on leaving a difficult place

Three years ago, I walked into my first public school teaching assignment, in a middle school a mile west of downtown Atlanta. Next Thursday, I'm leaving that school.

It's been at least as much an education for me as it has been for my kids there. I meant to stay longer - I'm leaving because I can't deal with the "leadership through fear" philosophy and tactics of the administration - and I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to do more than I have. I have, though, gotten some perspective on what it means to be truly poor (not the perspective equals understanding) and on how we do education in America.

The kids I've come to know deal with some mind-wrenching violence, including a lot of sexual violence, in their everyday lives. They bring that to school, just as any child brings what she knows in the rest of her life to school. Given the baggage they're given at birth to carry, I've long since stopped wondering why we get sixth graders who don't know their times tables.

If we want to *truly* raise all boats, to *truly* educate all children and give them a chance, the battle has to start long before they ever hit the school door. Is a populist, focus-on-poverty stance risky? We can't afford not to risk it.

three years.

I hope that the ideas about investing in all of America's children are central to the '08 elections. It amazes me that so many people talk about the need to do things for children, including how our government (local, state, and federal) pretends that education is a priority. But it's not really, as you have noted.

Again, thank you.

You're welcome, but like I say, I'm a little disappointed. We really need to make education and poverty central to next year and beyond.

And we all know where that went.

:hi:

and learning what you did while you were there.

Didn't the Democratic party once-upon-a-time at least give lip service to being the party concerned with poverty and issues created by poverty? I have a vague memory of that. Maybe my memory is fried?

Your brief tale (and a couple of other posts I've seen) has reminded me why, though I've always felt a need to teach, I've never been able to make myself step into what has become our "educational" system.

How was it, people in the U.S. managed to gain knowledge and education before the advent of formalized schooling came into being? Yet educated they became. Educated enough to understand Washington's first state of the union address which some website rated at the educational level of 22.4. Educated enough to read the writings of the Founders as they made their case for creating a new nation. Educated enough to sit through and understand four hours of debates between Lincoln and Douglas. For that matter, what formal schooling did Lincoln have? And now, now as I sit here writing a post more than one or two paragraphs, I wonder who here will take the time to read a message this "long"?

Real education and issues of poverty. If those are too populist or risky for the Democratic Party...

Didn't the Democratic party once-upon-a-time at least give lip service to being the party concerned with poverty and issues created by poverty?

We're so passe. :eyes:

I've never been able to make myself step into what has become our "educational" system.

We can use you.

No, you didn't say that - that's what went through my head when I read your words. :wry grin smiley here:

I wouldn't fit well into the teaching system currently in place. I don't care to teach to a test and I have serious issues with our love affair with test scores and categorizing students. One of my best learning experiences came from a 3 classroom school house in which several grades were taught together in one classroom. Each student was taught to their ability and interest and egged-on a bit in those areas in which they displayed no interest - test scores weren't a consideration. We're too test crazy in this country. It's, in my never very humbly stated opinion, the lazy person's way out of relying on one's own ability to discern ability and "quality". It's also far too frequently, nothing more than a CYA against litigation in our lawsuit-happy nation. The Orwellian named "Leave No Child Behind" act has just further entrenched the idea that a test is indicative of learning or one's acquisition of knowledge. What horse-shit!

Anyhoo, my point being, I'd be no welcome addition to the system nor would I welcome the system.

They've had governesses and tutors and private schools. Even a complete dunderhead like * can get a degree with enough coaching.

For a while there, during the sixties and seventies, it really looked as if public education was going to shine: loads of idealistic young college grads thought they could make a difference. Then Reagan and Bush I happened. About that time, this became the popular poster:



And sadly, the sentiment is still true today.

and their families - not the landed gentry so much.

They still seemed to be literate enough to make printing a profitable enterprise for Ben Franklin; surely it wasn't just the rich who purchased his wares?

