I feel I need to reply to Ginger's genuinely sweet note. I agree with her in theory. I'm wondering in practice.
One of the peculiar things that happen to you when you grow "old" is that you have an historical perspective! Not that I ever wanted one, but it's inescapable. I used to tend to be more like Ginger's note, and I guess I probably still am with my kids and in my school. But with the rest of the world, including you all? Not so much. I guess my frustration is really starting to show. With us as a profession being practically hog-tied with Direct Instruction and other influences, I'm wondering if we could have contributed to our own demise. Businesswomen and those in other professions often disagree, usually cordially, but they stand face to face and make their points. We, on the other hand, can barely stand it if everyone isn't "okay." We'll bend over backwards to be the nurturing souls we usually are. Who knows what we've given up because we weren't able to suck it up and actually engage in discussions which sometimes turned hot??? I know; it isn't comfortable to me either. With the first sign of disagreement, I too want to start compromising and "working it out" to everyone's satisfaction. Is there nothing important enough for us to stand up for our profession, our colleagues, and our children?? Obviously unions, educational icons, and other issues we've seen talked about here, are going to be hot topics. Some of us are more impassioned about them because of our personal experiences. All our experiences are different, so it seems to me to be patently obvious that our opinions will be as well. But there's something to be said for an intellectually honest discussion of issues even when they are emotional. Maybe even especially when they are emotional. Now I'm going to do something which is pretty marginally polite/cheeky and so I'll apologize ahead of time. Elaine, if you are reading, would you be interested in speaking to this topic? How much has it cost you to speak the truth??? Yes, you have documentation, but I suspect you "knew" the truth long before you could back it up. Where are we as a profession headed if we can't even disagree within ourselves, to say nothing of the far more difficult, disagreements outside of Us? And, while I admire the kindly spirit of those who say "just my opinion," I agree with Aaron Brown while he was a newscaster at CNN. He had given a story about why females sometimes fail to get ahead in the business world and said he thought a lot had to do with their nurturing natures and simple language. He mentioned that he'd heard many females walk through an intelligent, articulate presentation as a businessPERSON in a competitive business, then end it with "just my opinion," which in effect marginalized both them and their argument. It's a given that it's just our opinion. But we probably can be more careful to make our language reflect our value of ourselves and our opinions. I don't see why we can't co-exist as someone with passion, intelligence, and yet still the desire to collaborate, compromise, and "get things done." But maybe it's time to separate the qualities that make us successful teachers from what we say as professionals. But that's, of course . . . just my opinion! Hope I didn't offend too many of all the thinkers I admire so much! Hope Dr. Garan chimes in! Bev PS - I don't really need to reread this before I send it either--I won't be a better person in the two minutes it takes--I'll still be me--and I'll still say the same thing. _________________________________________________________________ http://newlivehotmail.com _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
