The girl in glasses has graduated — congratulations! — from University of Chicago and is applying for jobs as a history teacher.
I just applied for a job at an all-girls’ high school which seeks to “empower women” by offering three levels of fashion courses, but no physics or calculus. In addition, I am starting to see a strong correlation between history teaching and sports coaching/PE teaching. Whereas I previously assumed this was just a quirk of my high school, it seems that, actually, it is a national phenomenon and that I can look forward to hobnobbing with gym teachers for the rest of my life.
Last week, a history teacher and football coach competed on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” He wasn’t. Not even close.
About Joanne
I went to graduate school for education for a while, hoping to become a history teacher on the secondary education level. I decided to go to law school after being asked “History teacher? What do you coach?” for the 100th time.
One of my grave concerns about our educational system is based on the poor quality of “instructional leadership” we are provided. When I spend an afternoon talking with other mentor teachers, we discuss deep educational issues and best practice, often for hours. When I meet administrators, their first questions are about our district’s athletics, which I don’t follow and see as a primary distraction from academics; yeah, conversations with administrators last about two minutes.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out that most of these administrators were history teachers/coaches. Is there any hope for improving our schools when we are provided with “leaders” like these?