Wasn't there also some outrageous number of newspapers and pamphlets available in many early Colonial towns? Who was their readership?

Who was Thomas Paine's audience for "Common Sense"? For whom did Franklin write "Poor Richard's Almanac"?

Lincoln wasn't born rich - yet he seems to have been able to learn without a school system. As did others of his time and place.

How the heck did so many people learn and understand without the "benefit" of formalized schooling? Were they more intelligent than we are? More capable of learning? More willing to learn?

Not asking you to account for all this - these are just questions swirling around in my mind.

special needs kids benefit from caring teachers such as yourself (and even from pricks like me :))

I mean, name it something else, but still...

A populist, focus-on-poverty stance might salvage what's left of the nation. I'm up for it.

Some level of burn-out is inevitable when the whole economic, class, and, yes, educational system is set up to perpetuate an abundant under-class to provide cheap labor, cannon fodder, and obedient compliance with what their more educated "leaders" tell them.

Where do you go next?

Still a Title I school, but more chance to make a difference, I think. :hi:

I look forward to hearing about it!

Since reading "Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan, which has a passage about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and asks how, if a child's physical needs for safety, food, and shelter are not met, we can expect them to spend any of their being on learning beyond that.

I've thought a lot about that hierarchy in the last three years.

I forgot that I'd referenced the hierarchy back in February, in another thread about the school...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x233848

...there's always the discussion...but never much..if any action...I saw a piece on the news recently where they told how with the...no child left behind claptrap...that they're now allowing kids to be *close* in mathmatics...no TRUE answer....just relatively close to the correct answer....WTF??? If these are the new standards...we're beyond doomed. :nopity:

That said...peace my friend...and thank you for your efforts. :loveya:

I don't expect that we'll be able to, and thus the farce will reach its climax shortly. Should be interesting. :hi: :loveya:

The reporter hadn't a clue about math instruction, math standards, or the way in which to best develop and encourage mathematical learning in kids. Yet another example of MSM getting it wrong, then blowing it all over the airwaves for most Americans to misinterpret.

I am staying at my school next year and am hoping our leadership will get better. I am teaching AP stats which I am thrilled with. You have done a great service and I wish you very well.

I considered staying, but things are already getting worse in preparation for next year - this year has taken more than its share off my life. Best of everything to you as well, man.

and I haven't said this recently but thank you for having the rainbow flag as your avitar. It means alot.

It's so hard, yet so important that we hang in there. I've taught for years but this past one was the first I've had in a Title I school trying for about the 4th time to make AYP. The pressure is so tremendous for the admin. that only a few know how to cut through it to be humane to the teachers. I absolutely hated everything first semester but things got better. As a single parent with a child in school in another county, he had his worst academic year yet and I felt so bad not being able to be there for him more.

This NCLB was an idea from hell and I'm thoroughly disappointed that Ted Kennedy didn't disown it when it came up for renewal this year. It's so punitive and the reasoning behind it sounds like the same twisted & contorted logic coming from the conservative "think" tanks that we've heard concerning poverty, affirmative action, etc. Sorry, but as you can see, I can easily go into an unsolicited rant on the subject!

Anyway, a salute to all of you and hope you can enjoy some of your well-deserved break if you're not having to take lots of classes, etc. If you're like me, you have much to catch up on.

I'm angry with Kennedy for not fixing this mess!

This is killing our schools, and he should know better!

Best to you-- I salute your efforts!

:patriot:

My school has been on the needs improvement list since there was such a list. We made AYP my first year here, but that's been it.

I'm taking two courses this summer starting next week, but other than that I'm going to read, work on building my son a play area in the back yard, and just be Dad.

A salute back to you - rest well this summer. :)

Hope you take some good time for yourself this summer. I have two more weeks before break. I've spent 10 years in the classroom, and 11 as a school counselor. It will be nice to refresh the batteries.

