This has to have been one of the more trying seasons my soul has endured. As I try to remain optimistic and joyful about the possibilities of being a teacher, I must combat the continual disillusionment one feels when faced with the grim prospects of our current economic malaise, and its effect on young, passionate educators such as myself. My wife Dolly has had to cope with an agonizingly drawn-out medical issue since September, as all the while I remain unemployed, despite my best efforts to secure myself a position in the maddening bureaucracy that is education. The problem, of course, is that there are no jobs to be had. The jobs that are available are reserved for twenty- to thirty-year veterans cycling through the tenure system, and while I bear them no ill will for desperately holding on to what is rightfully theirs, it prevents me and legions of my contemporaries from being given a chance to do what we have been trained for, even as burnt-out fifty-somethings lazily spout curriculum to generations of students that are clearly missing the enthusiasm and relevance younger educators bring to the classroom. I have to take solace wherever I can get it, and so in addition to the powerful, unconditional love and support of my wife, family and friends, I am always returning to…MUSIC. I think that, in times like these, music is perhaps even more essential that it would usually be. It is like therapy given by and to the ages; it is as though all the lessons and struggles that have ever been in human history can be echoed and eased by the healing magic of music. With that in mind, these items below have some POTENT magic in them, folks…
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