Can we actually break the cycle of poverty and poor educational opportunities for underserved young people? I guess we could say that that is the million-dollar question. If any of us had the opportunity, tools and means to do it, I guess it would have been done already, right? So, what is standing in the way? So many things that they become difficult to count.
FIRST, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF OUR OWN WAY. Now, that is a big step because we get in our own way so often that we hardly see that it is happening. I, for instance, see all of the obstacles in my path before I see the road. Does that happen to you? A lifetime of not seeing the road is a tad discouraging and lends itself more to standing in the road than to continuing the trek. Well, I have continued and am still trekking, looking for some travel companions and extra lenses to see all the angles. i will also gladly trudge along with those who are on the path toward social justice, equality and educational equity. At Rossier School of Education I have had professors that have awakened a semi-dormant side of my character, and have allowed me to see tools that I have always had to use on my journey. I sincerely thank them for that and hope to reward their patience and intellectual dedication with an untiring attack on the inequity in US education and beyond. I have cleared the brush from my way, would anyone like to come along?
SECOND, WE NEED TO FIND OUR SUPPORT AND NOURISH THEM WITH RECIPROCAL SUPPORT. In my case, this is quite a challenge. I want (and honestly NEED) to go on a reciprocally educational trip with an incredible group of people from USC to Endupoto, a primary school in Tanzania. It is a tad beyond my price range being an unemployed graduate student and single mother, but I am so certain of the doors that the trip will open for me personally, professionally, academically and pedagogically that I have made a commitment to go. Enter people who I would have counted as my support system. To say that they were/are not supportive would be the understatement of the year. So, i am on the hunt for people who are of a like mind and who are capable of being supportive, because I will support anyone in what will make him or her happiest, whether or not my personal opinion is the same or at odds with the choice. I think I am a good friend and relative. I think that I can be in someone's corner without personally agreeing with the corner itself, and without judging the person on how they managed to get there. I am sorry to say that I do not count on that being reciprocal in most cases. I realize, however, that in order for change to occur, I need to surround myself with people who can be reciprocally supportive. That is a goal that I am striving towards, along with fundraising for my trip.
Now, if I have realized that I need reciprocal support, and that when things are one-sided, they are generally sapping my energy, drive and ambition, how can I be blind to the fact that underserved students most likely have realized the same thing? Simply because it has taken me a long time to recognize it certainly does not mean that it should have. Young people today grow up faster than previous generations. Adults call them lazy. In some ways, the laziness of those same adults is what has cultivated this generation. Kids raised on television programs rather than books, kids living off microwave meals rather than sitting down for dinner (or lunch or breakfast), kids who are tremendously less involved with their peers face-to-face...these kids did not raise themselves...or did they? Either way, the adults in their lives abdicated their roles for expedience.
I have kids. My kids are smart and not overly interested in school. They are, however, VERY interested in being educated and learning new things. So, where is the dichotomy? Well, it begins with the fact that we are in a very high-needs area in the southeastern United States where education of poor students is definitely not a priority. I have one son in 8th grade who tested at a reading level 12th grade +. He went to the middle school library to find a book so that he could get his AR (Accelerated Reader) points for the term. Being at the reading level he is, he needs 19 points. That is the highest in the school (by quite a large margin). The average classmate of his needs 4 or 5 points. The average book in the library is one-half of one point. If I were a student who needed stimulation in school (which I was and still am, and my children are as well), I would no more read 38 boring 30-page books than volunteer to have my hand chopped off. The library is populated with books designed to keep these 6th-8th grade students at their 3rd-4th grade reading levels, after which they move on to high school and no longer are required to read for this program.
On the same topic, that of Accelerated Reader programs in public schools....I am all for getting children to read. I am VERY against telling them what, how and how much they can read. Set a minimum, get them back to writing to analyze what they read rather than taking short multiple-choice tests on books that they have been coerced into reading. As an adult, what I notice when I read a book may be entirely different than what my adult sister gleans. So having a child take a multiple-choice test to prove that he or she read a book is ludicrous and is stifling the child. My son, when he was in third grade, wanted to read the Harry Potter books. His aunt (my sister) is such a fan (and a great aunt) that she had give the entire series to my kids in hardback. He went to school with this 759 page monster of a book worth like 35 AR points. He was told that he was not allowed to read it. I am not sure that I can see the logic of telling a child that he is not permitted to read something which we consider to be beyond his level. When a child wants to read it, and it is interesting to him, that is what will boost his level. Why do we stunt the child's natural curiosity and ambition? My son has been turned off to reading for pleasure ever since, even though he reads at a level considerably beyond his age and the levels of his peers.
