Teach Out

Lauren of Feministe has a great post on her time as a student teacher. It's powerful stuff. Her students had problems that most of us in the blogosphere can only nightmare about. Or, on occasion, simply refuse to acknowledge exist. These types of first person accounts are vital in understanding what exactly goes on in our nation's schools (especially beyond the narrow band of elite public and private schools that many of us, myself included, received our education). I see so many bloggers write polemics against how awful the nation's school system is, with little to no understanding of what actually goes on there. Every one of them should read about Lauren's experience.

I also wish to become an educator, but as a law professor, not a secondary teacher. I simply don't think I have the patience or the emotional steel to "fall in love and have my heart broken so many times in eleven weeks", much less my whole career. But this just shows how special and valuable those people who choose this path really are. Regardless of whether they are career teachers or student mentors, they are all amazing individuals worthy of our praise. We don't respect them nearly enough.