Why do we assume that people can walk in off of the street and take charge of a group of young people? Part of the answer is a public perception that teaching is easy and doesn't require much special training; part of it may be that teachers spend years actually believing those things. The best learning environments in schools evolve to a meeting place for ideas and strategies to enhance interests in those ideas. If teachers lack ideas (concepts, facts, interpretations, etc.) and, additionally, a panoply of methods or strategies to encourage students and their various learning styles it should not come as a surprise that the Mr. Lowreys of the teaching profession as in deep water. Imagine yourself or your children in his classroom. Solutions: Begin with what you don't know and work hard to expand; visit other classroom and look for things that may work; and begin each new grading period with new ideas, filling in at the end with lessons that had worked well in the past. One can always tell if a teacher is stuck in the concrete of old lessons and ideas when an unannounced assembly or program breaks up the usual routine: "We can't do that; my third period students will be one day behind the other students." Did CHALK do a good job of communicating education's shortfalls? No. Why? Because there were too few students in the classes. Think in terms of more than thirty students to get an accurate picture, not twelve to fifteen. Yes. Why? Because the film captured the petty interruptions and bickering disagreements outside of the classroom that detract from the basic mission.
