Choosing between Groups of Students

As department head I was invited by the principal to attend junior commencement. The event took place on Wednesday afternoon in the gym. I arranged to have my classes covered through our "on call" system where teachers who cannot be in class get a colleague to cover their class in the cafeteria area designated as the study hall. This is arranged through the office and is common practice.
Five of my students were being honoured with awards that afternoon. The rest of my group was in study hall doing seat work under the supervision of the designated on call teacher. As I sat on stage, after having presented the award for my subject area, I began to feel strangely uncomfortable. Though I was pleased to be present to honour the five top acheivers of my class, what about the rest of my students who are not as successful and who are not receiving the benefit of meaningful teaching as they sit in the study hall?
I felt compelled to discreetly exit the stage (as other colleagues had done) so I could spend the time with the students who most needed assistance with their learning, but finally decided it would not be fair not to be fully present and engaged in the ceremony (the principal was on the stage a few chairs away from my seat).
Did I make the right decision?

Boosting Flatline Teaching

There is a certain stability in the expected, and a certain predictability in boredom. Is this what keeps students quietly passive in the linear world of note taking and copying from blackboards and overhead screens? If the controlled atmosphere of scribing on flat surfaces ensures a certain stultifying order of things, then schooling has little to do with being inspired. I find that sidestepping curricular demands can provide a needed boost to a sense of pleasure in learning. An educational game, a conversation about real life, a get-up-and-move-around activity, a rythmic recitation or a song can add depth and colour to the otherwise bland decor of school. In the end, I believe these so-called "unnecessary" activities provide connection and richer meaning to learning in the classroom.

Schooling Versus Education

Schooling and education have quite different connotations in my view. Schooling places students and teachers in bureaucratic systems where anxiety tied to performance, performance set to rigid goals, goals imposed by political needs, and needs defined by employability all rule the day.

Education, however, has more to do with curiosity and the motivation to understand, individual goals and developing humaneness in students.

I have chosen to do my best to educate. This choice means more flexible timelines, a less content-driven curriculum (fewer detached bits of cognitive material ) and an openness to my students' own thinking and feelings about life and society.

I would enjoy reading other educators' views on this distinction.