—-Christa McAuliffe
We have spent the last few weeks continuing to watch the new group of television shows that always come in January, and are disappointed in most of them. Tonight we watched the third episode of "Schooled", a spin-off of "The Goldbergs", a sit-com that features a Jewish family growing up in the 80’s in suburban Philadelphia. "Schooled" takes place in the 90’s and is populated with several familiar faces from its parent show. It is so busy trying to incorporate messages throughout that it sometimes misses the opportunity to be funny.
The messages are relevant though, and unlike many of the current school based shows, the teachers are portrayed as caring for their students. Throughout my years of teaching it was rare to find a teacher who didn’t care deeply for the welfare of his/her students, and it annoys me to watch shows like A.P. Bio that highlight teachers whose self-interest takes center stage.
Although "Schooled" is somewhat corny in its portrayal of the teacher-student relationship, it hits the mark displaying the concern educators feel and the time they spend worrying about those who are their daily responsibility. It is true that a teacher wears more hats than any other professional, having to act as a nurse, a counselor, a mediator, a parent and a friend in between spurts of teaching, but I can’t imagine any other profession that would have given me anywhere near the satisfaction I got each time I watched the light of understanding flicker in a student’s eyes.
Meanwhile, I have tried to steer clear of politics these last few weeks, and I am not going to go too far down that rabbit hole today, but somebody posted something on Facebook that made me remember the pride I always felt in being an American. If you have the opportunity, and haven’t seen it yet, google the last speech Ronald Reagan gave as President. I didn’t believe in everything he stood for, but there is no doubt that he believed in his country.
As every President before him, and every president through Barack Obama who followed him, Ronald Reagan understood exactly how important immigrants were to our country. Without them we would not have attained leadership in science, the arts or business. It is with the collaboration of fine brains that came to our shores from countries throughout the world that we have become the leader of the free world. Reagan believed that if we ever closed our doors to immigration, we would quickly lose our status in the world. I fear he was right and worry for our tomorrow.
Quite a few books that I have read this year touched on our immigration problems. This week I read/reviewed The Rule of Law: A Dismas Hardy Novel by John Lescroart, and he touched upon this subject that seems to be tearing our country apart.
As always, a complete review of this book follows my blog.
Happy reading,
- Beverly