Theme for a New School Year

With the new school year about to begin, it’s a good time to think about an overall goal or theme for your students and yourself.  What is the biggest problem you want to work on this year? Maybe, it’s making sure each student feels that he or she can succeed in your classroom? Maybe, it’s letting your students know that you care about each of them, not only as students but also as individuals? Maybe, it’s helping them respect each other and work together as a team? Maybe, it’s using technology as your assistant so that you’ll have the time to help each student to achieve his or her best?

Think about why you became a teacher, and when your students walk into your classroom on that first day, fill them with the spirit to move ahead no matter what obstacles may stand in their way.

Cultural Hype: Who’s Special?

Teacher David McCullough Jr. delivered the commencement address, “You’re Not Special”, at Wellesley High School. Not only did he say the graduates weren’t special, he told them that they’ve “been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped.” McCullough stressed that no matter what achievements the graduates have already achieved, after commencement, the slate is clean and they must travel a new path. That path, he suggested should be one in which they go after what they love and believe in—one in which they work hard and dream big. Graduates shouldn’t go out thinking everything will fall in place for them, but instead that they must make things happen.

According to McCullough, they’ve probably been told they are one in a million, and therefore, very special. However, “on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like” these graduates. The speech, as you can imagine, garnered an abundance of attention. Newsweek’s Periscope, “Generation ‘Special’" tells us that of the 700 emails McCullough received after the speech, only four were critical of his words. Does the speech inspire us educators to reconsider how we are educating our students? American companies often have to locate their operations overseas because they cannot locate enough qualified workers in the U.S. Think about how difficult it is for us to encourage students to take the most difficult courses in the STEM subjects and continue on with them in college. Do our students know how to write well, solve problems, and use tech as an assistant in their learning?  Do they know how to learn without us (educators and parents) pushing them? Are we heading many of our graduates toward inevitable difficulty in finding jobs after high school and college?