A Renaissance Education

As I spend more time in a bigger variety of classrooms, I come away with a broader range of questions. Given the children that come into your class each day, how do you truly educate and not just "manage" behavior? How do you educate each child, teach each child, and not just teach to the lowest common denominator? How do you take a child whose parents don't value education and inspire him to value learning, create that individual spark in the midst of a full class while also keeping up with behavioral charts and special needs and testing requirements? How do you not let the kids who plug along, do their work, figure out the answers, and behave, fall through the cracks? How do you not let a class become a group of squeaky wheels and invisible achievers?

How did it become that the average kid who does what is required needs the champion?

And what if you were blessed with an group of focused, inquisitive, hungry-to-learn kids - kids who wanted to know more about what you're teaching them? Do you encourage that at the expense of not covering the "test-able" critieria? How do you acknowledge that the testing-rating system is imperfect, but work efficiently within in? How do you take your passion for teaching - like a size 12 foot - and fit it into an efficient size 7 shoe and still keep the passion in spite of the bunions and blisters?

How do you manage your own time and energy and talent in that environment so that you are built-up and not depleted?

I've seen the products of teaching and of loving, dedicated teachers. I believe public education is the single most important factor of a civilized society. Without it there is no hope. But how do we accomplish it? How do we take the leaders of our single best hope - our teachers - and give them tools, not just behavioral charts and test criteria to fill out?