So, back to the cycle....
The cycle will not break itself. The cycle has been designed to be cyclical and almost impossible to leave behind. It is one of those fixer-uppers that has just a little visible damage so that we buy into patching it up, when beyond the sight of many, the foundation and structure is rotten to the core and what really needs to be done is to tear it down and start anew.
We cannot expect much support from the people who created the cycle. We definitely cannot expect support from those who actively and knowingly perpetuate it. So, those of us awake to the need of change need to sell people who are immune to change on our ideas and in order to do that, we need a PLAN. PLANS are what can make dreams and ideals reality.
ANYONE WANT TO PLAY ON MY TEAM?
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Another Day, Another Dollar in Debt....
Well,maybe more than a dollar, but you get the idea. I guess anyone who has gone to college, pursued a masters degree or has bought a house or car can identify with being in debt. I decided to get a master's degree after years of working round-the-clock hours for people who found it more expedient to lay decently-paid, trained, loyal employees off so that revenues at the non-profit organization could rise and more conventions, meetings and trips could be enjoyed by the higher-ups. In my place, three new employees were hired and not one lasted in my job. No one is willing to work for 8.00 an hour as a virtual indentured servant who cannot take a breath in 9 hours, much less go to the restroom. Funny thing, that desire to actually have a life...I withstood everything to be able to take care of my family, but I was still lain off and tossed to the wayside.
Now, I am sure you are wondering what that has to do with the topic at hand. Well, here it is: My ideal goal in life would be to be a perpetual student...not a mere student learning whatever, but a student of the best minds on the planet. Regardless of language, location or subject, I want to know it all! SO, I went for my masters in teaching English to speakers of other languages. I saw a need in my local area that was not being met on any level, in primary and middle schools, in churches and colleges, and much less in the adult population. I thought I could make a difference for a relatively disenfranchised group of people in the United States or travel to where I might be able to make a difference if no one wanted to see change at home.
The problem is...I love studying! Everything I learn is so philosophically RELEVANT to me and my environment. I have professors who I would have LOVED to have known as people because they have allowed me to engage in amazingly intelligent conversation which, sadly, has been greatly lacking in my adult life since I moved from Washington, D.C., to the southeastern United States. I want to rush and put everything into practice or get a job where I can ensure that people put these things into practice. Well, that, as I am sure you know, is so much easier thought than said, and even more easily said than done.
I have daily struggles with my conscience and with my BRAIN because I am deciding whether or not to pursue a doctoral degree in an area which fascinates me, but which is thoroughly against the tide of education in the United States these days. I struggle with the fact that I have not made a difference in the lives of people that need that difference made for them. I struggle with the guilt of knowing that there are first graders who are spoken to as if they have no value and that there are adults speaking to them in that way. I struggle with guilt over not being able to be a life-changing force in the lives of poor students who, if they had EVER known attention, rigor and engagement in education, could have been anything they put their minds to.
So, I have gotten myself into more debt to learn things that I cannot put into practice, to know things that it was far easier not to recognize, and to be a person riddled with bouts of conscience over not being able to make a difference. In the state in which I live, the governor and state representatives have decided that teachers should all get the same pay, whether they have a BA, MA or PhD. If it is not a listed job requirement to have an advanced degree, a teacher will no longer get compensated for having taken the initiative to be a better teacher. It is also relevant to mention that teacher salaries in this state have steadily gone down, with the decline currently at 16% while prices of EVERYTHING have risen. In a state where the masters raise was only 10% anyway, and salaries have fallen by 16%, I think if someone found it worthwhile to get into 80,000 dollars of debt to get a 2400.00 ANNUAL pay increase, it would behoove the state to let the person have it. Good old democracy.
Well, I am closing with a simple thought: If we all know that the children we raise are the next generation of leaders, voters, consumers or criminals...why don't we make sure that they have the skills to be one of the former rather than the latter? These teachers that are underpaid and overworked, who serve as confessor, babysitter, mentor, ally and advocate are being discouraged from learning the tools they need to teach these skills. Everyone can't think that is a good scenario.
