Bones of Contention

1.Why isn’t South Carolina’s public school system considered “too big to fail” by the federal government?

I find it extremely unfair that Wall Street is able to receive billions of dollars to prevent banks from going bankrupt. Worse yet, it’s not just Wall Street receiving the money and then dividing it up among the banks. It’s individual banks receiving what they need specifically. Yet when the stimulus money is handed out to states, it’s handed out to the state, not to individual school districts. It seems to me that the future of our country, the next generation, is what should really be viewed as to big to fail. The investments should be made in public education.

2. How are teachers supposed to combat the vicious cycle that is culture?

One of the most frustrating things is when I am unable to reach a student. Many of my lower level students have a sense of failure ingrained in their minds. They have been beaten down by the system over and over again. As one teacher, in one classroom, with exposure to only a handful of students, how am I to really make a difference in their lives when often times their homes convey the opposite message?

3. Why is it that my name was called over the loud speaker at school today to report to my lunch duty post when I don’t even have lunch duty today!?

I had agreed to fill in for someone who couldn’t make it to duty, but I’d said before lunch that I couldn’t cover because I had kids coming in to serve lunch detention. Never mind that the teacher had not been to duty all week long and they’d never called her name over the loud speaker!

4. Why does lunch fly by every day except on the days that I have lunch duty, or agree to cover someone else’s duty, miss the first five minutes of it, and get my name called over the loud speaker? Then it takes forever.

5. Why is it that I’ve been working out at the gym incredibly hard for the past two weeks and eating very healthy, but still am not satisfied that any progress has been made??