Tuesday, September 13, 2011

This will probably upset some of my faithful readers...

Oh wait...I don't really have any. 'Cept mom-hey mom!
So I may as well let it all out. Here it is...I'm thinking about renaming my blog to...dum da da dum...College Education is (mostly) a Joke!!!!!! How do you like it? It's fresh and new and controversial, I think it will work perfect.
Here's the problem folks. I am 39 years old. I was born to be a mommy. Emily and Grace's mommy. And there is nothing better in the world than being their mommy and their daddy's wife. I LOVE IT. But, now that my children are growing up and in school Mark and I decided it was the perfect time for me to go back to school and get my degree so that I can do the other thing I was born to do...teach.
I know children. I know how to teach children. What I need is a degree telling everyone else that I can teach. So, here I am at IUSB. One of the general education classes I am required to take is art. Well, sure, why not. I'm going to be an elementary teacher. I should know some art. So, let me tell you about this class that cost my family $700 and countless hours of my life. Today we made paper. Last Thursday we spent 2 1/2 hours making paper. Today we made more. Except it wasn't "we." Because there is only room for  about 6 students to do it, the other 10 sat at their seats and talked to each other. The instructor talked about the Blueberry Festival and her book selling endeavors to one of the non-paper making students. And that is how our valuable class time was spent today. Talking to each other about what we did this weekend. This is class #5 and we have done nothing. AND! The paper making we did was not "here is how they did it in the old days" it was let's tear up already made paper, put it into our $16,000 grinding machine, press it under our high tech compressor machine and call it hand made!
Please someone explain this to me.
I am convinced that it is IUSB. I know this can't be happening all over the place. I have to tell you, if I had a kid here, at least in the Education dept. I would be furious to find out that this stuff is passing for an "education."

5 comments:

Michelle Burry said...

Holy crud! That makes me appreciate my small, private college education! I'm so sorry, Alice! To add insult to injury, our tax dollars are helping to pay for that... :(

Jill said...

Well, I have to say...not all the classes at IUSB are like that. The science classes were tough, as were the math courses. Maybe that's why all us science geeks made fun of the elementary ed students every time they complained about their "hard courses". :P Anyway, hang in there if teaching is what you really want to do. I think it's a condition of all majors to take something irrelevant, I took sculpture!

Jen said...

This is truly just a road block to your goal that God has put there to test your passion to be a teacher. We all have to take classes that may not have made sense, but you have to keep your eye on the prize. You've worked to hard to let this fake paper making teacher get in your way. I am so proud of you and Josie can't wait to someday be in Mrs. Merrill's class!

Anne Wierenga said...

First of all, you have at least 3 faithful readers!! It makes I agree with Michelle. I had Art for Teachers at Taylor and it was an awesome experience. It's an IUSB thing. Remember Ddub thinks you would be the best teacher he could imagine,of course he wasn't thinking of me when he said that :} You are doing great job and are a great example for your girls. They are seeing you do something you don't want to so that you can accomplish your goals. I AM PROUD OF YOU!

Anne Wierenga said...

Oh, by the way, that is the cutest picture of our girls!! It oozes squealing joy!