Thing # 5: Getting Started with RSS

I read several posts from Students2oh.org and was captivated by the post titled: Don’t Save the World As teachers, I believe that we all begin our teaching careers in wanting to "save every student" that we teach. But in all reality, we can't "save everyone!" It's just not humanly possible and it is sad to admit that some students just don't want to be "saved."

I currently teach at the high school level where the district has instilled a new program titled "myfuture." We do need to encourage all students to get a college education, assist them in ways that they understand that it can be a reality for them, and to make sure that they check out every avenue possible. At the same time, not all students want to go to college and don't want to be "saved" in order to go to college. Some are happy attending a technical school, enlisting in the military, or working a full-time job. However, I do believe that every student should have the opportunity to attend college no matter what type of background they have.

Another thing that I have realized as a student council sponsor, is that a lot of students join different organizations for the purpose of "it will look good on my college application." They will not necessarily join the organization because it offers a variety of community service opportunities, but to get the community service hours to make their profile look better. The author Hannah Feldman writes that "Reading through college handouts, I can’t help but notice that the students they choose to profile have almost always saved the world in one way or another. This is the point where I tilt my head and sigh. Because, quite frankly, I don’t want to save the world." She goes on to point out the fact that; "students should be able to participate in what they are genuinely interested in, and forget about whatever looks good on an application. Passion looks good on an application. " I happen to agree with Hannah in that students need to participate in things for the right reasons. I often wonder if colleges check back with students who they have profiled in their handouts and asked them how just many things they participated in because they actually wanted too? Would that college write a retraction in that same handout and say, "not all results are typical with each student participant." That would probably raise a lot of eyebrows.

Speaking back as a sponsor, I would rather have fifty members in my student council who really were passionate in giving back to their community and participated for the right reasons. It this instance "size"of the council participants does not matter. As a teacher, wouldn't my students want a teacher who was "passionate about kids, passionate about the subject matter that I am teaching, and passionate about living life in general?" Life would be pretty boring if we weren't passionate about something. Life is hard enough to live without adding the fact that you hate what your doing with your life.

Don’t Save the World