Monday, November 21, 2011

Trade-Offs

The book I'm reading - Detracking for Excellence and Equity (Shout Out to my professional book club!) - is making me feel sort of like a sell-out for leaving my old job and starting my new one.  You see, the book is about committing to making our public schools fair and fantastic for all students by eliminating tracks and providing an awesome college-prep curriculum to everyone.

Of course, I now work in an independent school.  I love the school so much.  I have cool students, creative colleagues, and the ability to do my best work without a lot of barriers in terms of administration and/or bureaucracy.  Also, the school is much more racially diverse and outwardly committed to pluralism than my previous school.  But, we don't have the same amount of heterogeneity in terms of student achievement because, well, kids have to apply to get in and then achieve at a certain level in order to stay in.

So, even though I don't regret my decision to take my new job AT ALL, I do feel like there are other teachers out there doing more notable and noble work by digging in with more diverse learners.  I feel sort of like a traitor for reading this book that's pretty much meant for them.

Luckily, my other book club book (Shout Out to the Mother-Daughter book club!) is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  I probably won't have an identity crisis over that one, so I can't wait to start it.


4 comments:

LH said...

I keep thinking about trade offs lately. No matter where you teach, you're doing great things for kids. And I'm proud to know you and learn from you and your awesome teaching.

Indiana Rock on a California Roll said...

After being referred to as "The education One Percent" by a prof last week in the midst of Occupy Cal, I too am thinking about trade offs. But mostly I think it's good to read as many things as possible.

mm said...

I wish (when I'm not overwhelmed) that I had a professional book club... well done.

jdoc said...

The other work is neither more notable or noble. Every kid deserves a good teacher like you.