As a teacher, one of the most frustrating things to witness is students not giving their best (lack of motivation, abysmal attendance, constant texting, distractions/ sleeping, side conversations, poor effort on homework, lack of preparation on tests, "refusing" to think critically, etc.) in school.
But, what concerns me the most is not learning from these mistakes...
I could tell you hundreds of stories from the past 30 years of teaching about students who failed/ made mistakes/ gave a mediocre effort, were overwhelmed with adversity, quit, etc. and made a conscious decision to fight/ change/ never give up/ make a difference in this world.
To me, this is more impressive than a letter grade...learning about history, math, science, etc...finishing first in a race...
I hear people say, "things are so much better than they used to be" and "we've come a long way."
Are we (as a country) truly learning from our (here are a few) mistakes?
Slavery...Manifest Destiny...Social Darwinism...ISMS...Native "Policy"/ Genocide...Sand Creek...Wounded Knee...Racial Categories...Jim Crow...Mexican "Repatriation"...Race Riots...The Red Scare...McCarthyism...Mohammad Mossadegh...Vietnam...Agent Orange...Watergate...Rodney King...Weapons of Mass Destruction...Benghazi...Racial Profiling...Police Brutality...Excessive Force...Droning the Innocent...Resegregation of schools...
Or are our principles just truths we seek when they agree with our selfish emotions?
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