The obsession with academia.

Imagine you start your schooling at age 4-5 (earlier these days with transitional kindergarten and preschool programs). You make your way through the educational system on through elementary school learning to read and write and play with others. Your academic skills ramp up in middle school and you begin your sometimes rocky yet necessary transition into your individual autonomy. High school comes at you in all its grandiosity- Friday night lights, significant others, more real world application of knowledge, and the coming mountain peaks and valleys of adulthood. You decide to enter college after spending the last 18+ years of your life within the confines of many campuses.

Bachelors degree- check. What now? “I know,” you think to yourself. “I’ll become a teacher.” After all, you love to learn and you love to see others learn as well. Or you are chasing the authority and power that comes with running your own classroom, or whatever other reason exists?

Teaching credential- check! You are now Mr. Teacher and you are welcomed into the ranks of countless educators. Your trial by fire begins and your first day with a class full of students feels like you’ve been dragged through the coals. It’s ok though. You sharpen your craft and soon students begin to credit you with their success in all types of fields or view you as one of their most influential adult figures. This is all very rewarding. I have experienced this myself.

You retire a happy educator and you spend your days reminiscing about seeing those eyes light up as knowlege made its way through a students consciousness and connected with them in a powerful and meaningful way.

That’s what we would all hope for as educators- to have our classrooms be safe havens for learning and the spread of wisdom.

However, not all educators have this experience. Remember the journey through the educational system? Well, for some teachers, IT NEVER ENDED:

Elementary to middle to high school to college and back into another school.

You remained in the classroom but the power shifted to you and school became your second home; sometimes your better home, not ever really knowing what it’s like to function and make a living outside of academia. It is your world. Knowledge seeds are planted with the hope of bearing fruits of wisdom measurable. The weather ebbs and flows with the relationships you make with your colleagues, students and parents. The floods come when layoffs are handed out like candy and the days of milk and honey come with pay raises and upgraded facilities.

And so for many educators and administrators, their lenses are perpetually fixed on the sustainment of their world. And who would dare threaten the order? Be on time. Be prepared. Heed my words! All very sound advice, but we must also look past the atmosphere of the school and realize that our students are living lives that are not dependent on the success of their academic careers. How exciting to know this!

As we see in Joshua’s poem below, he was successful before he even stepped on campus. He got ready for school and on top of that he got his sister ready for school. You might be asking, “where are the parents?” A valid question that may have informed his teacher into responding with more grace to his lack of writing utensils.