20/20 Live Exclusive: Inside the Public School Classroom

We've all seen the controversial documentary Waiting For Superman and the comedy Bad Teacher. We've heard administration after administration tout their education plan but are any of us sure of what REALLY goes on in the public school classroom? During this hour long (minus 1/2 hour of commercials) special, we will enter the classroom of Sarah Widdop, a young and naively ambitious public school English teacher in Camas, Washington. Stay tuned to check out what really goes on inside the public school classroom.

Hello 20/20. I'm really excited to have you in my classroom today. I think it is very important for our public to see what really goes on in the public classrooms as this is what our public pays for.

1st period- English 9
"Hey guys, I need you to read the announcements on the board and get your materials out before the bell rings."


Student who has been sitting in class for the past 10 minutes, listening to his i-pod: "We have a vocab test today? What! I didn't know about that!"


Ms. Widdop: "I posted it on the blog all week and we reviewed the words yesterday. You were suppose to write the test date in your planner."


i-pod kid: "Oh, I lost my vocab list."


Students slowly get ready for their test, some are reviewing while others pull out their math homework.


Ms. Widdop: "Ok guys, clear your desks of everything but something to write with. When you finish your test, read the board and begin reading chapter six in Animal Farm."


Students begin to settle and quiet down. Minutes later, one student rasises her hand. "Ms. Widdop, what does merit mean?"


Ms. Widdop walks over to student and quietly explains. Minutes later a boy, whose eyes are hidden by hair blurts out, "Ms. Widdop what does merit mean?" Ms. Widdop takes this as a teachable moment and addresses the class.


"Class, it seems that I need to explain what merit means. In this case it means valid, as in Squealer's actions had no validity. Does that make sense?" Collective group of students nod.


Moments later, "Ms. Widdop what does merit mean?" Other kids snigger. Ms. Widdop raises her eyebrows and quietly reminds the student what merit means.

The class quiets down, some students hand in their tests. One student raises her hand, her frumpy hair bobbling as she asks, "So Ms. Widdop, does merit mean to be true?" Some students snigger while frumpy haired girl growls, "Shut-up!" and looks back up at Ms. Widdop. Ms. Widdop grits her teeth and once again explains what merit means while she bangs her head against her white board, careful to not disturb her new mobile Smart Board.

2nd period- English 9
Students enter in much the same fashion as period 1. Some students comment on their surprise about the vocabulary quiz while others appear oblivious as to the fact that they are in school. Two boys unload messy backpacks in search of old Halloween candy. One kids finds a smashed Snickers while the other seems to be sidetracked as he is smoothing out crumpled assignments and examining them. As students settle into the class routine one girl raises her hand, "Ms. Widdop I just pointed out to my dad where you live and he was wondering if, since we love so close to each other, I could come over to your house in the evenings to get help on homework?"

Ms. Widdop nearly chokes on her gum. "Rachel, how about you just stay after school a few days a week. I'm not sure you really need to come to my house."

3rd period- Freshman Success Study Hall
Partition wall is open and students begin writing in their planners as the bell rings. Soon after students are divided into groups, Ms. Widdop takes 10 or so students and announces the students who will be giving their Book Talks that day.

A student, who appears to be on crack, but probably just has severe AHDH, prances around as he asks, "Ms. Widdop, can't I just give my book talk tomorrow? I forgot my book."

Ms. Widdop, gritting what is left of her teeth, "No Trevor, you've already postponed this three times. You have to give your Book Talk today."

Trevor: "Ok." He prances up to the front of the group. "So, uh, I read this book Malice. I forgot who wrote the book. It's about 300 pages, maybe less. It's about this kid who says this chant, something about a guy named Jake and the next thing he knows he's in this other world and stuff. It's like a good book because the kid has all these things happen to him." Trevor looks at Ms. Widdop with a tad bit of fear in his eyes.

Ms. Widdop: "Is that all? Do you have a favorite part?"

Trevor: "No."

Ms. Widdop: "Did you like the book?"

Trevor: "Yeah."

Ms. Widdop: "So were there other interesting characters?"

Trevor: "Yeah."

Ms. Widdop gives up and lets Trevor sit down.

Ms. Widdop quickly grabs her lunch and switches to another classroom. Before she can post the schedule on the board, students begin to file in. One plops down on a stool in the front of the classroom.