Now, I am sure you are wondering what that has to do with the topic at hand. Well, here it is: My ideal goal in life would be to be a perpetual student...not a mere student learning whatever, but a student of the best minds on the planet. Regardless of language, location or subject, I want to know it all! SO, I went for my masters in teaching English to speakers of other languages. I saw a need in my local area that was not being met on any level, in primary and middle schools, in churches and colleges, and much less in the adult population. I thought I could make a difference for a relatively disenfranchised group of people in the United States or travel to where I might be able to make a difference if no one wanted to see change at home.
The problem is...I love studying! Everything I learn is so philosophically RELEVANT to me and my environment. I have professors who I would have LOVED to have known as people because they have allowed me to engage in amazingly intelligent conversation which, sadly, has been greatly lacking in my adult life since I moved from Washington, D.C., to the southeastern United States. I want to rush and put everything into practice or get a job where I can ensure that people put these things into practice. Well, that, as I am sure you know, is so much easier thought than said, and even more easily said than done.
I have daily struggles with my conscience and with my BRAIN because I am deciding whether or not to pursue a doctoral degree in an area which fascinates me, but which is thoroughly against the tide of education in the United States these days. I struggle with the fact that I have not made a difference in the lives of people that need that difference made for them. I struggle with the guilt of knowing that there are first graders who are spoken to as if they have no value and that there are adults speaking to them in that way. I struggle with guilt over not being able to be a life-changing force in the lives of poor students who, if they had EVER known attention, rigor and engagement in education, could have been anything they put their minds to.
So, I have gotten myself into more debt to learn things that I cannot put into practice, to know things that it was far easier not to recognize, and to be a person riddled with bouts of conscience over not being able to make a difference. In the state in which I live, the governor and state representatives have decided that teachers should all get the same pay, whether they have a BA, MA or PhD. If it is not a listed job requirement to have an advanced degree, a teacher will no longer get compensated for having taken the initiative to be a better teacher. It is also relevant to mention that teacher salaries in this state have steadily gone down, with the decline currently at 16% while prices of EVERYTHING have risen. In a state where the masters raise was only 10% anyway, and salaries have fallen by 16%, I think if someone found it worthwhile to get into 80,000 dollars of debt to get a 2400.00 ANNUAL pay increase, it would behoove the state to let the person have it. Good old democracy.
Well, I am closing with a simple thought: If we all know that the children we raise are the next generation of leaders, voters, consumers or criminals...why don't we make sure that they have the skills to be one of the former rather than the latter? These teachers that are underpaid and overworked, who serve as confessor, babysitter, mentor, ally and advocate are being discouraged from learning the tools they need to teach these skills. Everyone can't think that is a good scenario.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Reflections on My "Calling"
Lately I have had quite a lot of time on my hands to think about why I wanted to become a teacher. I have long studied and read about awesome teachers and their legacy in the minds and hearts of their students. I did not particularly aspire to THAT, but I was certain that I could make my class material fascinating and engaging for my students. I was CERTAIN.
Enter a certain high school. I went to the convocation to begin the school year. It was all...LET'S BE ON OUR STUDENTS' SIDE...I BELIEVE IN MY STUDENTS...WE CAN TURN THINGS AROUND! I was elated that I had found a place where they thought like I did! Why had I been wasting my time elsewhere when these people GET me?!
First day of school. I have my desks arranged for cooperative grouping, I have extra materials in case the students do not have paper, pencils, pens, markers, notebooks...I put up amazing versions of the national flags of Spanish-speaking countries and a world map covering the entire side wall. The flags were images painted onto children's faces and they were thought-provoking and beautiful (you can look them up in Google images ;)). I thought...I have gone out of my way to make the room visually stimulating so the students will notice and ask about what is painted and why....I had never been so off-base!
First 90-minute block was relatively cooperative in their groups, though they could not understand why I did not want to just talk at them like the rest of their teachers do. They were not at all interested in taking part in the formation of class rules, that was the teacher's job. And, this was the most pleasant of the classes! I tried again every day, the two most contrary and vociferously uncooperative students dropped the class before the end of that week, but the remaining students wanted no part of a student-centered classroom. The school began a system using the Common Instructional Framework, where students were going to become critical thinkers and leaders and teachers would be able to just facilitate their learning. It was a lovely idea, but day by day, I began to realize that the system was only adopted on paper.
