THE ABC’S OF EDUCATION: EURO-AMERICAN STYLE

My education all started the day I went to an interview for a teaching job. I was living on unemployment and making more money than the job was to pay. I had a Bachelor’s Degree from U.C. Berkeley, no teaching experience or certification, but I thought that teaching might be rather interesting. I had nothing to lose. I was a Toastmaster, so I didn’t fear the interview, which was before four other teachers and the principal. So, I marched in there, expecting to have a little fun since speaking in front of groups was my forte. The lady who was before me came out in tears. I was still undaunted. I confidently walked in, sat down, smiled at all of them and waited for the barrage of questions. Well, of course, the way a group interview works is for everyone to get their two cents’ worth in at my expense. When the teachers started to ask me what I would teach and how, I said I didn’t know because I had never taught before, nor did I have any prior classes in education. So, I turned the interview around and I began to interview them. What do you teach? What methods do you use? How do you deal with discipline? That was at 3:30 pm on a Thursday. At 5 pm that day, the principal called and asked if I wanted the job. He said come in on Friday and observe, pick up the textbooks, and then be ready to teach on Monday. However, the job was conditional. In order to qualify to teach, I had to get my certification while I taught. This was a small New Hampshire mill town called Newmarket. I was to teach four classes for $4500.00 a year. I was in full agreement as I liked going to college and enjoyed learning. So, I started teaching school and taking classes the following Monday. However, nothing prepared me for the first detention I gave. The student stood up, took the detention, looked at it, stared at me, and gobbled up the slip of paper, right before my very eyes! I just stood there, wondering if all students ate their detentions. That was just the beginning of a trial by fire (literally and figuratively). It was later that year, that a student set fire to my room to protest my mean-spirited ways as a teacher. That began a search for the ideal education. My search is ongoing and this book is about my search for a way to reach kids and remain sane as a teacher. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”, as Lao Tse, a Chinese philosopher once said. Just so, I began thirty-two years ago to chart the waters of my endless journey into the depths of the vast ocean of academia. I still hope to discover who I am and where I fit in, in this miasmic sea of education. I use the ocean as a motif for learning, for as vast as the sea is, so also are the different systems of education in America and elsewhere. As part of this journey, I spent 22 years teaching in American high schools, and the year (98-99) in a German Gesamtschule (the “equivalent” of our high school). I spent a year as an exchange student at a German university, and three other years living in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. I have a good understanding for the European educational system. I have also taught on both the East and the West Coast, from schools with 50 in a graduating class to 750. I have used varied methods. Some examples are: Tech Prep, Career Pathways, School to Career, and Communication 2000 (all basically different names for approximately the same school-to-work philosophy for the other-than-traditional-college-committed kid). College prep and GATE (for advanced learners) were the other side of that coin. I have piloted new programs, watched de-tracking derail, led seminars and workshops, spoke in conferences, written grants and received funds to do innovative and new programs. These “terrific” programs were designated by the federal or state government as being the latest, greatest “special projects”. Then watched them crash and burn because funds ran out. I have team taught, shuttled back and forth between two school sites, been shafted, shifted and set adrift on the shores of Education Never Never Land, and now I embark on yet another journey...to write about my experiences and try to make some sense of this confusion we call American education. With a European perspective, I will develop the best of both worlds, by outlining the best of both educational systems. To balance this rather serious subject, I will insert poetry to light the way to a different paradigm shift. What programs are better, how are they instituted, and where can they be rearranged to enhance the educational experience? That part of the study will presently unfold.