Did I get an education out of that? No.
Looking back, it was amazing to me how fast the educational desperation generated by Sputnik deteriorated into the liberal morass of the 60's and 70's. An older sister, five years older than I, got Shakespeare during high school. They were so happy that my group was reading that our teachers did not care what we read. I remember asking for a list of materials required to be covered for the class, and was told there weren't any. Hmm.
Being musically inclined, I started teaching private lessons about age 14 to pay for my own music lessons on piano, guitar, and voice. That was my first foray into teaching. I don't think I was very good at it, but I discovered I loved it. I had a wonderful junior high band director during that time, and an excellent old-school math instructor. It was the band director who made me think I wanted to do that for a living.
I attended two state universities in Washington state and took five years to graduate, partly because my Boeing engineer father, who was footing the bill, wanted me to NOT focus all of my efforts on music, partly because the math minor had course sequences taught only every other year, which delayed a course sequence I needed to be a music ed major, and partly because switching schools caused me to lose some credits toward graduation. I tutored math some during this time, and enjoyed that.
I taught for two years in a school district of some 700 students, where I was the only music educator. I saw every Gr 1-6 student once weekly for general music (get out your Girl Scout songs and have fun singing), and then did bands and choirs on the middle and high school level. I was awful the first year, as every new teacher is. The first year of teaching is kind of like doing puberty again - you're very awkward and do everything wrong. I also moved three times, lost my mother to multiple diseases acquired in a bad blood transfusion (they weren't screening the blood supply when she got that transfusion about 1970), and was nearby when Mt. St. Helens erupted. Regularly seeing students from every grade, from 1-12, was a huge part of my education about education. I got a much better feel for what kids at different ages could do. I also learned that what happened in my classroom wasn't all my fault. Kids bring in baggage, like everyone else.
The second year followed a summer of continuing education required of educators, and I had a much better year. I was hooked.
But after the second year, I married my college sweetheart and moved to where he had a business established. It would be two more years before I had a classroom back again, but I worked in the music field and taught individuals and class guitar. My next job was in a Gr 6 - 8 middle school teaching bands and choirs in one of those up-river communities in WA ("You know you're a redneck when...") and I did NOT belong there. Frank Peretti wrote The Oath based on such a community. I wanted kids to know something about music, just in case there might be some pursuing a career in that field. The community's attitude was that they wanted their kids to have fun. My job was a 1-year replacement contract, and I didn't get it back, thank God!
At the end of the summer, after a few interviews, I got a phone call from one of the island communities in WA. Did I have a job yet? No, so I went and interviewed the very next day. I was actually hired on the 3rd day of school to do some K-6 general music, one class of algebra, beginning band, and a band that combined middle and high school. The islands have a lot of artists in their population, and as an artist in an arts community, I could do no wrong. I loved my job, and the community loved me, especially after I got a 10-member band to play at a football game. Half the band was in the team on the field, which consisted of nearly every boy in the high school. It was a great place and I have many fond memories, even if no one there remembers me.
That was also a one-year replacement contract for a teacher on leave, so my husband didn't plan to move his business to the island. I rented a place on the island, he came to see me in the middle of the week, I took the ferry home on the weekends. But I was hired for a second year, and my first child arrived in December. When I went back to work in February, she went with me. At first we continued our weekend commute, but we found a private pilot working to chalk up hours toward a commercial license, who would fly us back and forth for gas only. Ten bucks each way, in 1986. It was wonderful getting to work that way, but that was pretty much my paycheck. There was a sort of community grandma on the island who was able to bring her to me at lunch. It was lovely, but it was silly.
So the following year, I took a part-time job as the morning teacher at a small local Christian school, doing a classroom of 12 kids that contained grades 4-8. We used the Abeka video school curriculum, which I thought was an excellent curriculum, but was akin to online education today. More about that in a later blog, perhaps.
In November of 1987, my son was born, and for that year I was a stay-at-home mom, the only year I did not work at all.
The following fall I began substitute teaching in local area schools, and began getting regular work because I was a capable music teacher. My sight-singing/reading skills had been well honed in college, and I could actually teach a lesson in the music classrooms. I also substituted math, and most other subject areas, and that was a huge contribution to my education about education. I learned about teachers, how hard they work, which ones I learn from when they're not even in the room.
My kids were 3 and 5 when I started work on my MA Ed, also at the local state university. More on that later. I had a graduate assistantship to do that, so I taught a class on education to pre-service educators as part of that assistantship. Some of them were Master's-level students, acquiring their teaching certificate while getting their MA Ed.
My kids did some pre-school while I was working on that degree, and to help pay for that, I did some work at the pre-school, too.
I began hanging out in my kids' classrooms when they began school. I brought my guitar one day, kinda pushed my way into doing a half-hour of singing, made sure that the songs I brought in also supported what the teachers were trying to teach, and was welcome every week for that half hour. I spent perhaps 4 more hours per week, doing whatever was handy to help those educators. I knew how to run a photocopier, organize a bookshelf, supplement a lesson, and help kids with their lessons.
I tutored math at a local tutoring agency, using a model that would greatly influence my thinking about the way we teach math and science. More blog on that later, as well.
Then I applied for a part-time job actually in the same building with my kids, as the music teacher for that building. When it was awarded to an English major with good piano and vocal skills, I decided that was my last effort at a K-12 job in public education.
That same fall, 1994, some homeschoolers who had seen me at the math tutoring agency requested I do some math classes for their kids. Since the music job in my kids building didn't come through, we began doing that. Twelve kids to start, three levels of math. Twice-weekly classes, for 75 minutes each meeting. I really began to learn about education. I now administrate that group, and we use 13 instructors to teach more than 40 classes to about 125 students. We support home-schooling, and usually pick up the kids where their parents are feeling less competent about the curriculum. Lots more blog on that later.
I was also hired to teach math at the local community college, and I serve as adjunct math faculty there. I do NOT want to be full time there. I want to continue to work with my homeschoolers. There are many good things about working at our community college. It is the institute of second chances, and I love that part about community colleges.
So, I've taught full time and part-time, and I've substitute-taught.
I've taught pre-K to university level.
I've taught privately and in classrooms.
I've been in public and private, secular schools.
I've been the teacher and the administrator, at the same time.
The only thing I haven't done is be a single parent while trying to teach. God help those of you in that situation.
My two children are grown now, both out of the house. My daughter finished college at age 21 with a degree in biology, and works as a veterinary technician while preparing to do her own veterinary program some day. My son is not yet academic material, but is finishing a tech-college program in a trade, is gainfully employed and having a lot of fun with life. He may yet go do something in design or engineering, but has more possibilities in front of him than he can possibly pursue.
I have enough observations about how we do school to fill up this blog. I'll get to them as I get angry enough to post.
Future topics:
The industrial manufacturing model of education.
Technology in education.
If I had one educational reform...
Other reforms I would implement.
You don't need a diploma to go to college.
Visual and auditory learners.
Arts in education.
Teaching in a moral vacuum.
Who should run schools?
Parent directed education.
Homeschoolers at the top and bottom.
More as I think about it.
