Game On

I am completely indoctrinated. I run around with catch phrases like "significant gains" and "relentless pursuit of results" in my head, and I dream about "closing the achievement gap." It is 9:45 pm here and I am just now getting a chance to eat dinner. There is such a sense of urgency that not a minute is wasted. I wake up between 4:45 and 5:00 am. I don't get to bed until about 1:00, but I may have to start staying up later to get some more work done. I don't drink a lot in the morning because we don't get bathroom breaks during the day. There just isn't time right now. We don't break for lunch, we work on through. To the outsider this may seem like unnecessary cruelty, but everyone here is completely devoted. We are devoted to the 50% of the 13 million impoverished children in our country who will not graduate from high school. I am devoted to the boys and girls in the eighth grade writing class I shadowed today, who literally did not know how to read and had no one care that they did not know how to read. I am devoted to the idea that (as my friend Andrew so eloquently put tonight), no matter where you start, you can finish someplace else.

I start teaching 7th grade writing on Monday. How the hell am I going to do that?

P.S. Later in the summer and throughout the school year, I want you all to remind me of this post when I start crying and thinking about quiting.