There's no such thing as having a file cabinet of ideas you can run to because you've been teaching 20 years. Things are just changing too fast for that. Thirty years ago, learning mostly just came out of books, and the teacher who wanted to use actual stuff to demonstrate concepts usually had to conjure it up herself. Students are introduced to more sophisticated concepts at earlier ages-raise your hand if you learned about opportunity costs in fifth grade. The simplistic short stories of the basal readers have been replaced by folk tales from around the world and novels.
Children have to think more analytically, explain how they got their answers.
What they learn in one class is integrated into another. Years ago, science was science. Now, it's science and reading and math and writing. Oh, and don't forget Ritalin. Linda Perlstein covers education for The Post's Metro section.