mounting frustrations...

well, i haven't really kept up with this thing as i intended to, but i feel the need to vent.

i'm growing increasingly frustrated by the amount of talk that is going on in my school without the backbone for responsible action. time after time again, there is an article read and distributed here and there about the latest and greatest new innovative strategy that will change the way our students learn and succeed. an idea brews in the conscious of how we should be doing things and it's never systematically and logistically thought out and executed.

i'm also tired of giving my students as many chances as possible which inevitably is leading to a norm in the school that our students can procrastinate and ignore deadlines. this in turn leads to work that is turned in (if, at all) weeks and weeks late where all the learning has gone down the drain. i've changed my due date policy in my own classroom, but i'm feeling the effects of the philosophy of the majority of the school giving flexible deadlines (are they deadlines if things aren't even ever really due?).

what is wrong with our education system? what happened to student accountability? what happened to deadlines? is this only a symptom of schools in urban settings or is this really a way that is spreading across our nation?

i really try to be optimistic about being an educator, but it becomes increasingly frustrating and difficult when there is so much pressure with so little support. i become increasingly frustrated when my administration is pushing me to push my students to higher levels of learning and challenges, yet have no idea how often i am confronted by blank spares and uncomfortable silence when i ask a student what is "12 divided by 3" or "8 times 4".

i'm afraid that we might one day (sooner than later) live in an idiocratic world.