I was the only teacher actually putting students into cooperative groups, I was (and still am) the only one foolish enough to believe that the best place for the student is in my classroom, rather than in In-School or Out-of-School Suspension. Even when I have had to discipline students, I have specifically noted that the student should be spoken with, but that I do not want him or her removed from my class. I am the only teacher that allows for collaboration in speaking and writing exercises, who allows students to pick interesting topics to learn about, who believes that these young people deserve my best.
I have been called naive, ridiculous, stupid and uninformed. I wish that I could say that these remarks have been limited to colleagues, but that is simply not true. These have come from students, colleagues, administrators and district office personnel.
A couple of weeks ago, there was an altercation on a school bus at the end of the day. Several students were restrained by teachers and led off away from the bus lot. The buses pulled off and left the students with the adults. When I went to leave, the entire local police force was in the school parking lot with a "paddy wagon". If that were not bad enough (and that was HORRENDOUS in my mind), every single teacher except myself was lined up on either side on the back of the paddy wagon so that the students had to make a walk of shame among all of the adults hired and counted on to mentor them and teach them. Seven students were arrested and taken to the local jail.
The following morning, my first block students were eating breakfast in the classroom, as is customary in this school, and they saw buses pulling into the lot late and a battery of sheriff and police vehicles out front. As they watched through the classroom window, students were arrested as they got off the morning school bus at school. One of my students from another class watched as his younger brother was arrested. When he asked the principal what was going on, he was threatened with being arrested as well.
Over the following few days I spoke with teachers, students and administrators both at school and county level and I was a minority of ONE in believing that the situation was not handled in the best manner. Even students expressed that the arrested students "got what they deserved". The students who were arrested will all be charged as adults...over a scuffle on a school bus at the end of the day when everyone is tired and just wants to go home.
I am well aware that fighting is not the way to handle things. I am aware that schools need to be safe havens for kids....but where myself and my colleagues diverge in thought...is that they think school only needs to be a safe haven for well-behaved students, while I believe that ANY student should be able to get on a school bus with the expectation that he will not be arrested upon arriving to school to further his education. I guess we all were exemplary kids. I guess not one of us has ever regretted something said or done in anger, so that we think it is OK for 16 year-old kids to have a criminal record which will follow them and limit their possibilities for the rest of their lives...over an argument on a school bus.
If we treat children as adults, if we scan them, herd them, interrogate them and punish them as criminals, we cannot wonder why they do not excel, why they do not want to be responsible. Critical thinkers are not herded like cattle and told where to go, where to sit, how to think, how to fill in a dot so that a machine can adequately record if they are smart or college-ready. Up in the governors' mansions in all of the 50 states, there must be xray glasses where they can see into each child's heart and mind to determine that tests are fair and that because the students live in poor areas, they have no need for adequate education. I SURE COULD USE A PAIR OF THOSE GLASSES SO THAT WHAT I SEE EVERY DAY DOES NOT BREAK MY HEART. Not only do these kids need adequate education, they need adults to advocate for them and teach them that all that society sees when it looks at them is not the whole picture. These kids KNOW they are not being educated...but they are KIDS. That is what we adults are FOR....making sure that they can see clear to the finish line and that the race is worth running.
Every one of us has a part to play in the lives of these children....we all do lip-service to the idea that every kid deserves a chance and that "it takes a village to raise a child", but more needs to be done. Let's be the village... rather than talking a good game, let's make a gameplan and get all the players huddled and to work! Any one of us could be the parent to one of these children.....let's begin to act like it.
Enter a certain high school. I went to the convocation to begin the school year. It was all...LET'S BE ON OUR STUDENTS' SIDE...I BELIEVE IN MY STUDENTS...WE CAN TURN THINGS AROUND! I was elated that I had found a place where they thought like I did! Why had I been wasting my time elsewhere when these people GET me?!
First day of school. I have my desks arranged for cooperative grouping, I have extra materials in case the students do not have paper, pencils, pens, markers, notebooks...I put up amazing versions of the national flags of Spanish-speaking countries and a world map covering the entire side wall. The flags were images painted onto children's faces and they were thought-provoking and beautiful (you can look them up in Google images ;)). I thought...I have gone out of my way to make the room visually stimulating so the students will notice and ask about what is painted and why....I had never been so off-base!
