Last summer, my daughter and I went to a conference about science. It was really interesting and we learned a lot. We were trying to get a handle on the new science standards in Oregon, which are very different than the old ones.
We learned a lot, especially about the scientific inquiry and engineering design that’s being implemented. The presenters talked a lot about actually having students do science instead of just reading about it. They talked about making the scientific process a part of their everyday experience and relating it to all kinds of things in the classroom.
We stayed at a motel at the University of Oregon for three days and spent our evenings excitedly talking and planning how we were going to use this new information.
I felt so lucky to be working together with my daughter. We were having so much fun as a professional team even though we teach different grade levels in different districts.
For some reason, we began to talk about diabetes. I had seen Dr. Oz on Oprah explaining diabetes in a way that for the first time totally made sense to me, and we were talking about the show and the statistics he gave about what an epidemic obesity and diabetes is becoming and the future health care costs they will create that will bankrupt our country. We decided that we needed to make sure our kids learned just how bad sugar was for them. Our conversation moved into the fact that nobody is really teaching health any more because it isn’t one of the tested subjects. Some of the teachers in our conference had mentioned that they were told by their administration not to teach health, but to concentrate only on what’s on the test. Our science test has a little health content in it, but not much. It is hard to fit in health standards and still cover everything else that’s required, so I can see why a lot of teachers skimp on it.
Anyway, my daughter and I had the brilliant idea to come up with monthly science inquiries that would cover the health standards while teaching the scientific process, having kids work as scientists to make hypotheses, set up experiments, collect data, and draw conclusions about their findings. We even snuck in a little engineering design along the way. We spent several weeks in August perfecting our lessons and were so proud of our accomplishments when we were done. They took a lot of time, but we thought they were totally worth it.
So here we were, all proud of ourselves and ready to start the new school year with a new plan. We had conquered another obstacle. We felt invincible. But then shortly after school started, we went to the movies and saw a trailer for Waiting For Superman. It kind of ruined our evening honestly. We began to read things about it and see things on the news talking about how America’s schools are failing and we need some kind of super reform to save them. Our balloon was burst. Suddenly we felt like no matter what we do, we are surrounded with negativity regarding schools and teachers. It can wear you down no matter how hard you try to stay positive.
As the pressures of the new school year mounted, my daughter and her teacher teammates became more agitated. Here they were, doing this monumental job of teaching in a high poverty middle school, filled with kids who came to school poor and hungry with little support from home. They were working so hard to come up with ways to get their kids to achieve, and all they were hearing was negativity surrounding everything they were doing. They were constantly being reminded at school and in the media that what they were doing wasn’t enough that they had to try harder and do more.
So here’s what they decided to do. They all went out and bought Superman shirts and started wearing them to school. Whenever any kid asked what the shirts were about they just told their kids that they could stop waiting, because I am Superman, don’tcha know? I loved it.
I just got a picture in my mind of all the teachers in Wisconsin, Rhode Island, New Jersey, wherever coming together all wearing Superman shirts. I really don’t think people get the job we do. I say come try my job. It isn’t as easy as you might think. My daughter says it’s like herding cats. And after all, we are teachers, maybe it is our job to teach everybody—kids, parents, the media, the legislators, anyone who will listen that they don’t need to go looking around for some magic pill of super reform. There is no easy answer to the problems teachers face. Anybody who has actually tried the job already knows that. It’s a thankless, never-ending battle to live in the trenches as we do. Superman is already here—on the ground in every single classroom in the country, creating, inspiring, prodding, motivating, working very hard to help create the future of our country.