Dear student, I am not mad at you.

Several times in my career my passion will out pace my patience. I end up hollering at a student. I want to explain to my students what this really means.

I am not mad at you. I have a great passion in helping to motivate and providing opportunity to high school students. In my high school days, I didn’t have a lot of motivation. I wasted a lot of time, money, and opportunities. I have no idea why I wasted it, I just did. I am heavily passionate about not letting that happen to any of my students. In my16 years in teaching, I have found that sometimes students need to be pushed harder. When I see a student not taking advantage of an opportunity, I take it personally. I know I shouldn’t but I do. In today’s world, I really see no excuse for anybody not to be successful at their craft. The internet and social media has given all of us access to any type of learning we want. We just have to go get it.

“When I see a student not taking advantage of an opportunity, I take it personally. I know I shouldn’t but I do.”

I see the current secondary education system as something that doesn’t allow students to hone in on their craft. I see it rapidly firing bits and pieces of knowledge 8 periods a day teaching them to be afraid to fail. Many of my bored and unengaged students fall victim to this system. I tell my students this every day. I tell them the system is setup to make them fear failure. I tell them to experience life! I show them examples of their peers and my peers that have tried new things, showed effort in the face of adversity, who failed forward. I give them examples and speeches all the time.

When all this doesn’t work for my students, I don’t get mad at them. I feel sorry for them. They do not realize what they are missing.

#disrupteducation