English 10- Sophomores
Student on stool: "Ms. Widdop, did you always want to be a boring English teacher?"

Ms. Widdop: "Yeah Jarred, that was my dream when I was in high school."

Jarred: "It's my dream too." He sits down.

Students start to work on analyzing Jack in Lord of the Flies. During their discussion, Jarred turns to Kyl, another boy sitting behind Jarred. They start to talk. Their talking changes to arguing. Other students become distracted and Ms. Widdop perks up her ears and begins listening to their conversation.

Kyl: "Shut up! I've done just as much work as you."

Jarred: "Whatever, you can't talk, you're still in Algebra 1."

Kyl: "So are you."

Jarred: "Yeah, but you have a D."

Kyl: "So do you."

Jarred: "Mine is better." Ms. Widdop contemplates letting the intellectual debate continues but decides to encourage them to return to their analysis of Jack in Lord of the Flies.

Voice over: "Well, there you have it. A day inside a public school classroom. Clearly, students are engaged and ready to learn. They truly value their education, as should the public. This is an example of public education at its best. We'd like to thank Ms. Widdop for opening up her classroom to our viewers. As compensation, because we know how little Ms. Widdop makes, we have provided her with free dental work, as over the years Ms. Widdop had ground down her teeth to small nubbins. But thanks to our local sponsors, Ms. Widdop can now have a fresh new smile and her new titanium molds will allow her to grind away."

Why I Ride (and other things)

Gosh darn daylight savings (or non-daylight savings), it really throws me for a loop. Here it is, 5:30, it's already dark, I want to drink wine and eat, but wait, it's only 5:30. This is the time of year where I start getting antsy to make the most of life, or apathetic and am content to watch tv at 6 pm. A few weeks ago I went to one of those climbing films, the kind where you think the film is going to be two hours of watching people climb hard but beautiful routes (I like to call it climbing porn- there are a lot of types of porn- biking porn, horse porn and then good 'ole gross guy porn). These films were different. Sure, they were about people climbing cool routes but it seemed that the underlying message in the films was about the gratification one gets from pushing the limits- their own limits. The climbers of course, really pushed the limits, hence the bad-ass films. While I'm not going to run off to California or one of the Stan countries that hosts some of the worlds tallest peaks, I did feel the push and the nagging question as to whether I was doing all I could to get the most out of life and was I doing the best I could to be the best I could at what I wanted to do?
I've come to the conclusion that I'm not doing a bad job- I'd probably do a better job if I was dying of cancer and life seemed shorter, but I really feel like I'm doing what I want...to an extent.
Work does get in the way, this is a conundrum because I feel that I want to be good at my job but being good at something takes time and my job is never ending and often times I'm not sure if all of the mess I'm asked to do actually allows me to be better. OR in reality, if I didn't try to do so much in life, maybe I could be one of those teachers who wins a glass apple. But then I stop to think, I don't want to be the teacher who wins a glass apple because there is so much more to my own life. Sure, some are designed to win the glass apple, but they've chosen to dedicate their lives to teaching, which is great, but it's not me because if I won that glass apple I would have given up the rest of who I am.
Which leads to riding. I don't know what I love more, riding my bike or horses. I think I go back and forth, depending on the time of year. Jarred loves to ask me what if questions and one of the reoccurring ones is, "If you had to give up riding horses or bikes, which would you give up?" I tend to say bikes because I've ridden horses longer and I've sacrificed so much more for my horses but riding my bike on the short ride I did after school today put a smile on my face- there's nothing like huffing and puffing up a hill but even better is the thrill of riding downhill. So biking comes in at a close second.
But there's nothing like a soft horse nose, or Sophie, whose whole body is soft and who rides like a finely tuned Caddy. I know everyone has a bucket list and competing (and being able to win) at one of the major shows, is on mine. I've got a lot to learn still, but it would also be nice to win a ton of money but actually being able to be competitive at those shows will be good enough. Again, the quandary of whether I'm doing all I can to be good comes up and I think...if only I didn't have to work!
I often think that I put too much on my plate, each weekend is full, each afternoon I'm trying to beat the dark, but then again, will I remember those fun rides or sitting on the couch watching a movie?