Two Roads Diverged...

...and I had no clue which one to travel by.

What am I going to do with my life? I do not like research. I would like to feel that there is a point to what I do, and right now I feel like there isn't. I would like to feel that my daily activities help others in some way, and right now, I feel like they don't. I am disillusioned and dissatisfied with our education system.

Also, I recently watched the movie "The Freedom Writers" which is another story about a extrordinary teacher who works with disadvantaged pupils and turns their lives around. Basically, it was the same story as "To Sir, With Love" and "Dangerous Minds" except for that in this particular version, the female teacher is so incredibly driven and dedicated that she works 2 extra jobs to purchase classroom supplies, and becomes alienated from her husband, who eventually leaves her. The only other two teachers that the movie depicts are racist, classist snobs, who are more concerned with maintaining the hierarchy of seniority within the department than with actually educating the pupils.

Somehow I found this movie to be really unsettling. I dislike the implied message that if you are to make a difference in your job, or in the lives of others, you must be completely self-sacrificing. I also thought that the film did not place enough criticism on the system that denied the students educational materials, and made the choice of the teacher to supply the materials herself too simple. As if that is what we should expect of all teachers - that if the system doesn't provide them with the tools they need to do their job, they will provide the tools themselves, instead of insisting that that the system be modified or improved.