We need more like you. I'm glad you're not getting out of the profession. I know how hard it is; think of yourself and your health. Teaching is the hardest job in the world, and you need to take care of yourself.

with other resources before they enter school ,is exactly how I feel too. I can't help but think that head start tried to address this issue. But we have to provide good jobs, like we provide roads, hospitals,banks, etc.....for our children's parent's.

I agree with you. We can't afford not to risk it.

:hug:

:loveya:

it wouldn't solve all the problems but it would be a good start. His program, "Success by Six," I think it was called, cut child abuse by a whopping percentage I can't offhand remember and child sexual abuse by something like 74% or some other equally astounding number -- the program really was VERY sucessful, and it cost just $100 per child per year. Of course, Vermont is a little different, but still.

The program itself is the soul of simplicity: every new mother (even if her 6th chld) got a visit in the hospital from a social worker who asked the new mom if she'd like a follow-up visit at home. If not, no further involvement. If she answered yes, a social worker visited with a fairly short period of time and found out if the new mother needed anything and then provided it -- job training, parenting classes, food stamps, whatever.

Imagine.

Best of luck to you. I know YOUR education these last 3 years will serve you well. I mourn for the students who've lost you, but that's another matter. I'm not suggesting you should stay for their sake.

It has made *huge* changes for the better!

I understand New Mexico is now implementing this....

It should be national!

So few people even try to make a difference. Your efforts are appreciated, even if only by a few.

I'm late middle aged now and have learned much in my life.

I would like to pass on my knowledge, but it seems that no one wishes to hear what I have to teach.

My method of instruction leans toward the Socratic and I find that it irritates most people to be asked to think.

As a nation we are so used to having our entertainment and our education spoon fed to us as passive consumers that very few even have the ability, much less the willingness, to truly engage their intellect.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and so is a lifetime of experience and learning.

It saddens me immeasurably that I will die without even being given the chance to pass on my hard won wisdom.

Once again, thank you on behalf of the children you have struggled to give some small opportunity.

Even if--hypothetically--you only helped one kid, hopefully it will have a ripple effect on everyone that kid meets in life.

our inner city schools.


So few people would do what you have done. I know you downplay your contribution to this world, but I want you to know that you are one of my heroes. :thumbsup:

Good luck in your new pursuits and thank you for every kid (and parent, and fellow teacher) you've helped in those three years.

The new frontier: our inner city schools.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I don't know that I'd have believed what it's like down here. I think I got past my "sheltered white boy" sense of being shocked about the same time that my colleagues told me that they'd made me an honorary black man. :D

I know you downplay your contribution to this world, but I want you to know that you are one of my heroes.

:) Thank you.

:hug: :hi:

I have never taught middle school but I have spent many many years with 5th graders. It's a neat age.

I am just now finishing my 27th year. All but 3 years have been in Title I schools. Most are at 90% or above free lunch rate.

I really love it and actually feel sorry for teachers who teach in wealthier districts where the parents have as much or more education as the teachers. We really make a difference here. It may be harder but it is so important. I also usualy go home feeling pretty good about what I did that day.

I really love it and actually feel sorry for teachers who teach in wealthier districts

I know what you mean in my bones. :hi: :loveya:

All good wishes and cheers to all dedicated teachers, and condemnation for all who think that it's OK to have so many children living in poverty.

to why we can't have a new war on poverty, but I guess I'm not going to get it from that poster.

My favorite people are librarians and teachers, and your piece here perfectly expresses why I have so much esteem for teachers!

I'm angry! With how you and all teachers have been treated. As a friend of mine from Europe has said many times, in other countries, teachers are highly respected. To be a teacher means status. In the US, we wipe our feet on so many teachers. Shameful!

I'm so sad! Your dedication to young minds is ..... priceless. I'm so upset that you have come to the place where you must leave what you really love. There are no words....

I'm proud! To know that there are still people with your integrity and your compassion!

:cry: :nuke: :patriot:

Peace be with you, ulysses!!

which is also kinda thankless, so i have an idea of what you speak