Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the events of the last several days, maybe it’s built up frustration that is writing this blog tonight.  I’m unsettled, sad and trying to make some decisions.  Decisions based on whether or not I’m doing what I’m meant to be doing, questioning if I’m past my prime,.  And anger that I’m beginning to feel like a dinosaur in an age when a person’s level of tech savvy seems to determine their relevance.  I’m not the one making me feel like a dinosaur however.  I have confidence in what I can do for and with kids.  However, when I’m asked what it is that I do with kids, and it’s not necessarily using every app under the sun and having kids bring their chromebooks to class, people are beginning to look at me, my age and just shake their heads.

Culturally, I am feeling somewhat dismissed, as if it’s perceived that I’m living in the past and haven’t kept up with the times.  When some new method of teaching or behavior management pops up, I look at it through the eyes of experience.  Does this really work for kids?  Have we done something similar to this before? And what I hear is things like, kids are so used to technology that we need to get to them on that level.  And when I disagree with that, when I say I don’t think technology is good for kids, or that it should only be used as a tool or I can teach without it altogether, again younger people just shake their heads.  Oh, they say all kinds of very nice things like, you’re such a master teacher or you have so much experience, but the truth is, very seldom is that experience taken seriously.

I’m not at all saying that these young teachers aren’t great people, and it’s certainly not every young teacher, but I believe they’re just under the mistaken idea that technology is the answer to everything.  It’s faster and more efficient and it’s a language the kids speak.  And while that may be very true, the bigger question is, are they learning?  After all, isn’t that the purpose of using all of this stuff?  Having the ability to manipulate a tool is not the same as learning and retention.  When we take that tool and put it in place of the original computer, our brain, then real learning is not taking place.

Behavior management is much the same.  I’ve talked about this before.  We’re relying on technology to collect data that we look at in a collective manner to determine where and when the problems lie but never really the WHY.  I should never say never I supposed, but if a why is discovered and a possible solution doesn’t fit into our current teaching requirements, like say, adding more or longer recesses, then it is tossed.  My experience tells me that continuing to set parameters, giving relevant, meaningful consequences for their actions and doing it out of love is the answer as well as allowing kids to play and teaching soft skills.  And they are not my friends, they are my students,  They need an adult they can rely on and look up to, not a friend to play with.  When I call them friends (and yes, I slip into the prescribed lingo), I am minimizing the relationship I should have with them.  But according to the experts, who swear these non-evasive methods work, I’m old school.  And yet I see the same students struggling for years under this philosophy of classroom management.  I follow this philosophy because I am an employee, but in my heart and with my experience, I know it doesn’t work but while people are kind and listen to what I have to say, it feels dismissed.

So, do I need to do some research to back up my claims?  Is my experience enough?  Do I need to write a book?  Start a school?  I don’t know, but this is not working and it makes me question things.  If I’m not able to contribute anymore in a way that I feel strongly about, then why am I here?  Am I just a grumpy old person as may be perceived, or, as I feel in my mind and heart, a rebel who is fighting a system that has lost its way?

Most days I’m okay with what I do and maybe when the weather warms up and the snow and wind go away I’ll start to feel better mentally.  Let me be clear that I don’t believe that lining kids up in desks and lecturing at them all day is the way to go, but kids are kids and when we find a way that kids learn and retain, we should stick with it.  And that may not always be through technology.  It may be through drilling facts until they stick, or telling great stories or playing great games. And if technology can be used as a tool to accomplish those things, great.  But never underestimate the experience and head knowledge of a older teacher.  They’re almost always relevant, even without being tech savvy.