reason #546 education is messed up

It's never actually about the children.

In my experience thus far, teaching is about meeting deadlines and impressing adults. According to the teacher incentive program at my school I am a good teacher if:

• I meet lesson plan deadlines
• I meet unit plan deadlines
• I take attendance everyday by 8:30am
• I do not call in sick, ever.

The other day, grow-ups came into my room. Important grow-ups. And the feedback I got? Went something like this:

"You do not have enough charts on the wall."

"You're right, I could definitely create more charts. The challenges are 1.) They cannot read, so I struggle to make them really meaningful, and 2.) I don't have a lot of wall space and I worry about putting them up high because they can't see them and therefore don't actually use them."

"Well, it's important that you have them so that when observers are in the room they can look around and see what is happening in the class."

If they would like to know what is happening in the class so badly, we have an empty seat. They can join us.