(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . "So I Says To Myself, I Says" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-07 One of the trends I observed during my teaching career was the steady and consistent rise in the number of ‘Deans’ and Administrators. It’s clear to anyone studying modern issues in education that what we need are less people teaching and more people administering. Forward thinking Academic Deans limited my time preparing for classes in favor of exposing me to these exceptional thinkers at various Continuing Education Conferences; my colleagues and I would sit at the feet of people who had only needed a few years of actual teaching to master the strategies that they could now share with us for a modest speaking fee. The approaches they mastered in mere minutes far surpassing any successes I had over decades of struggle. The move to increase administration has also been aided by the growth of advanced degrees in Education, often available completely online. No longer are teachers held back by years of university study in a particular academic field, forced to amass a body of particular knowledge – now they can focus on education itself. After all, it’s about how you teach, not what you know. All those years I wasted reading more deeply about the history I was teaching when I should have been focused on curriculum mapping and desired learner outcomes. It will be a bright future indeed when the best young educators are able to skip spending time in the classroom altogether, take those M Ed.’s straight to the administrative suites and start issuing corrective emails to struggling historians and mathematicians relegated to the classrooms. Perhaps the most important thing administrators provide is guidance about communicating with parents. The obsolete notion that parents and teachers could communicate directly about a child’s progress is laughable today. Neither have the years of study required to speak on such matters; only a professional educator can bridge that gap. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to have some of my own children as students, fortunately, I had administrators watching my back. At the end of the first term, the administration provided an opportunity to enhance communication; not only would grades be sent home to parents, but teachers would also write a summary of each student’s performance, commenting on strengths and areas of focus. After those summaries were reviewed and improved by an administrator, they would be valuable information for parents. Working under the mistaken assumption that it would be unnecessary for me to write one of these to myself, I submitted my grades and comments – quickly receiving a summons from administration. It was explained to me that I would, of course, be writing a comment for all my students, the simple fact that one or two might be my own in no way alleviated my responsibility to follow administrative guidelines – after all; communication is key! With that lesson in mind, I returned to my laptop and typed: In a nod toward the absurd and with full embrace of the farcical, I submit the following comment to myself, as written by myself. As I myself anticipated and discussed with myself in an internal dialogue during parent’s night, and then again as an exercise in self-rhetoric; Bob is doing fine work in my class. I can assure myself that this is the case as I have seen myself seeing what I can now tell myself is taking place. Further, as I have mentioned to myself on many occasions, Bob is fortunate to have such strong lines of communication open between both his parent and teacher, as well as between me, myself, and I. I can further assure myself that I will remain in close contact with myself and shall not hesitate to interrupt myself, should I feel the need arise. I shall feel free to consult myself at anytime in the future if I have further questions about how Bob is doing in class although I shall attempt to not interrupt myself with my own questions unless my own actions demand self-recrimination. I look forward to seeing myself again at the spring conferences when I shall be able to question myself, myself. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/7/2197956/--So-I-Says-To-Myself-I-Says?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/