Three things for today since it got late on me:
The Good: Kids were silly today and it was just fine by me. Sometimes, you have to laugh with them rather than get on their case. They looked happy to see me smiling and responded well to redirections when they got too goofy. I walked almost three miles on the treadmill, which doesn’t seem like much but it was much needed.
The Bad: Our governor told reporters that our educational system was partially to blame for a school shooting last week. No thought for the family. No visit to the school. Just a continued disdain for public education that those who work their asses off to do good for our students. It’s depressing to always be embarrassed by where you live, but it seems that’s what we Iowans are tasked with doing right now.
The Ugly: We have students that are dealing with things unheard of when I was a student or even a young adult. They come to school angry, depressed, anxious, and need a place where they can just be. It seems like we’ve lost our way as an educational system when we don’t give them that place, but yet, when do we start looking outside our schools and say, “Where are the parents?” I saw firsthand how teachers in Iowa have very little voice inside our schools. For all the “we need you” that we hear, our voices have been taken away. That was an ugly thing to see.
Just a little reflection on the day.
Happy Wednesday.
The Life of a Conflicted Teacher 
March 16, 2022 at 11:02 pm
Oh, Darin, sorry for that! You are up late and thinking about the good (that’s a good thing), but too bad there is the ugly and bad to think about too. When I first moved to Iowa, I was so proud of their education system that was in 1986. There was a huge raise for teachers my second or third year. I had to take a multicultural/diversity class, which I think was a good start.(Good idea for a post, by the way). Praise God for kids full of life and energy and occasional hijinks!
March 17, 2022 at 10:55 am
As I moved back to Iowa in ’99, this was where I wanted to stay. Great education for my kids, thriving small towns, and a generally upbeat attitude.
Oh how times have changed. The pendulum will swing back, but probably not before I’m long gone which makes me sad.
March 16, 2022 at 11:14 pm
I totally agree with your good and the ugly. The bad sucks, buI’m not in a position to fully understand the implications. The ugly is what struck me the most. Really, the situation’s reached a point where I’m wondering whether we just need to step back and stop thinking of reasons. Maybe just keep my own kids away from this pandemic if possible. Because THIS is the real pandemic.
March 17, 2022 at 3:58 pm
Darin, you’ve illustrated so many important truths here regarding public education – as in thinking of kids first. It’s all about the kids. After the past couple of years, kid-silliness is a wonderful thing. So many are wrapped in layers of trauma that we cannot see. Things ARE different; society is different, too many folks are on the edge. Systems grind on in a dehumanizing way… that’s where problems are. Not with teachers who are in the trenches on behalf of kids. Some government and local officials are too far removed from the daily reality in schools to even begin to understand – and it’s so much easier to blame someone else than step up and take responsibility. It’s not just in Iowa…
March 19, 2022 at 1:09 pm
Sounds like a really mixed day. It’s an interesting frame to think about “good”, “bad”, and “ugly”. And interesting to see the thread running through all of it is care for the kids.