Burning questions for 2008

As my resolutions rarely changes from one year to the other — run more, read more and be in the present more — during 2008 I hope to answer my top 10 burning questions as a public school educator.

10. Why can’t the educational gurus of 2008, such as the credible Robert Marzano (who knows everything that works in classrooms and beyond) look more like Johnny Depp or even George Clooney?

9. Why do school buildings have such intense mood swings? Must they be either hot or cold? Is anything wrong with just warm?

8. Who came up with the terms “teacher butt,” “dragon-wing arms” and “Clairol queen” to describe the middle-aged school marm?

7. Why is it when food prices increase, no one blames the cow? But, when the price to school children increases, it is the teacher’s fault?

6. Whose idea was it to have middle schools learn on the swing shift? It seems we ought to sleep in during January.

5. When we know so much about the potential of the right brain, why don’t we have elementary art teachers?

4. Why is it that despite all of the high-tech opportunities my students have access to, what counts in the end is what they can write on paper with a pencil?

3. Why is it that in other professions, the skill of management is considered to be executive level talent, but classroom management is treated as a low-level skill that only new teachers struggle to master?

2. With all of my degrees and all of my experience, how is it that these two statements continue to stump me the most: “This is stupid” and “I dunno.”

And the No. 1 question for 2008: How am I going to teach all my students are ready to learn, not because what I do matters so much, but because they matter so much?

This year as I run more, read more and simply be in the present more, I plan to take pleasure in living and working in such a beautiful place. Really, how lucky am I to work in a profession that thrives on the questions as much as it does the answers?