Controversial California educator Rafe Esquith has several books on education.  In one, Real Talk for Real Teachers, he offers advice about keeping things fresh by adding activities.  He notes at the start of a chapter that

This struck me as more of a writing prompt than anything (which, to me, was heartening. . . I was thinking “Hey!  If I made a few of these I could write a book, too!”)

My second analysis is that there are a lot of cliches here.  A lot. . . . Beyond those topical things, though, I think his point is a good one that teachers too often get wrong now.  They often do wholesale changes rather than adding incrementally.  They often go–or have administrators or peers go–and get influenced by some good-seeming idea at a conference that has unintended negative consequences.  I know of teachers who have scrapped entire math systems or textbook sets–just purchased–so that they could follow something they thought would work better.  The problem is that the district was invested, physically so, in those other texts and ideas.

We are witnessing this with the Common Core in some really vicious ways right now.  For instance, teachers have new ideas and question-asking methods on which they have been trained, but there are no relevant texts to go along with the new methodology.  (As an illustration, my son has no math text because there are none accepted by the state for the current math.)

See how these education discussions spiral?  I warned everyone about that tendency.

The problem is this: Perhaps the majority of young teachers are uncritical to the extent that they would become followers of whatever they are told. They are moldable, malleable, and often fail to put into practice those great theories they just learned.  So Esquith’s point would never get put into play for the majority of them who would A) leave the profession within five years, B) find a niche and just teach a preexisting curriculum without ever having developed units of their own, C) switch around constantly so that the change would never be purposeful, or D) never have started with enough curiosity and content knowledge in order to make their own choices meaningfully.

What I bring up is attitude as well as skill.  Of course, I’m making a limited observation–limited by my experiences–but veteran teachers are sobered by the blitheness of the younger teachers who ask no help of anyone, think they always already “got it,” and assume that if something is printed it must be good.  I was at the EDGE Day (concurrent enrollment) meeting, running a gathering of sixteen teachers from area BOCES and high schools, and that’s their perception of the danger of the younger teachers.  Consistently, discussions about this ran to the opinion that this was a problem.  One person even joked that this was what we get with Pearson!

For you, the takeaway could be simple: Develop more than the “given” love of working with children.  Develop a content knowledge above that of your cohort in teacher training programs.  Don’t take it as a rule of life that one must go with what grade-level peers already do.  Have the oral and written abilities to back up your choices to parents, peers, and administrators.  (Journal to back those things up to oneself and to reflect intelligently on what works and what doesn’t in lessons.)

And here’s a cliche wording: “Buck that trend” of the generation to expect smooth, faster-than-average promotion and immediate rewards with no critically constructive feedback.  I’m only working against the whole of our society in saying this, but if I am right–and I am–then you will achieve the Chapter Twenty classroom where the addition of something is at last meaningful.

Wow!  That was some sermonizing. . . see how it’s a problem to begin with the post subject?  I’d end with the (supposed) start: Many veteran teachers find themselves selectively plucking out busy activities and overly crowded lessons from within their curricula.