I'm Thankful For The Challenge

It has, to say the least, been a different kind of year teaching. The arrival of our new one, lots of new responsibilities and time committments, a not-so-surprising decline in my desire to grade/tutor/stay late at school/arrive early - I've had to kind of reinvent the wheel a bit this year. I had gotten pretty good at being a certain type of teacher. Probably pretty close to the kind of teacher that you see in all the teacher movies. In fact I had been pretty proud of personifying that style and that type of work-ethic.
In Freedom Writers, the stress was so much
that Hilary Swank divorced McDreamy! Or
is it McStuffins...no, it's McDonald...
But the thing about all of those movies is that the relationships at home for the teachers tend to always suck. People are getting divorced. Kids are feeling like they're less important than the students. Families and friends complain that the teacher is never available.

Education should not require the educators to be super heroes to be good. Too often it does. Too often teachers are left under-staffed, under-funded and without support. Too often I see an article like this one or this one or this one or this one from a teacher who has decided that enough is enough and that changing careers is the only option.

I'm not quitting, nor am I particularly close. The thought enters my mind, particularly when my brother (who used to teach but has entered the corporate world) gets home from a vacation to Europe paid for by hotel and airline points! I know the same is true for my wife. We all have our days, probably regardless of profession, where we wonder if we're really meant to be doing whatever it is we're doing.

Teaching isn't unique to this feeling. No, what is unique to teaching is that you have a hundred children relying on you being really good at your job while you have this feeling. You have an off-day, you suffer! The kids feed on your emotion, positive and negative!

Each year on this blog, I've written a Thanksgiving post. This year over Thanksgiving Break when I had a free hour while my kid was napping, I paid bills. Because adulthood.

So, a few days late, here is what I'm thankful for this year:

I'm thankful for the challenge of working with teenagers. It reminds me that, like them, I don't always know it all even when I think I do.

I'm thankful for the challenge of grading pointless assignments. It reminds me that if I don't care that much about grading it, the students probably didn't care that much about completing it.

I'm thankful for the challenge of making my lunch in the morning. It reminds me that I am lucky to have never felt the desperation of not knowing where my next meal is coming from.

I'm thankful for the challenge of keeping animal crackers stocked in my room, since many of my students are not as lucky as I am to have enough food in their bellies.

I'm thankful for laptops and technology not working. It reminds me that learning happened before 1990 and it will continue even when something doesn't work.

I'm thankful for the challenge of keeping up with this blog. It reminds me that reflection is an important part of learning.

I'm thankful for the challenge of being married to another teacher. It reminds me that I married the right one.

I'm thankful for the challenge of sleepless nights. It reminds me that my baby is still healthy, happy and doing all the annoying things that babies sometimes do to parents.

I'm thankful for the challenge of time management. It reminds me that my life needs priorities.

I'm thankful for the challenge of students taking away my prep time in the morning before school. It reminds me that relationships matter; these kids chose to come hang out with me in the morning.

***

I'm thankful for challenging things. A big theme in teaching and life is that mistakes and failure are normal. We must learn to react, change, adapt, grow and strengthen ourselves. This is a hard lesson for teens, when every emotion of life is felt so deeply and with such urgency. The lows are the worst thing ever and highs make you feel immortal. You can pretend that you were more emotionally stable when you were 15, but you're probably lying to yourself.

When things go wrong, I remind my students of how muscles grow; that your muscles hurt after a work out because they've been torn thousands of tiny times; that the muscles recuperate and repair; that getting through the pain is, literally, the only way for a muscle to grow; that growth cannot come without pain.

No one signed on to be a teacher because we wanted an easy life. No one thought that the hours were good or the pay was high. None of us thought that working with teens and adolescents was an emotionally relaxing activity. Not a single one thought that our stress level would be low during the school.

And yet, here we are. The sacred sufferers, ready to wake up and face another day of challenges. Ready to comfort kids whose worlds are shattering around them and still find a way to talk about the Enlightenment. Ready to hand out a handful of crackers with a calculator because Algebra and hunger don't make good company. Ready to repeat your instructions one more time because maybe, just maybe, today is the day that a student's light-bulb will be turned on.

Maybe tomorrow will be the day when the muscle grows and the pain subsides.

And if it is, you will celebrate. You will hug and laugh and call your mother and maybe even cry. You will experience joy.

And then the next day you'll start working out again, inviting the pain back into your life. Because you know that that moment of joy was made all the sweeter because you were thankful for the challenge.

Thanks for reading this blog! I hope you'll consider taking a moment to comment below and turn this into a conversation. Whether you are an educator or not, we have all had common experiences with education both good and bad. I want to hear what you think! 

About Me:
My name is Alec Chambers. I am a high school history and government teacher at a small, urban public school in Kansas City called Center High School. We regularly kick tail. Among many awards, we were named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2014. I don't just teach at Center- I also graduated from Center in 2006 after attending Center Schools K-12. I have a degree in Political Science, a second degree in International Relations, a third degree in Education and a Master's of Arts in Teaching. I have an unofficial degree is soccer. All of those degrees have led me to the high-paying teaching profession! I have a newborn daughter and am married to the most awesome woman on the planet. Seriously. It's a proven fact.

Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Google

I Pray For Aliens

There's a joke that the first time that there will be peace on Earth is when the planet is attacked by an alien race. That's what it will take to unite the world together as one human race. I giggled the first time I heard that joke.

***

This space is normally reserved for thoughts on teaching. However, with the recent attacks in Paris, Beirut and Kenya, I've had a thought that many of you have also had. Why is it that we mourn and change our profile pictures when Paris is attacked, but just go about our day when Beirut is attacked? 

Terrorism has always been fascinating to me. I vividly remember watching TV as the 2nd plane crashed into the World Trade Centers on September 11th. I was in 7th grade, and our school pictures had been delayed. I was happy about that. As I grew older, I seemed to keep coming back to that day, the emotions that I felt, the big-ness of it all. I knew that I was watching history. In college, I knew that I wanted to study why terrorism happened, so I picked a major in political science and eventually added one in international relations.

When I came back to Center, I started to think a bit more about my place in the world. I am a white male from an affluent, stable family. I am about as privileged as privilege comes. I grew up in a school that was majority black and majority free and reduced lunch. And I loved it there. I left for college and found myself at William Jewell, a progressive thinking but still mainly white and affluent private college. And I loved it there too. Then I found myself back at Center, this time as a white teacher of mostly black students. I still love it here.

On Friday, when the news of the events in Paris were starting to get out on the internet and we started to collectively grieve, I had a thought that the frustration on the Missouri campus and in the hearts of so many good, honest, kind black people was connected to what had happened in Paris. I'm a news junkie, so I was aware of the attacks in Beirut on Thursday. Like many of you, I wondered why I didn't have an option of changing my profile pic to the flag of Lebanon. I wondered where all the outrage for those victims was.


There is nothing good that came out of the attacks in Paris, or Beirut. But the unfortunate truth is that these attacks are far from the first of this year and they are far from the last. In the spirit of Rahm Emanuel's quote that you should never let a crisis go to waste, I'm wondering what there is to learn from this tragedy.

And I think that the protests at Mizzou have given us our lesson:

The "West" has an issue with selective grief and selective anger. It effects our society in negative ways. This selective anger and selective grief is a symptom the systems of oppression that continue to cause pain for minorities in America today.

At least based on my Facebook wall, there are a lot of people who are questioning the media silence on tragedies outside of Paris. You've heard of the two attacks on Paris this year. Have you heard of the others?

The day before the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, over 2,000 people were killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The Guardian questioned the silence of the Western World soon after both attacks. This happens time and again. Imagine if you are of Nigerian descent in America. Why did America go into a collective dark cloud for the Parisian attacks while no one mentioned Nigeria? It's not that you would want people to stop mourning the attacks in Paris, but some acknowledgement of your pain would be nice as well. When it happens time and again, it's hard to accept that skin color and continent location play no role in this collective silence.

A mother grieves her son, one of over 2,000 killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria


Below is a partial - a very partial, in fact - list of Islamist terror attacks that have been successfully executed this year:
  • 11/13/15 - Paris, France: 140+ dead
  • 11/12/15 - Beirut, Lebanon: 42 dead
  • 10/22/15 - Borno, Nigeria: 20 dead
  • 10/10/15 - Ankara, Turkey: 95 dead
  • 8/13/15 - Baghdad, Iraq: 70 dead
  • 7/20/15 - Suruc, Turkey: 33 dead
  • 6/26/15 - Sousse, Tunisia: 28 dead
  • 5/25/15 - Nawzad District: 25 dead
  • 5/13/15 - Pakistan: 45 dead
  • 3/7/15 - Maiduguri, Nigeria: 58 dead
  • 1/29/15 - Sinai, Egypt: 44 dead
  • 1/8/15 - Baga, Nigeria: 200+ dead, 2,000 unaccounted for
*Full List

Based on what you read in the news, America and Europe seem to be under attack. That is not exactly true.
Students in my class get frustrated when they feel that I'm playing favorites with particular students. I try not to, but I'm sure it happens sometimes. People in society get frustrated by the same thing, only large parts of American society aren't trying very hard to change. They are the favorites, so they like the current system.

The fact that so many attacks on people in countries where most of the people are brown-skinned go unnoticed in the West is a symptom of the disease. It is proof that there is still racial bias and white privilege even when those writing the stories have the very best of intentions.

So keep praying for Paris. Pray hard and pray often. I look at my beautiful daughter who knows nothing of race and nothing of hate and I pray for something other than peace. I pray for dialogue. I pray for compassion. I pray for empathy. I pray for forgiveness, patience and understanding. I pray that my kids will never been filled with the hate and desperation that leads one human to kill another. I pray that my daughter will learn to think, and to care for others, and to consider the challenges that others face, and to give unconditionally, and to be silent.

I pray for love.

I pray for peace.

I pray for anyone who is suffering, and even for those who cause the suffering.

And sometimes, I pray for aliens.

Thanks for reading this blog! I hope you'll consider taking a moment to comment below and turn this into a conversation. Whether you are an educator or not, we have all had common experiences with education both good and bad. I want to hear what you think! 

