And by really bad, I mean.... terrible.
It's been over a month. But that hasn't been completely accidental.
It's really tricky to keep a blog---as a DCPS employee, you are working for the District of Columbia government. It is incredibly hard to navigate a space whereby I can write about my frustrations... but also cover my butt.
A lot of other fellows have started blogs, too. One of them wrote about how he/she was observing all the immediately post-college fellows and already placing bets on which naive ones of us would leave by December.
Do not get me wrong. We do not know what we are doing. But nobody does. And it is strange to me that somebody in our program would have divided up the diverse life experiences of the group into two nice little packages----the (fresh-faced, innocent, naive, in-for-a-damn-rude-awakening) immediately-post-college kids, and the (toughened, been-out-in-the-real-world) career changers.
Look, I also feel that the complications of this year will be even more heightened for me because I admittedly have not been out in the real world yet. Filing all this paperwork through HR, choosing an insurance policy and a beneficiary, that is new stuff for me. I get that, and I am working to hike up this learning curve.
But being a teacher doesn't have to do with what you've done before you were a teacher. It has to do with a lot of things, including how humble you are, how unafraid you are to ask for help when you need it. And, if I were to dip down low and divide up DCTF into "career-changers" and "post-college kids" (which, by the way, I don't know of anybody else doing), I could argue that us post-college kids have a leg-up in the humility department. This program is filled with question-askers, the kinds of people that make the best teachers...because they understand what seeking knowledge is, they understand what curiosity feels like, they are intrinsically motivated to seek those answers to own their own knowledge.
It just feels... counter-productive to all of us being a tight-knit group of colleagues to "make predictions" about who will last and who won't. Which is sad, because I really feel that I left this summer training experience with a tight-knit group of colleagues.
This anonymous (as of right now) person also continued to write about how maybe some of the people in our program are in it because the job market sucks.
And I can say unequivocally that that is NOT why anybody has gone into teaching in inner-city DC.
Yes. Some people in our program are justifiably concerned with money right now, and are checking the mail every day for our summer school stipend. But to imply that some people are in this just for the resume-building or for "just having a job" is truly.... ignorant? And makes me feel like this blogger experienced a different reality from me this summer. Because I saw people, already, sit through such intense conditions in the six weeks of summer.... and now I am seeing them at professional development, starting at 7AM today and tomorrow, eager and ready to get in the classroom in (ah?!) 10 days.
If that doesn't say something about energy, committment, drive despite the bureacratic obstacles that have already come up, then I don't know what does.
You'll find that self-righteous folks love to make predictions about whose staying and whose going and you're right that its ridiculous. My cohort was made up of a great mix of career changers and fresh out of college kids (I'm among the latter) and only 1 person has quit (out of 28...that's pretty excellent) although I know many people who insisted that more would go. But people will really surprise you over the course of this year and I think you're wise to try to stay above it.
ReplyDeleteGreat insights, by the way- keep your head up and good luck with your first week of school!
Nice post! Keep up the attitude. In my own cohort we had a fairly larger number of college kids to older career people. Predictions were made then as well. Some were fair and accurate but most were not and many who left would not have believed it of themselves when they started the DCTF program. Teaching is grueling and many discover that they just cannot and do not want to do it after their two years is up. I believe about a third of my cohort is still in the classroom. Some left their first year, some their second and many following. I knew of one that was in it for the degree and quit when the obligation was met. Don't let the condescension of this one person bother you. The world is full of those with certitude about what others may or may not do. They might find themselves surprised by the year's end, who knows?
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