Fall semester is getting closer...

Two weeks from today, classes are starting.  I've got fourteen days before I have to get back to work trying to teach barely literate teenagers how to write college papers. 

Sometimes, I wonder why literacy and college readiness levels have fallen so far so fast (I've seen dramatic decreases even in the nine years I've been teaching), but then I remember a couple things:

• I started out an English/Teacher Education double major.  My first teacher ed class (Intro to Teacher Ed I) made clear that I didn't need a major in English (and, indeed, should drop that part of the major).  The instructor told me "You don't need to know the material you teach.  You just need to know how to teach.  Then you can teach anything."

• As a brand-new graduate teaching assistant, one of my equally brand-new colleagues (wearing shorts, a tank top, flip flops, and sporting a mohawk, multiple facial piercings, and tattoos) asked if there was a dress code for teachers.   We were told no, that it would be best to wear whatever we wanted, and it wouldn't diminish student respect for us if we were dressed like them.

So, to recap, you don't need to know the subject you're teaching any better than your students do, and you don't need to create any artificial distinction between teacher and student, despite many schools having done away with distinctions that aren't artificial (like the knowledge thing).

We have, resulting from that, teachers fucking students, students bullying/assaulting teachers, students not learning the material because teachers have no idea what they're trying to teach, much less how to present it in different ways for different learners, and a distinct lack of respect on the parts of both teachers and students.

Before anyone says I'm exaggerating...I'm not.  I'm really not.  I'm seeing the results of these bad decisions on the parts of school administrations.  I see students who don't respect each other, don't respect me, and don't believe that they can or should make any effort to learn something that "won't be of any use" to them after they get out of college.   These kids used to be a small minority of the class that were easily driven off, but they're increasing in numbers.  Now, they often make up half, or more, of a class.  Yes, some of it is non-existent or bad parenting, but at least as much of this behavior is taught in public school, K-12.

Is it any wonder I'm either going to home-school my kids or send them to Catholic school?