In Passing

I was at a conference recently, not the reading one, but a different one for teachers (and pre-service teachers).

Some friends and I were walking the huge, packed halls trying to find the room we were supposed to be in. The place is huge, and there are so many people, and we're already late, but we keep searching. Better late than never.

In passing, I heard one teacher say to another, "But its not in the standards, so I'm not going to teach it."

Gasp.

I realize the reality I am going to be teaching in, where we really do want the students to learn certain things by certain grade levels. I understand the reality of it. I do not know what the teacher was talking about, maybe it really was something that was okay to drop from her curriculum. But, how sad is that?

There is so much out there that our standards (Illinois, or Common Core even) don't cover (or wont, when they finish writing them). And thats expected. The standards can't cover everything. The students can't learn everything. I mean, the teachers can't even teach everything. Sometimes they don't even cover all the standards. But How Sad that things we love or things students love are being ousted from our schools because we just don't have the time and motivation to teach it. (Which reminds me of my conclusion to my post on Beowulf)

It is reality, I know.
But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Or that I can't try to change it a bit when the 'pre-service' comes off my title, and I'm a full fledged teacher.