American Civilization

“An American teacher introducing the USA”???? Well, that’s a bit intimidating - to be speaking for all of American civilization. I don’t think so….and certainly not in a country so focused on individualism. What I can do is speak from my own experience.But, I don’t think I can begin here without some introductions. I’m California-born and educated….I’ve lived and worked here for most of my life.

So, let me begin here with a typical day for me. It was dark when I got up this morning…it quite often is at 6 a.m….quickly I made coffee, fed the cat, got ready for work, and said good-bye to my husband. Without a pause I’m out the door and behind the wheel of my Toyota station wagon.

My school is about 12 miles from my home. To get there I travel up meandering roads, on two freeways, and through one tunnel. In the early morning hours with little traffic I can usually get there in 20 minutes or so. I’m lucky in that my commute is scenic, and, as it begins to get light, I can see the sculpted hillsides, some with greenery and some with open spaces

I love getting to my classroom early because that’s the only time I have to work in my room. For most American high school teachers the classroom is the office; we have no other space to work. The classroom becomes a second home. And, this year I’m sharing that classroom, so every moment in the room is precious to me.

I’m a part-time teacher (80%); that means I teach four sections of the class Modern World History. I teach those classes every day - Monday through Friday – for a class period of about 50 minutes.

My first priority is to get ready for the day’s lessons. I turn on the computer, write on the boards, then set up the overhead and the LCD projector. I hurry to the office to sign in and make one more transparency and some additional copies. The focus today is on 19th century nationalism as a force for unity and disunity.

Three of my classes meet before lunch, which is at 11:45. That’s always seemed too early for me, but that’s a fairly typical time for lunch to begin in an American school. During lunch I host a student club meeting in my room. After lunch, I have one more section of history to teach. And, after that last class, another teacher arrives to use the room and I meander around the campus, conversing with colleagues and looking for a place to work. Since I’m not a full time teacher, I am able to leave before the end of the school day. Most of my colleagues teach until 3:05. Then they’re expected to be “available” for some amount of time after that. It seems to me that the life of the American teacher – and student – is very regimented. I wonder if that’s also true in France.

This afternoon our computer system went down, so I wasn’t terribly motivated to stick around campus when I could work on my home computer. So home I went…..

Bevan