In which I am now a "real" teacher.

It's true. It's real. I'm a 4th grade teacher.

To really help you capture the weirdness of this reality, I'd like you to participate in the following exercise:

First, think about fourth grade. Do you remember your first crush? Did you do a good job learning your multiplication tables? (Do you remember them now? 7x6 still gets me from time to time. As do most of my times 4's, actually.) You probably were starting to develop cliques for the first time ever. You played soccer at recess. You hung from the monkey bars by your knees and made up bratty songs that used simple rhymes. You probably made fun of the weird kid. Maybe you were the weird kid.

Second, think back to your fourth grade teacher. She was probably a she, and her name was probably Ms. Smith, or something like that. She was or wasn't nice. She was or wasn't fun. She did or didn't throw a Valentine's Day party.

Third, I want you to make your teacher disappear.

Fourth, I want you to make that teacher you. You right now. Just replace Ms. Smith with you. This might be tricky because you probably didn't know Ms. Smith was a real human. I always kind of thought teachers were a freak breed that lived only by the holiest of morals and acted always from the high point of perfect logic and calculated wisdom that I might only understand if I was older. Well, we're older now. Do you feel like you're that perfect moral compass/logician/sage? I don't.

But I am Ms. Smith. Weird.

I have no idea if that really had any effect on your perception as to what it means to be a teacher. If it was a total miss, just know that it is really a bizarre twist. Trust me.

Anyways, Spring Break is ending tonight. I'm reflecting on my year so far and desperately trying to gain control of what I'll be doing for the next two weeks, but more importantly what I'm doing tomorrow. All of this reflecting has whittled away the layers of BS and allowed me to expose what seem to be my core values and beliefs about teaching and by extension, life. I know, right?

Tonight, over the course of the next 15 minutes or so, I'm going to turn off my filter and see what comes out in regards to this core value. I'm hoping that it will sound noble, determined, and revolutionary when it's finished. Probably more likely it will sound naive, blurry and insignificant. We shall see. In either case it will be honest - which is something, right?

Without any further ado...

Peter's Teaching Manifesto

Life is not hard. It's really not. There are things that are sad, and frustrating, sometimes even dangerous. But by and large, it's just not that tough. Think about it. Really stupid, incompetent people are alive. They are well. If they can do it, anyone can. So if that's the case, why is it that everyone seems to be stressed out, insecure, and frustrated about life? This is especially true at work. Especially true in teaching. Life just isn't that hard, but we do our best to make it hard by stubbornly refusing to accept that it might just be fun. It might just be fun.

That's really what it comes down to. It is fun. It's supposed to be. If you're not enjoying your life, you're missing the point. If you accept that truth, then there is NO REASON teaching should not be fun. In fact, it should be more fun because it's with kids. In my humble opinion, kids are the best because they are the number one group in the world who properly prioritizes fun.

If it's fun, kids will literally do anything. It's also true that because they're so into fun, anything can be fun if properly presented. Because of that, teaching can be very powerful and very fun at once.

People have tried, in recent years, to reduce teaching to a science. They've attempted to set up a very calculated and systematic method to ensure that all students are being properly educated to compete in the world's global market. They use mostly acronyms to describe that method. HA! That all sounds very good and orderly, except that you're teaching KIDS! KIDS! They love boogers! They love the IDEA of poop. They do not give a rat's keister about the global market. And nor should they, probably. I don't, really. Do you?

You see, the thing about working with kids is that they're impressionable. It matters. If you act like everything is stressful, and there is a black and white answer to every question, and that it is vital that they meet x standard at y time proven by z assessment, then they will believe that. They will become that. Yuck. And yet, in spite of that, that is how most teachers act. Of course they do. They're laid with that burden by the principal, who is burdened by the superintendent who is burdened by the state who is burdened by the federal government who is burdened by that global market that you and I really just don't care that much about.

But the thing is that that's not the way life is. True, education may be facing those pressures for whatever reason, but it's beside the point. We don't want to raise a bunch of black and white thinking children who are burdened by expectations, standards, and false assumptions of stressful and painful living. I don't, anyways.

I want my kids to enjoy what they're doing, when they're doing it. I want them to be proud of who they are. I want them to be a part of something positive, something bigger. I want them to make choices for the good of the group and for the good of themselves. I want them to understand that those two things aren't that different. I want them to succeed at every task. I believe success is engagement - true engagement for the sake of the task, not for the sake of a test, or a standard, or a plan.

I want them to learn because it's fun to be at school, and at school, you learn.

The reason I have always believed I would be a good teacher is because I believe in fun. I truly do. I also believe that people are not bad. They just aren't. They're good. They're going to be okay, even if it doesn't seem like it.

Fun is not a bad thing. I don't need to shy away from it. It stinks that being a professional teacher right now means being someone who is very aware of their students' progress and has and research based, orderly and accessible data collection to prove it. It is too bad that being a professional means that you must act in a businesslike fashion and be aware of the most current trends in curriculum development. It's stupid, and it loses sight of where the true art of teaching lies.

Being a professional teacher means being committed to the craft of engaging children. There are of course many ways to do this. You can engage them through fear (Read, or ELSE!). You can engage them through stress (We have so much to cover, we can't waste a minute). You can engage them through routine, (You know what to do children, if you want to earn a piece of candy). None of those are the best practice though. The best practice is engaging students through fun, because there is no more engaging thing.

So to be a professional teacher, you need to be a teacher who has fun. A teacher who loves it. A teacher that enjoys what they're doing and isn't afraid to say it. God knows the kids need to be a part of something fun and positive.

I can be that teacher. I can be it now and I can be it forever. That passion burns deeply within me and I will do my best do dedicate myself to the proposition that LIFE IS FUN.

Did that make any sense? Revolutionary or naive? You make the call. In any case, it's bed time. Happy Easter!

I'm wearing my Felix Hernandez jersey to school tomorrow. It's opening day.

-Mr. Reni