I am a product of the Los Angeles Unified Public School System - academically molded and shaped by the well intentioned, yet creativity-lacking hands of yesteryear. In retrospect, I believe that there was a great lack of creativity in the way education was delivered and that we students were not always taught how to be passionate about acquiring knowledge. The art of teaching is so much more than just droning on about the facts; it is more importantly about instilling a passion and getting students excited to learn.

I don't blame my teachers from so long ago, they were doing their job to the best of their ability and most likely were not getting the compensation that they deserved. That lament can still be heard years hence with teachers periodically striking for better pay or benefits. How can it possibly be expected that teachers who make it their life's work to help others, motivate students when they are not fully satisfied with their employment?

I recall way back when the busing system was first implemented. I was a tall, skinny kid in the seventh grade just getting over the shock of transferring to the "big kids school." One day, several buses showed up and delivered countless inner-city kids to my new school's door. There was never any communication from the teachers to us students about the new arrivals and they just appeared. I suppose the administrators imagined that there would be a seamless integration - how wrong they were. It seems so ridiculous now that a plan could be implemented on that large of scale with so little regard for preparing the students; I imagine as well those being delivered to our school.

Was it that the students just didn't matter, or the idea we might be prepared for the upcoming change just overlooked? Or was it imagined that we were so pliable that it would just all work itself out? This ties into something that I experienced over and over as a student, that a vital connection seemed to be missing and that the teachers were the teachers, and the students were merely the students without any deep interface between the two. I never recall feeling connected to any of my teachers.

I'm not professing that I was a perfect student by any means and that there wasn't a little rebel there, but why couldn't at least one of them have broken through? Did they just not try? I never remember being excited about school and it was a drudgery for the most part. The role of a teacher is foremost, an instructor of facts. But there must be a connection, or conduit, for that knowledge to pass through and reach impressionable young students - energy and passion opens that pipeline and students feed off it! Learning must be kept creative and fun.

Additionally, early learning skills should be taught at home, but unfortunately some children come from environments where this is not happening as it should. School is not meant to be a replacement for home and teachers are not in the position to be surrogate parents, however, this reality is commonplace and children often put their early teachers on the same level as a parent. Teachers, in a sense, are holding clay and can be very instrumental in shaping the future of their students. They play vital roles in their students lives and teach the fundamentals, as well as filling in the gaps that are too often overlooked at home. Passion is sometimes missing and is the one important key to get children excited about learning and on their way to being academically successful.