Am I A Failure?

My favorite video/computer game is called Civilization. I love the idea or discovering a world and trying to create the best civilization. The game is full of knowledge that I don’t really take advantage of, but just from playing the game so often, I have been exposed to a lot of historical information that I didn’t previously know about. I have combined the knowledge that I gain from playing that game with the information that I obtain from reading a textbook about society. I love this textbook so much because it addresses inequality, something that I think about often. I learned about apartheid a word that I was familiar with, but never had defined for me before. I also learned about social mobility, socialism, & capitalism, again all words & concepts that I knew of, but never had defined for me. This led to deep thought about why a socialistic society would fail and also why the current capitalist society in America fails me.

After being let go from my job, I didn’t ask any question about the reason I was chosen to be released. The reasoning was irrelevant to me because I didn’t value the opinions of the “leaders” of this school. It does however force my mind to wonder and consider areas of my professionalism that I need to improve upon. This leads me to examine other and what makes them more suitable for the job that I was released from. The reality that I was faced with at the end of my college career after being unjustly released from the NROTC program returns. Life is not fair. This is a phrase that everyone has heard, but rarely do we truly believe it. In a socialistic society it is more than obvious that life is not fair because despite the effort put forth, everyone lives the same quality of life. In our current capitalist society it becomes more apparent to me everyday that this statement holds true. The idea of capitalism is that those who work harder will receive more benefits for their labor & efforts. Although the idea is a fair one, this society is far from fair based on another quote/saying. Perception is reality.

Therefore, if it is perceived that you are working hard you will receive more. As I continue to work in the teaching profession, I realize more and more that I am alone in my mindset. I am a stickler for the rules and I believe that it is important to establish commonality amongst teachers. Every time that grades are release, I realize more and more that I stand alone in my thinking. My grades are based solely on numbers that I put into computers without emotion. Other teachers incorporate their feelings about the students and fear of the perception that they are inadequate due to their failure rate. Today another teacher sent her student to my class to take an exam. We were given strict instructions, not to allow additional time to students that left the room or reported to the room late. I didn’t allow any of the students to continue working after the bell rand, but she allow her student (that came late just as many of my students came late) to finish his exam in her room. Now when students are assessed it will appear that her students are more knowledgeable because they are given additional time. And since perception is reality, she will be looked upon as a better teacher than me because she didn’t follow the rules.