Exporting my future.

It's late here in Czech but I got caught up watching a documentary released a couple years ago called "Waiting for Superman" which discussed the failing public school system in the United States. It followed the lives of about 5 students across the U.S. who were from mostly low-income families and who were attending low-performance schools. It was heartbreaking. I don't come from a wealthy family and I know how terrible the school system can be. The lack of funds, good teachers, materials, and the effect it has on the community. I think my education was okay but is definitely leagues behind a lot of my college classmates and friends who were educated in foreign countries. I wanted to address a couple issues that were highlighted in the documentary.

1) Good teachers are hard to find. Yes, yes, and yes. Again I lucked out. I had some good teachers and partially due to the selective Advanced Placement program so I did okay. But seeing the rest of my classmates and a lot of teachers around the city, state, and country are what turned me against becoming a teacher. I am so terrified that if I became a teacher, I would quickly become jaded and fall into the category of "educators" that I naively tried to fight against when I entered the field. I'd hate my life, I'd hate my students, and I can't make anyone's life better. What makes me happy here is that most of my students try really hard. I try to make my classes fun (still trying out different methods) and it makes me so happy when they succeed. To see that potential in someone and help bring it out makes me feel such a sense of pride.

2) Community and family. It is so incredibly important to have family and community supporting you. By the time I graduated high school around 40% of kids in my graduating class had either moved or dropped out. There were bomb threats, shootings at other schools in the district, constant gang fights, etc. As of now, I don't want to raise a family in the U.S. because this type of environment was too common. I appreciate the values of diversity and thrift I learned from my experience and learned that love and support from family members and teachers alike is invaluable to a child's success so for that I'm grateful but if I can manage it, I wouldn't put my kids through it (unless private/boarding schools were within our family's price range).

It's a lot to think about this early in life but it can't hurt to give it some thought. I've always had a lot of respect for teachers because I've seen what they put up with and it's really rough. After watching this documentary I have even more respect for the the ones who pushed me and the classmates daring enough to enter the jungle of the Springfield Public School system.

Oh and watch "Waiting for Superman."