A Vent

I just need to vent for a moment.

What is developmentally appropriate about 1st, 2nd, or 3rd graders changing classes? Why do teachers get so territorial and don't want to leave "their room," yet are ok with a class of 20 something kids having no space to call their own during the day? If one is going to change classes, why not have the teacher change class, rather than wasting so much instructional time in transition from space to space? Discipline problems ALWAYS occur most frequently during non-instructional/transitional time. Why intentionally set up a problem?

Whatever happened to building relationships with a group of students and REALLY knowing how they are doing, in all subjects? Accountability? Ability to communicate to parents without trying to find a time for a whole group of teachers to meet with them? How does one build relationships on the elementary level across the board when one doesn't really know the kids? Where are we working to avoid discipline problems with the relationship building? Where is the really thinking about things from a child's perspective rather than an adult's perspective?

One chooses to teach in part because one loves children, right? And if one loves children, wouldn't it make sense to really think about what is good for them rather than what is good for the teacher? It's not about the teacher. It never is. It's about the children.

I really want to know who on the school level is asking the question: "What is best for the kids?"

I ask that all the time on the college level. If one works with children, or with people who want to work for children, that, in my mind at least, should always be the guiding question: "What is best for the kids?"

I just don't get it.