Ann Metlay Artist and Writer
  • Home
  • About
    • Artist Statement
    • Calendar
  • My Journal
  • Past Works
    • ASSEMBLAGES
    • Mindfulness Vessels
  • Books
    • Ann, the Writer
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Artist Statement
    • Calendar
  • My Journal
  • Past Works
    • ASSEMBLAGES
    • Mindfulness Vessels
  • Books
    • Ann, the Writer
  • Contact

my journal

In Honor of Teaching

5/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​I can pull up the memories. Miss Cook, my kindergarten teacher who produced a musical reviews with my kindergarten class of the Gay Nineties.  I was a beautiful doll in a black and white striped dress. Costumes, music, acting—she did it all with five-year-olds. Miss Lamb, my third grade teacher. She was ancient, my mother’s teacher before me. Teaching had been her whole life, love poured out of her. We all felt so special to be in her presence. Mrs. Preston was the “too outspoken teacher without tenure.” She brought biology alive in ways it continues to live, 60 years later. Mr. Wright dropped out of school at 15 to enter journalism, returned to train himself so he could each the future generation what he knew. My writing has always shone because he cared, and my writing has been my foundation.

Teaching was always a thankless career. One designed, once, for spinsters and young ladies still looking for husbands. One could not devote all they needed to teaching and have any kind of life on the side.  I lived as a teacher for well over 40 years. It was intense. Nothing else could happen during the hours I  presided over my motley students. I poured everything I was into that classroom seven straight hours. Bathroom breaks, lunch periods were almost non-existent day after day. And then there was the prep all evening every evening.

 I fought over the necessity of the breaks in the school year. Christmas week, spring break, summers. For me that was when I had a few hours of returning to sanity, of fulfilling the needs of everyone else in my life. 

I was “on” all day every day with those students. I constantly reinvented myself, reinvented my entire curriculum in order to find the right approach to teach Johnny or Betty. And I felt so proud each year when I looked at the results of the intense work I had done. Johnny had developed new skills in areas we had felt were impossible for him. Betty had learned how to get along with others, blossomed into a beautiful flower. I had assisted in the transformation.

Today our educational system has been abused and kicked around. Teachers are asked to do more and more for more and more students under increasingly difficult circumstances. Monies cut. Students fractured. Knowledge to be passed on has multiplied exponentially. Expectations for what a teacher must do become increasingly unrealistic.

Homeschooling seems for some to be the panacea. Schools are seen as too broken to meet the needs of our own child. Those who remain with the schools ask for even more dedication from the teachers. And they are expected to do it with more and more limited funds. More and more mandates, tests, individualized programs.

I see teaching as one of the most important careers out there. Teachers are to take the raw material offered by children and mold them into the citizens of tomorrow. When they cannot do their jobs, our entire society collapses. 

Thank you, teachers! Your jobs are thankless. Your expectations are boundless. Your support shrinks, yet you keep coming back to do it again.

Ten years ago I left Sterling Elementary in Sterling, Virginia, a suburban school outside Washington DC. We had a multi-cultural population with many challenges. I do not know a more dedicated group of professionals. Through Facebook, I have continued to follow these friends. They continue to plug away at their profession as requirements become more demanding, and fun1ding does not exist.  These are heroes! We depend o them to work their miracles.  Thank you

0 Comments

    Ann Metlay

    "With all the beauty surrounding me here above the Verde Valley, how could I not create more beauty?"

    Archives

    October 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All
    1968
    Abandonment
    Acceptance
    A College Memory
    Adrift Wood And Stone Assemblages
    Affirming Life
    After Parkland
    All About The Moon
    Amazon Books
    Amber's Birds
    A Moving Journal
    An Age Old Controversy
    Antidote For A One-Day Winter
    April Sunrise
    Arizona Monsoons
    A Tribute To Clark Memorial Library
    Autism
    AZ
    Beauty
    Beginning Of Fall
    Berkeley Bourgeois Meets Bronco Busting Bar-Fighter
    Blessing Of The Bug
    Blessings
    Blowing Into Spring
    Body Image
    Book Reviews
    Breeze Song
    Butterfly Space
    Carrot Beet Soup With Dill
    Cats
    Celebrate
    Children
    Chilled Spinach Soup
    Chilled Tropical Fruit Soup
    Clarkdale
    Coming Into Health
    Community Of Artists
    Cottonwood
    Cottonwood Studio
    Cottonwood Trees
    Cottonwood Village
    Cottonwood Waltz
    Devotion
    Dodi Checks In
    Doxies
    Dragon (A Story From The Classroom)
    Enchanted Wands
    Evolution Of Art
    Faith
    Father's Time
    Featured Artist
    Finding The Promised Land
    Forming Community
    For The Love Of Cats
    Fresh Tomato Soup
    From Adrift
    Full Moon
    Genesis 1
    Grand Opening
    Gratitude List
    Hank Erwin
    Hanukah 2017
    Hanukkah 2018
    Happy Birthday
    Headlines
    Healing Wolf
    Helen
    High Holidays
    Holiday Blessings
    Holidays
    Homing Wands
    How I Moved To The Verde Valley Of Arizona
    How To Eat Matzoh
    How To Mark A Life Milestone
    I Live In Gratitude
    Immigrants
    In Honor Of Teaching
    Inspired By Louise Nevelson
    January 2017 First Friday Artwalk
    John F. Kennedy
    Jr.
    Judaism
    Judie Dies
    June 5
    Kindle
    Kittens
    Kitten Time
    Late Dinner
    Learning To Entertain
    Leaving Jerome
    Lech Lecha
    Let's Go Camping
    Light Food
    Lilacs
    Made In Clarkdale
    Making Choices
    Martin Luther King
    May
    Medication
    Meet Don Jones
    Memoir
    Memories For The Holidays
    Menus
    Mindfulness Vessels
    Modeling
    Mousie
    Moving Beyond Words
    Moving Down The Hill
    My Artistic Process
    My Latest Book
    My Tree
    New Artist Syndrome
    New Gallery
    New Studio
    Nightmares
    No
    On The 342nd Birthday Of This Country
    Open Studio
    Open Studios
    Palo Verde Trees
    Parents
    Patriot's Day
    Peace Corp.
    Pets
    Photo Shoot
    Poem
    Poems
    Poetry
    Political
    Potato Leek Soup
    Prayer
    Prayer Shawl
    Quality Of Life
    Ranch
    Rebirth
    Rebuttal
    Recipes
    Red Flag Warning
    Rehoming Ceramic Pieces
    Reitz Ranch
    Remembering Departed Friends
    Remembering Junipurr
    Reunion Thwarted
    Review Of 2018
    Ribbons
    Scenes From Day 2 Of Open Studios
    Season
    Sedona
    Self Assurance
    Self Doubts
    Shadow Of Athena
    Side Effects
    Soup
    Storms
    Studio Cats
    Summer
    Summer Soup
    Sunday Soiree
    Sunday Sunset Soirees
    Sycamore Canyon
    Synagogue
    Teaching
    Thanksgiving
    Thanksgiving Grace
    The Man Who Blew In Off The Desert
    The Power Of Soups For Cold Weather
    The Woodman Cometh
    The Year To Come
    Toe Rings
    Torah
    To Restore Our Dreams
    To Restore Their Dreams
    Trauma
    Travel
    Tree Of Life
    Tree Parts In Desert Wood Assemblages
    Trump
    Verde Valley
    Waiting For The Monsoons
    Watermelon Dessert Soup
    Watermelon Gazpacho
    What Is Word Artistry?
    Wordless Poetry
    Zorb

    RSS Feed