I just finished listening to The Story, a syndicated interview program, carried by our local public radio station.
Ruben Jackson changed careers, leaving a job at the Smithsonian for teaching English in high school. He found himself in front of his first class at age 55. This is the second or third time host Dick Gordon has interviewed him. I bring this up because his experiences ring true. I like his approach and his philosophy. I think I would like having such a person across the hall from me. So often, someone makes a mid-career change to teaching, has a bad first year experience as rookies often do, especially if their administration is not supportive, and writes a scathing book about how absolutely awful American public schools have become. Many of this gentleman’s observations resemble my own. It sounds like he had the good fortune to land in a competently run school, as most are, but not all.
He says, in effect, that the more schools and their students have changed over the years (and they have), the more they are the same (which I think is not a bad thing, mostly).
If you want to know (or remember) what it’s like, give this a listen. I have tested the link, and it works.
http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_101311_full_show.mp3/view