Throughout the day today I have begun to wonder about this country and the amount of fear that seems to grip the hearts and lives of people here. Why not, I mean we could be afraid of
terrorists, wall streets constant drops, cancer, cancer causing products working
their way into our lives and the lives of our families, schools not
fulfilling the "duties" we think they should, teachers being human (not perfect) and institutions failing us. And that is only inside of our country. The very thought of world hunger, aids, epidemics, children who are dying
because the lack clean drinking water, women being tormented for
religious reasons, among countless other things should strike a fear deep down inside of us.
But what about that quote: "the only thing to fear is fear itself" I think that is becoming more and more true every day in our culture and society.
This morning on the news I heard a family talking about how they had planned on
suing the school
because their son
committed suicide after being bullied. I am sorry if that strikes a cord of fear in you, but honestly what do parents think the school should have done? We can only be in control of our own actions and we can not control the actions of others. So then why should we find someone to blame when our child/spouse/sister/brother/family did something we do not approve of or even hurts us?
What is going to happen to our nation if this fear runs rampant and this deep desire to have someone to blame increases?
My current job is in education, and i know that people need to have rules, guidelines, and general accountability, however when does that accountability allow you to have the freedom to not be ruled under the fear of being blamed? For example, in order to get my
Iowa teaching
licence i have to teach in an accredited school (with the state of
Iowa) be it public or private for 3 years.
Then i can get my full
licence. Well christian schools are afraid of being
accredited because they will be overrun by the state rules leaving no room for Christ to be taught. Meanwhile, teachers that wish to maintain
their licence must somehow work under these rules. It seems to me that when you are in a profession you enjoy you ought to be able to do it without jumping through thousands of hoops.
So back to fear,
every time somebody becomes afraid and blames another person for the outcome of events that person is forced to re-examine the way they live and how they respond to situations. That doesn't seem terribly problematic. But what if every person feels the need to blame a school for something that they don't like and in return the school's policy gets stricter and
stricter? The stricter the school is the worse education the students are
receiving. Just think of 10 years ago when you might have been able to teach in a school and teach fun and exciting things to your class, but now with all the rules and regulations (that have been set in because of fear--of
failure, not measuring up, etc) as a teacher you are stuck. You have very little freedom to teach in a way that students will respond to.
I have to admit i am so tired of the teaching profession i just want to quit. But to quit teaching, which is my life, brings me to tears. Why is it that a pretty good teacher can't even maintain professional status by simply doing what she loves? I love to teach, i love to see what new ways i can make material jump out to my students. But i don't seem to be able to get a job.
In
America today that popular song should not say: "let freedom ring" but instead should say: "we let fear rule our lives" as fear seems to
continually grip our lives.
