Disillusionment

Pgs 170-246

This was the section on disillusionment. A lot of the entries were about teachers who struggled to get through each day, with some quitting at the end. The first entry that I will discuss was about testing. Today classrooms are full of standardized testing and also full a lot of students who struggle with it. I remember my teachers telling me that the tests didn’t count for our grade in class so a lot of my peers just messed up the answers on purpose. Now I think that maybe those students couldn’t understand or were too frustrated to try to do the test. What answers do we give our students about the necessity of standardized testing if even we as teachers are disenchanted with it?

The story about the teacher that taught in what I think is a detention center for students who have been in trouble with the law definitely caught my attention. On this particular day one of the 16 year old boys, Mario, found out his parents have been taken by the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) because they are here illegally. Mario was the oldest of 5 children who are now left to fend for themselves. There is nothing this teacher can do, for Mario, his parents, his younger siblings, or even offer reassurance about the future. I think helpless does not even begin to describe how this teacher felt.