"The First Day of School" -- In a Fantasy, Perhaps



Schools Do not Allow Teachers to Be Effective

I bought into the rhetoric.

I liked the idea that teaching did not have to be too difficult.

Like many other teachers who had been in the profession, the teachers whom I had visited in the local schools where I had attended, I was convinced that this little book would empower me to be a great teacher without too much trouble or hassle.

I cannot exclaim this truth loud enough:

"The First Day of School" is a bill of goods!

I do not care how many teachers claim that they book made everything better for them.

I do not care how many teachers really think that they this comedian-cum-teacher trainer really did anyone a service.

The more that I think over the simplicities that had been laid out for me in teaching, in setting up classrooms, in making calls to parents, in reaching out to administrators, the more that I believe that Mr. Wong and sister either were teaching their own children predominantly, or they had been out of the classroom so long that they had lost touch with the shocks and hurts of the new teacher.

The naivete of the book in itself should have shined a heavy and penetrating light on its glib approach to teaching.

I wish that teaching were as simple as Mr. Wong spelled it out. For a teacher who has tenure, perhaps. Certainly, the attitude of the teacher makes a lot of difference. Yet beyond that, a school culture of rush and hussle does not contribute to the well-being of the students or the good-teaching of the instructor.

The political problems which are plaguing more of our schools all but effectively shut out the role and authority of teachers. Granted, students do not have to have a perfect home life in order to achieve and excel in public schools, but if teachers cannot take on the role of parent without reprisal or lawsuits, then they are effectively denuded of all power to teach and reach out to their students.