Engaged and Still Having Fun

You know that look, that look of confusion beyond the realm of current consciousness; that look, which’s only condolence is, “someday they’ll figure it out…”   We’ve all seen that look; but seeing our students “figure it out” years down the line is not quite as satisfying as when we “figure it out” and look back to the days of our own obliviousness.

This isn’t a story about someone placing a ten dollar bill on the rail of a pool table and my brain, a la Homer Simpson, thinking “Doh!  I wish I had paid more attention in high school geometry!”  No, this story is much more subtle; this isn’t a slap-in-the-face epiphany, this is a realization based on years of personal and professional growth.

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The $125,000 Answer

“…because they’re worth it.  Because teachers are the key, and if we can pay them this with the existing dollars, then why aren’t we doing it?”  (Zeke Vanderhoek, principal and founder, TEP Charter School)

That quote silenced the conversations at my apartment for 15 minutes this past Sunday; my mother had come down for the weekend to settle in to her spring break and also recover from the hardships of being a high-quality Wisconsin educator.  Following a fantastic meal, we were getting ready to watch one of my favorite guilty pleasures, when we heard the above quote from a 60 Minutes story on the TEP Charter School in New York.

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Knowledge is Power (or Kryptonite?)

With the help a few deep breaths and some quality coffee I sat down to watch “Waiting For Superman” this past weekend.  This was a complex task, on one hand, a number of the points raised in this movie were correct, relevant, and detrimental to public education.  On the other side of this coin were contradictions, flawed logic, and structured logic that was not followed through to find a concrete solution to our problems in education.

Out of all of the thoughts and ideas running through my head, one has stuck out the most.  Here’s what the movie had to say:

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