First 90-minute block was relatively cooperative in their groups, though they could not understand why I did not want to just talk at them like the rest of their teachers do. They were not at all interested in taking part in the formation of class rules, that was the teacher's job. And, this was the most pleasant of the classes! I tried again every day, the two most contrary and vociferously uncooperative students dropped the class before the end of that week, but the remaining students wanted no part of a student-centered classroom. The school began a system using the Common Instructional Framework, where students were going to become critical thinkers and leaders and teachers would be able to just facilitate their learning. It was a lovely idea, but day by day, I began to realize that the system was only adopted on paper.
I was the only teacher actually putting students into cooperative groups, I was (and still am) the only one foolish enough to believe that the best place for the student is in my classroom, rather than in In-School or Out-of-School Suspension. Even when I have had to discipline students, I have specifically noted that the student should be spoken with, but that I do not want him or her removed from my class. I am the only teacher that allows for collaboration in speaking and writing exercises, who allows students to pick interesting topics to learn about, who believes that these young people deserve my best.
I have been called naive, ridiculous, stupid and uninformed. I wish that I could say that these remarks have been limited to colleagues, but that is simply not true. These have come from students, colleagues, administrators and district office personnel.
A couple of weeks ago, there was an altercation on a school bus at the end of the day. Several students were restrained by teachers and led off away from the bus lot. The buses pulled off and left the students with the adults. When I went to leave, the entire local police force was in the school parking lot with a "paddy wagon". If that were not bad enough (and that was HORRENDOUS in my mind), every single teacher except myself was lined up on either side on the back of the paddy wagon so that the students had to make a walk of shame among all of the adults hired and counted on to mentor them and teach them. Seven students were arrested and taken to the local jail.
The following morning, my first block students were eating breakfast in the classroom, as is customary in this school, and they saw buses pulling into the lot late and a battery of sheriff and police vehicles out front. As they watched through the classroom window, students were arrested as they got off the morning school bus at school. One of my students from another class watched as his younger brother was arrested. When he asked the principal what was going on, he was threatened with being arrested as well.
Over the following few days I spoke with teachers, students and administrators both at school and county level and I was a minority of ONE in believing that the situation was not handled in the best manner. Even students expressed that the arrested students "got what they deserved". The students who were arrested will all be charged as adults...over a scuffle on a school bus at the end of the day when everyone is tired and just wants to go home.
I am well aware that fighting is not the way to handle things. I am aware that schools need to be safe havens for kids....but where myself and my colleagues diverge in thought...is that they think school only needs to be a safe haven for well-behaved students, while I believe that ANY student should be able to get on a school bus with the expectation that he will not be arrested upon arriving to school to further his education. I guess we all were exemplary kids. I guess not one of us has ever regretted something said or done in anger, so that we think it is OK for 16 year-old kids to have a criminal record which will follow them and limit their possibilities for the rest of their lives...over an argument on a school bus.
If we treat children as adults, if we scan them, herd them, interrogate them and punish them as criminals, we cannot wonder why they do not excel, why they do not want to be responsible. Critical thinkers are not herded like cattle and told where to go, where to sit, how to think, how to fill in a dot so that a machine can adequately record if they are smart or college-ready. Up in the governors' mansions in all of the 50 states, there must be xray glasses where they can see into each child's heart and mind to determine that tests are fair and that because the students live in poor areas, they have no need for adequate education. I SURE COULD USE A PAIR OF THOSE GLASSES SO THAT WHAT I SEE EVERY DAY DOES NOT BREAK MY HEART. Not only do these kids need adequate education, they need adults to advocate for them and teach them that all that society sees when it looks at them is not the whole picture. These kids KNOW they are not being educated...but they are KIDS. That is what we adults are FOR....making sure that they can see clear to the finish line and that the race is worth running.
Every one of us has a part to play in the lives of these children....we all do lip-service to the idea that every kid deserves a chance and that "it takes a village to raise a child", but more needs to be done. Let's be the village... rather than talking a good game, let's make a gameplan and get all the players huddled and to work! Any one of us could be the parent to one of these children.....let's begin to act like it.
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