I cannot believe that I’ve not used this title before.  Every Sunday this song pops into my head because this is what Sunday mornings are for, to relax, to drink a little coffee and read, just to be without a whole lot of care.  As Sunday mornings transition into Sunday afternoons, yup, I pick things up and go, but mornings, no.  I love getting up to watch the morning show on CBS as it just fits the feel of what I want.

This morning, a friend sent me a link to a blog title This Kind of Stuff Only Happens in School  by Dr. Justin Tarte (@justintarte).  In it, he asks why we as teachers insist on questioning “the validity of new technologies and new methods” along with questioning “new and innovative practices that could lead to increases in student learning”?  I agree entirely. We question just for the sake of questioning! Not that having a healthy skepticism is a bad thing, but it gets in the way when something could work wonders.

However, the next lines got me to sit up a little straighter:

Why are those who aren’t the true professionals able to dictate what does and doesn’t happen in education?
How has it become that we allowed our profession to be subjected to any and all scrutiny by all who have an opinion?
Boom! Right back to Iowa, the legislative mess, and our governor’s short sighted, last minute vote.  But it’s more than that too. It’s about No Child Left Behind, data mining of students by corporations, hours and hours spent testing, and so much more.  Our profession is under attack, there’s no doubt about it, yet, we’ve not really done much about it.  Sure, there’s a book here and a national speaker there, but a grassroots effort to say “enough” hasn’t materialized, nor do I believe an organized effort will.  And it’s not that I don’t believe in my profession, I’ve been a teacher for over 20 years (dang, when did that happen??) and see the good that we do on a daily basis. My opinion, we just don’t have a direction to go because the battle is coming from all sides: it’s media, parents, politicians, and many others I cannot remember.
Instead of a battle, I see teachers rolling up their sleeves, spending time to know their students, their curriculum, and how to mesh them together.  I see teachers making phone calls, using technology to tell their story, and working to make each day better for their students, many of whom come from backgrounds where learning isn’t valued.  These are things that don’t make a good quote, that don’t always make a good picture, but at the end of the day, the month, the year, will make a better student.
So, my easy Sunday morning has been spent pondering how I’ll be able to that in my classroom this upcoming year.  And while I didn’t get to watch CBS Sunday morning, I got my coffee, a piece of homemade toast, and some homemade blueberry jam, both made yesterday.
It’s a pretty good trade off, don’t you think? 🙂