#13/366--Blur

The picture is blurry...but it's representative of how fast it feels the time flies when I'm with my girl. 

I am proud of the young woman she is.  I usually save this sort of blogging for birthdays, and such.  But I'm just feeling so old lately...every time I look at the people that were once my babies...people...they are becoming more than just my kids.  I treasure each little moment, and feel weepy and thankful and blessed.

Tonight, Lauren and I spent time just catching up.  Life has been so busy since school started back--and, yes, I do mean since two weeks ago.  She's been so stressed with mid-terms (is that REALLY what they call it in 9th grade?)--She studies more than I did when I was in college.  I think all the stress has weighed heavy on her.  Headaches/migraines are almost a daily occurrence.  My girl went to bed early tonight.  For that very reason.  A migraine.  I see it in her eyes.  This preAP/IB business is insane.  It's turned my 14 year old into a 24 year old.  Although I am thankful that she isn't a dramatic child, and she doesn't have the craziness that comes with being a teenager...sometimes I wish she didn't have to deal with the weight of what she carries.  Let me tell you, my girl is academically driven.  She wants this.  But then again.  She doesn't.

As an educator, you could say I've "noticed" things have changed this year in our business.  It isn't the teachers.  It's those who are not in the classroom.  Raising the bar.  Heightening the challenge.  Planning.  Doing.  Studying.  Acting.  Intervening.  Testing.  Assessing.  Pushing.  Pulling.  Creating.  Demanding.  And it's not helping the little ones.  It's hurting them.  They are crushed under all this pressure.  Suffocating.  Dying.  I hate it.  Don't get me wrong.  I love my profession.  When it's treated as such.  But as of late, those who are not in the classroom seem to think they know what's best and have taken the "profession" out of it.  You may have heard that Teaching is a calling.  And it really is.  A teacher has a passion in her heart.  It's a sort of passion that brings a teacher to tears when she talks about her classroom, her children, her strategies, her beliefs.  When we see our babies hurting, it hurts us.  And we are trying to shield them from the wolves out there who see these babies as a number.  A dollar sign.  They are individuals.  With individual needs.  And developmental needs.  Professionals know how to meet those developmental needs.  With developmentally appropriateness.  Seriously.  You tell me.  Is it going to truly for real seriously benefit my daughter to learn sine/cosine/tangent in 9th grade vs. 12th grade?  I mean sure, it may save me some money if she gets those college hour credits but truly...in the long run...will it really get her a better job?  Like I said, when I was in 12th grade trig/calculus, "when will I ever use this in real life?"  Frankly, as a Kindergarten teacher, I don't.

Except that I wish I remembered it so that I could help my child study and remove that burden from her shoulders...