The Gap

     I'm lucky enough to know the complete exhaustion of Friday just after school is out.  It's a mind-numbing kind of tired but the kind where you know your efforts mattered.  I was an assistant teacher at the time so I'm assuming the classroom teacher was as tired as I was, if not more tired.  But here I am in school preparing to take on the job of teacher.  I'm here because I know that feeling, not in spite of it.
     Teachers have been in the news a lot lately due to budget cuts, contract negotiations, and statistics that make it seem like our kids are becoming less educated rather than more.  Some people want teachers to do more with less and resent that teachers get summers off and still have the nerve to complain.  A recent story in the Seattle Times discusses the high expectations people have of teachers yet still don't value them as professionals.  I think it's because every adult in the country has, at one time, had a "bad teacher", someone who probably hated their job, was burned out, or resented being scrutinized by administrators and parents. This experience causes some people to be merciless about what teachers should be capable of doing and ought to do without complaining and just be thankful they have a job.
     My favorite part of this piece is when a teacher being interviewed expresses that he's fighting an uphill battle and the reporter summarizes this viewpoint with "he knows he has two choices: throw up his hands or try like crazy". Good teachers are going to try like crazy, but let's hope they aren't completely burned out from their efforts to fill the gap.
     What can we as individual teachers do in our classrooms to connect students to enriching learning experiences when schools are operating on budgets that are stretched thin?  What resources remain untapped? How can we involve families in educational activities to a greater extent?