12 hours!

I graduate in 12 hours! Un-fucking-believable!!! It was 1000 days ago today that I left LA to begin my college journey. Crazy!


So, the paragraphs below are random notes I have written the last few months. A lot of it might not make sense, but it was my way of explaining how I feel about "the System" I don't feel like cleaning it up (think of it as a Hunter Thompson letter, only written by someone with a fraction of his intelligence). You make sense of it!


Problem with Education
Shit! Where to begin? I think what shocks me is how the "powers that be" in the world really don't give a flying fuck about education on any level. The only time I see schools on the news is when there is a shooting (and no, I am not trying to be funny!!!). War, terror, religion, environment, economy, mental illness, disease, etc. etc. We want to do something about all these problems, but we don't. We pass it on to the next guy. And that's sick. So if the children I teach are going to be dealing with my mess then I want them to be as ready as possible because I, you, and everyone will have these children taking care of us.
Before I launch into the bigger problem I guess I should talk about my Education program. It's weird. Not bad, but what it was was relearning all twelve years of grade school in three years. (So you could see why my highlights of college were Art and Kickball!) I got to observe teachers, but it wasn't hands-on enough with the kids. I wish there would've been more child development classes for teachers (I would've preferred that over a year of music). Also, since this is California, Spanish should be requirement. I found it funny when students, in the Education major mind you, would complain about homework. Really??? A future teacher in complaining about homework?? Are you stupid! A teacher works 9-6 like everyone else. We don't get the whole summer off like the students. And if we do have free time in the summer we have to go to teacher conventions. Those last few sentences were all the misconceptions people seem to have. Now, after a few years, and once I know what I am doing, I will probably have teaching down and will be able to give myself two months off during summers (but that won't be for at least 5-6 years, and I do plan on getting a Masters or even a PhD in Education, I'm just trying to figure out where I should concentrate my efforts.)
So why are public schools so bad? (To give you a quick and dirty answer) Well, let's go back to the money thing again. Most of school's money comes from property tax (which explains why a school in Beverly Hills would have more money then a school in Compton). But even with that money a school has to have a certain enrollment to get more money from the Government, so if a neighborhood has 300 kids, and the school only have 200 of those kids, chances are they will not get as much money because their enrollment is down. So where did those 100 kids go? Charter schools and home schooling.
Schools do not get money (Guess where the money goes). I see school books from the 1980's. There are desks that are older then I am. There are 30-40 students in a room when the average should be 20. I have been in a classroom where the teacher was teaching 3rd through 6th grade, all in one room! And we let this happen?
The Media blames teachers, the teachers blame parents, and the parents blame the media for our students lack of caring about school. Really, it is everyone's fault. We just need to learn to expect responsibility.



4 days till China!!!