and the scientific method—so they could figure out how to solve problems on their own.
If we were able to take that massive emphasis off of standardized test scores and had those 20 extra school days a year—adding just one additional week each quarter, rather than going to school 240 days a year like kids in other countries do—we would finally have the time. We could implement more time for the arts—drama, art, band, choir, dance—and physical education. People need to learn about their bodies as much as they need to sharpen their minds. Kids need to be able to get out, stretch their bodies, move around, play, and act like fools for a little while during the day before they get back to the serious business of learning.
But the problem with increasing academic rigor and demands—and the problem with placing that burden on our teachers—is time. There’s only a finite amount of time to get to so many skills, so many lessons, and so much standardized test preparation.
And quite frankly, most of the people who are in charge of education—certainly on the state and federal levels, and probably on most local ones—have never actually been in a public school in their lives. And even if they were, they haven’t been inside one since they were children themselves. They have no idea what is going on in schools today. They have no idea what kids are dealing with every single day.
Hell, I’m a teacher myself, and that was one thing the college of education didn’t prepare me for: the heavy home issues that kids are bringing in with them. Not having enough food at home. Being afraid to go home at night because they’re coming to terms with their sexuality and their parents won’t accept it. Abusive parents. Neglectful parents. For a lot of kids, the school building is the most stability they have day in and day out. I’ve seen kids who were actually sad to go on Christmas break because they knew they wouldn’t be in a safe, warm building for two weeks.
Of all the things nobody really gave enough thought to as we entered the COVID lockdowns six years ago, it was the fact that for many kids, the only meals they were guaranteed to get every day were that crappy school lunch and that crappy school breakfast. I remember in Detroit, when people were still dropping like flies to the virus, we had people set up in parking lots every day just so kids had food to eat.
Is it obvious that I’m getting ready to go back to work in about two and a half weeks? I’m getting my “mad as hell” soapbox speech out of the way now!
The truth is, I love being in the classroom, and I have made my intentions clear about pursuing opportunities in administration. But even before that happens, I want to get more involved—not just in my school, not just in my union, but attending school board meetings on a regular basis. Those meetings are open to the public, and I think everybody needs to know exactly what’s going on in their respective school district. Hell, my tax money is paying for it!
Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.
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