|
Wow, you really do sound conflicted. I'm sensing burnout at an early age, unless you can modify some of your highly idealistic tenets. I will leave your middle question to qualified educators, but I have some opinions on the other two.
It seems you have forgotten what it is like to be a kid. To be young means to be self-centered and living for the moment. Being young means you are almost expected to push limits and break rules. It also means that you will probably say and do stupid things in the process of growing up and finding yourself. Lord, if I could only take back some of the thousands of stupid things I have said and done.
Some kids never wise up, and they keep their bigoted, judgemental thinking all their lives. Others are wise beyond their years, and intellectually mature in grade school. Most of us fall somewhere inbetween. The journey from childhood to socially responsible adult shouldn't be the responsibility of our K-12 educaton system. The K-12 system should be expected to provide the basics - math, lanquage, grammer, the sciences, history, some vocational knowledge, critical thinking, and a foundation on which they can develop their own social perspective.
Their basic human values, however, should be influenced and shaped at home by the parent(s), with the expectation that most kids will eventually mature as they learn to think on their own. We know it won't happen in lots of cases, but if you dwell on the ones that don't make it, you won't last long as an educator.
Good luck, I hope you find some answers somewhere.
|