Master Chefs of Stone Soup

Perhaps this has been you.

Your time is split between the gym and a classroom that is used by an English class in the morning session. You could come in and prep the science, but with no break in those 3 hours (because at recess you have to supervise) you will not be able to prep the art class except in the planning corner of your mind. The class is doing paper mosaic but there’s nothing to put the glue into. You didn’t buy eggs this week so no egg cartons as glue cups.Somehow it works. After clean up it’s off to the gym.

You’d think a game of basketball might entertain kids. No you have to be a human version of the newest Nintendo game system. You must become a club med activity leader with an encyclopedic knowledge of rules of sports you’ve never played, kids games, team captain, coach, referee, first aid attendant, and personal counselor to the dramas that are bound to ensue. If you think workplace politics and drama are hot – don’t even venture into the intricacies of the human dynamics of 11 year olds! But that’s just for 45 minutes – now it’s time to do science.

Even though some wrote it down, not everyone comes prepared for today’s science experiment. You anticipate this so you’ve scavenged the neighborhood recycling boxes and found glass bottles for each of your 30 students so they can watch their balloon inflate over a bottle of baking soda and vinegar. It all comes together; learning will take place and so will fun.

As a first year teacher I would have felt energized by the effort of pulling this off, warmed and motivated by the cheers of kids during PE, their ooh and aahs as their balloons seem to magically inflate, amazed at the miracle of the delicate web of energy that I facilitated for 30 souls to have fun, walk respectfully through the halls, share limited resources and still make it work. I’d have felt that this was the best job in the world, that I was being paid to have fun. I felt I was a blazing crusader for the love of learning in managing to make something out of almost nothing. A Master Chef of stone soup.

But I’ve been doing this for 10 years in various capacities and the glow is starting to wear off. It makes me angry. We repeat the mantra that we go this extra mile “for the kids”, but the reality is the system doesn’t really care about the kids. I think that education systems can do better than assuming their teachers are the magical hero characters in a fairy tale. Imagine what we could accomplish if we were given ample time and resources to do our craft. Not to mention what it would do for our sense of professionalism. The difference between me 10 years ago and now is that now I speak up about it. I’m no longer infatuated with the job, I love and respect it enough to be able to point out its faults.