About Me:
My name is Alec Chambers. I am a high school history and government teacher at a small, urban public school in Kansas City called Center High School. We regularly kick tail. Among many awards, we were named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2014. I don't just teach at Center- I also graduated from Center in 2006 after attending Center Schools K-12. I have a degree in Political Science, a second degree in International Relations, a third degree in Education and a Master's of Arts in Teaching. I have an unofficial degree is soccer. All of those degrees have led me to the high-paying teaching profession! I have a newborn daughter and am married to the most awesome woman on the planet. Seriously. It's a proven fact.

Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Google

Why I Write

I've been doing a lot of soul-searching since the kiddo came around in May about what I want to get out of this blog. The reality of life right now is that writing here has taken a back seat to life, which is most definitely a good thing. After work, my desire to sit and compose a piece of writing has been diminished by the cute wiggly little kid who keeps smiling at me. She's so distracting!

Before I know it, several weeks have passed by and I realized that I haven't posted about anything. It's not that my thoughts are gone, it's that my time is gone. Or at least reapportioned for different use. I am like a company who's strategic vision has changed.

One of the results of this change is that my time has become extremely valuable. I'm much more concerned with a meeting being pointless this year than in the last 5 because I want to go see my kid! I've stayed less for tutoring and I've called fewer parents than in any previous years. Finding the correct balance between my family and my kids at school has certainly been a bigger challenge than expected.

***

My hope for this blog when I started writing is that it would become a forum for teachers, parents, students and all involved in education - which is, well, everyone - to discuss frustrations, successes, goals and triumphs. As I write these words, my mind is able to move past the singular moments of teaching my own classroom and towards the broader goals and ideas in education. Then I remember that I am a snowflake in an avalanche. Then I get frustrated that I likely won't change the tide of the avalanche. Then I remember that I love being a snowflake anyways, so that's OK.

This is my therapy. This is my healing. This is my place to explore and grow and learn and teach and cooperate all with others who share a vision of what education can be and can become. 

The community of teachers has an issue with negativity. There are so many things on a daily basis that can be a source of frustration that it is easy to get caught up in a vicious cycle. Now that I've joined the ranks of parenthood, I totally get how the increased fatigue leads to less patience, less empathy, less unconditional love and respect.

I find whining just for the sake of whining is enjoyable. But it doesn't help anything. When I whine, I want to productively whine! I want a solution to the cause of my whining so that I won't have to whine about the same thing over and over and over again. I want to help change the classroom that I teach and the lives of the students who spend their time with me. I want to impart meaning to my students and to myself. When I was in 7th grade, I quit the track team. When my dad asked me why I wanted to quit, I told him that I didn't understand a sport that made you run in a circle. It seemed so pointless.

So why do I write? Why do I choose to write here, online, where others can read and comment and judge? That's the question I've been trying to figure out recently.

I write here because it is a little bit scary. For every piece of my being that is a little excited at the prospect that one of  my posts could turn into a book, or could go viral, there is an equally scared piece of my being. The internet is a brutal place, and this writing is putting some personal parts of my being into that world. Let's say one of my posts does go viral. Do I really think that every comment and share will be positive? Not a chance.


Every day in class, I ask my kids to get over their fear. It could be a fear of public speaking; a fear of being wrong; a fear of being made fun of; a fear of failure; a fear of success. Learning occurs outside of our comfort zone. I wish I could find a way to tell my students that this is what learning is really about more often. Every once in a while, I find the right words in the right spot; it just feels like it never happens often enough.

And I think that's why I keep coming back to this blog even as my life has gotten busier with my daughter. I may take a few weeks off, but I keep drifting back here, knowing full well that I don't have some ridiculous large following of people waiting for the next blog post to drop, knowing that it's mostly family and friends and colleagues that read this space, knowing that I have seven ideas a day and most of them turn into a puff of cloud in the sky that spells out coulda-woulda-shouldas.

I love writing. It is the assignment that I always wanted to be assigned in school but go oh-so-rarely. It is the outlet to put out my true feelings and emotions when, in reality, lots of what a teacher does is put on a wonderfully chaotic act. This action, these words, are always true. Should my students read this space (and some of them do), maybe one of them will one day be inspired to teach, or write, or just be excited to be themselves because damnit that's really hard to do in high school.

So that's why I write. What about you?

Thanks for reading this blog! I hope you'll consider taking a moment to comment below and turn this into a conversation. Whether you are an educator or not, we have all had common experiences with education both good and bad. I want to hear what you think! 

About Me:
My name is Alec Chambers. I am a high school history and government teacher at a small, urban public school in Kansas City called Center High School. We regularly kick tail. Among many awards, we were named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2014. I don't just teach at Center- I also graduated from Center in 2006 after attending Center Schools K-12. I have a degree in Political Science, a second degree in International Relations, a third degree in Education and a Master's of Arts in Teaching. I have an unofficial degree is soccer. All of those degrees have led me to the high-paying teaching profession! I have a newborn daughter and am married to the most awesome woman on the planet. Seriously. It's a proven fact.

Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Google