Terminal
I’m renaming this blog “The John Kennedy Toole Experience.”
This is what posthumous success feels like. You announce that you’re a terminal teacher and suddenly your unremarkable little 100-hit-a-day blog is averaging 500 such hits, not counting the absurd 1,000-hit day two Fridays ago (which, interestingly enough, also holds the distinction as being the worst-morning-I-have-ever-experienced-that-didn’t-involve-coming-face-to-face-with-that-woman-from-the-reserve-desk-Sophomore-year). Suddenly, you’re getting compared to LBJ, causing folks to rethink career aspirations, and being held up as an example of the shortcomings of alt certification.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of all this. Even as current events prevent much public writing, I’m not quite dead yet, and maybe there’s a little more to say.
This is what posthumous success feels like. You announce that you’re a terminal teacher and suddenly your unremarkable little 100-hit-a-day blog is averaging 500 such hits, not counting the absurd 1,000-hit day two Fridays ago (which, interestingly enough, also holds the distinction as being the worst-morning-I-have-ever-experienced-that-didn’t-involve-coming-face-to-face-with-that-woman-from-the-reserve-desk-Sophomore-year). Suddenly, you’re getting compared to LBJ, causing folks to rethink career aspirations, and being held up as an example of the shortcomings of alt certification.
I’m not entirely sure what to make of all this. Even as current events prevent much public writing, I’m not quite dead yet, and maybe there’s a little more to say.
posted by Kilian Betlach at 8:08 AM
10 Comments:
well,
you will have "a little " more to say;
and we are here to read it.
pamela
Keep writing. We'd rather hear your thoughts from you than from all of those who attempt to dissect your thinking.
I still say that those "Good Idea for Inhibiting School Growth" posts struck me at the time they were written and after your announcement as the most germane. Look Jenny people are commenting on this because he's made it public, but he is welcome to tell us were full of goat droppings for the same reason. Who can know what is in another person's mind, BUT the attrition rate in the profession, especially one where a large number of folks are getting trained through state subsidized colleges of education, is worth discussing, and when a promising young teacher like this leaves, it makes a good case study.
TMAO, as always, has the right to tell me I'm full of hot air.
Naw, nobody is full of goat-droppings. I'm just sitting here a little taken aback by the whole response, y'know?
Who said I am rethinking anything...
Apprehensive yes... reconsidering... not on your life.
If anything you have redoubled my resolve to go into teaching.
Us veterans can't have you TFA'ers taking all the glory...
I understand how you're amazed you've made news. I'm also happy at how tolerant you are about us analyzing you. Ultimately your the one who lives with the most immediate consequences whichever way things go. I still think the retention issue is important to discuss because if you're unhappy, I'm wondering how the kids at your school feel, and they can't leave as easily. Those posts about the school cops don't make it sound like a happy place for anyone except the sadistically inclined who are in charge of the whole mess. Anyway, enough with the couch treatment. Thanks for your tolerance and understanding.
I was drawn to this blog because I'm the mother of a second grader blessed with a pissed off teacher this year, and trying to figure out how to help him/me/her get through the year without irreparable damage.
I kept reading because I'm a senior nursing student. The attrition rate of graduate nurses is ridiculous, and ONE piece of the much-shouted-about nursing shortage (kind of like slavery is what the Civil War was about). Three days into my summer internship, I'm sobbing in the parking garage after my shift and before picking up afore-mentioned second grader. I'm shocked that I've chosen such a professional environment willingly. The reasons I chose it are still good ones. The reasons to get out now are becoming clearer and clearer.
interested in hearing more of your "last days"...
TMAO -- I wrote the item you tagged as "being held up as an example of the shortcomings of alt certification." Not my intention at all. I was responding to your own commentary on the challenges "Jake" would face -- challenges you understand far better than I do. No suggestion that your decision to leave your job was indication that you came up short. I doubt very much that had anything to do with it.
Okay, John, no worries. Sorry if I misrepresented. It was less about what you wrote then it's being matched with the other things you wrote that gave me that impression. S'all good, though.
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