S.P.E.A.D.

That's the acronym I think Jenny came up with, because PEEP was just ridiculous since it only had two letters representing two different things each, and barely even the words worth remembering. So here goes S.P.E.A.D...

Stewardship- getting the kids in a mindset of responsibility toward the school and eventually society.

Pedagogy- the art and science of teaching

Equal Access- making sure every student has a chance to learn and succeed

Democracy- preparing the students for a democratic future

That's about as well as I understand each right now. I wanted to talk more about stewardship and democracy though. I'm not sure which is the right category for my thoughts, but the other day we were talking about preparing the kids for the future, to become responsible citizens of society. I've actually been thinking about that a lot since then, it's kind of the great mystery I want to crack as a teacher.

Today in elder's quorum I was thinking about home teaching, and about the people who do the bare minimum so they can give the presidency a thumbs up for the month, as if their personal percentage of home teaching counts in heaven. As if God has a scorebook and you get 20 points for the month just for doing it, and that gets you closer to heaven. Naturally it was in the mindset of a teacher. With my pointbook, are kids going to do the absolute minimum and get a grade that means nothing?

My theory at the moment is that, as a teacher, my responsibility is to figure out a way for the grades to reflect what they've learned. Beyond that, I need to make sure what they're learning will mean anything in the future. It might sound like a cliche, for grades to mean something and for learning to apply to life, but to come to that conclusion myself instead of merely accept what people tell me, is a big step, because now it becomes more of a personal mission to solve.

fin.