I Wanted to Be A Social Studies Teacher

And a new Gadi Taub clip that will cure whatever is bothering you.

When I first decided I wanted to be a teacher (in my forties, after subbing for a couple of years) I wanted to be a social studies teacher. I love teaching young people about current events and helping them to see how they have a voice in what happens in their communities, country and world. My social studies teachers in middle school taught us so much more than facts. They taught us how to think, and how to protect ourselves. They taught a bunch of Southern, mostly white kids about Miranda rights! They taught us not to let police search our houses without a warrant. The kinds of things my current students could stand to know, if they would be quiet and listen.

This week I started off class discussion with the prompt, “Should taxpayers pay for public education?” First, I had them guess how much money per year student the taxpayers pay to educate children in this district. Stickers were awarded to the winners, even though a few protest they are too old for stickers. To which I reply, “Okay class, who wants his stickers?” There are plenty of takers.

Many of my students, perhaps most, did not know what a taxpayer is. So I had a few kids who did explain, and I filled in the gaps. “It’s like what comes out of your check, right?” Yes, that’s part of it. Who pays taxes? “Just rich people?” No, everyone who makes money. Rich, poor, in between. If your parents work they pay taxes. Taxes fund the government, everything the government does.

“Like SNAP and EBT,” said one kid. True enough.

While I was trying to lead a class discussion on taxpayer funded public education, the kids were either talking so loudly I couldn’t be heard or horsing around with each other, play-fighting as they like to do 90% of the day, and ignoring me. At one point two eighth graders were jumping on top of each other, so I said, “Okay guys, thank you for your help. I’m going to let the other kids in on the secret now. I asked these guys to illustrate why taxpayers might not want to fund public education, so they are helping me out here. You can cut the act now guys.”

Teaching is improv comedy.

I had each one write a few sentences on what they though, and why or why not? We do this exercise every day. Most kids were in favor of public education. The reasons you would think: we need education so we can get a good job, we will be stupid without it, etc. But some of my best kids, the ones who do their work and don’t disrupt so often go unnoticed, wrote that they do not think taxpayers should fund public education.

The kids don’t care… they get in trouble and bring things to school they shouldn’t… they disrespect the teachers and don’t want to learn…

I didn’t say it, the kids did. The ones who take the most advantage of the education they get for free.

Kids who argued in favor of public education promptly got out their playing cards and attempted to ignore the vocabulary assignment. They were so used to having a different sub every day and no real work that they just don’t want to deal with having a real teacher. The attempts to get me to quit continue but I won’t get into that… just to say that there is a good reason I escape to videos from Tel Aviv as soon as I can.

As the kids started their play routine, I asked them, nicely (I think), “As a taxpayer, why should I pay for you to sit here, ignore the teacher and play cards?”

Shockingly enough, that got most of their attention. I was able to teach a bit. The kids took the lesson, looked up the words, and struggled through the sentence practice. First they tried to use AI generated sentences but that was obvious so I sent them back to write their own. They do not know how to use words like “contemporary” but many are willing to work with me and learn. We talked about how definitions don’t tell you how to use a word, and that’s why we have reading and sentence practice.

I wish I had had these kids all year. We could have made so much progress. So many horses have fled the barn by now. They ask why we have to learn when we’ve already taken the standardized test. That is what teaching to the test teaches students. They ask why we have to learn when it’s so close to the end of the year.

“Why are taxpayers paying for you to be here?” I kept asking in response to the complaints. I have stumbled across a way to occasionally get through the wall.

Some kids were willing to pay attention long enough to learn that part of the motivation behind making education mandatory was to get the kids out of the factories. They were horrified to think they might have had to work instead of going to school.

Twelve and thirteen year olds have historically worked and contributed to the family’s well being. I obviously do not believe in child labor, but I wish that kids got some sense of what it’s like to do meaningful work. I went to work in the library where my mom was the Director when I was able to get a work permit. I got no special treatment for being her daughter. In fact, I got a stern lecture about how I needed to be extremely respectful of the staff and be a “modest puppy.” I was such a good kid. I paid for it later but until about 38, I was an extremely good kid.

Maybe that’s why I hate to see the kids who really want to learn suffer.

As though they can hear my prayers, Israel Update dropped a new podcast. In it you can hear Gadi’s speech to the Jewish News Syndicate International Policy Summit, as well as see the interview I linked last time. His speech is fantastic. My father would have loved it. It’s about the larger fight for civilization against the forces of barbarism. For someone who was born in Jerusalem as a Jew and speaks English with a great Hebrew accent, he sure could pass for a Southern fire and brimstone preacher in this one. (That is a huge compliment coming from me!) You have to listen to it. Go now.

He doesn’t mess up any English though. I guess we have to wait for the conversations with Mike for that

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