Who's to Blame?

I saw a video the other day where a first year teacher shared how this will be their first and last year in education. They listed a slew of reasons and some of them resonated with me. However, something they left out was that it is their first year in education and as any educator knows, your first year is pretty much miserable no matter what your background is.

As someone who was very fortunate to grow up in a family who emphasized academics, I was shielded from a lot of what I see in my students today. I had a very sheltered view of what it meant to be a student, to be a teenager, and what really happened in the classroom around me. I always felt that every student was like me: did their homework on time, completed every assignment as the teacher asked, did their extra credit, didn’t procrastinate, etc. etc.

As I am learning and as my dear friend reminds me, I am an anomaly. I am abnormal to the nth degree. My students are your run of the mill teenagers: distracted by their devices and relationships, unable to understand the consequences of their actions, lacking a fully developed pre-frontal cortex, forgetful and still a child.

I digress.

The challenges are plenty. Lack of resources, lack of parental involvement, school districts scared of parents suing them, teachers wearing too many hats and being overworked, administrators who are not always aware of what is happening in the classroom…I could go on and on.

To put the question out there: who is to blame? Or should I reframe the entire idea and view it through a different lens: where did we go wrong?

If we constantly look for the blame, it’s like putting a bandage on a bursting aorta. Maybe we need to consider the root cause of the problem (or root causeS of the problem) and work to systemically rebuild our educational system so we don’t let our children down.