Recently I had a conversation with a friend whose kids will be ready for school soon. She was talking about which school district to put them in. The school district where she lives is unacceptable so they are going to drive them about 15 miles every day to a different one. This got me thinking…as a teacher in an under-privileged school district, what would I look for when Maelin is ready for school?
I’ve been at my school in one form or another (I did my student teaching there) for about 5 years. Without getting political (which would be SOOOOOO easy to do), I’ll tell you what I’ve seen over the last 5 years and see if you can pick out one of the problems with our educational system:
*When I started teaching, each teacher had a classroom budget of $500. This was for incentives, supplies, books, technology, etc. We ALWAYS spent all of this money and even some of our own (it cost me $1,245 just to buy everything I would need as a new teacher to set up my classroom), but the $500 went a long way in helping. However, due to budget cuts, we now have a classroom budget of $350 and one of the reasons it’s not even lower is because our principal fights and schemes to get us every penny. This doesn’t stop us buying things for our kids: we just have to pay for our supplies out of our own pockets.
*Every teacher has 4-5 computers in their classroom and one was brand new. The rest were horrible (think of the old computers that sit on their hard drive) and the kids could barely use them, but at least one would work. However, we do have high-speed internet so kids could get on the one computer: try making 23 8-year-olds take turns…
*No air-conditioning. We still don’t have it. See how effective your math lesson is when your room is over 90 degrees and there’s bees flying around because you have the doors and windows open.
*Our district just had to cut over 1 million from the budget due to lack of money. So they cut technology services in every school, gifted and talented services, summer school, and they closed our media lab where we got certain supplies from. No technology. Classroom teachers are going to have to teach computer lessons on our classroom computers. See a problem with this? This wouldn’t be so hard if every teacher had effective computers…
I could go on and on, but really, I’m one of the lucky ones. My school is fantastic: in spite of all of this, our 3rd graders are over 90% proficient on the reading CSAP (the incredible, accurate test that DOES test what they know and how effective our teaching is and which all funding and accolades are based), we won the Blue Ribbon Award from the feds and our principal just was awarded Principal of the Year. I wonder how that happened…
So were you able to pick out one of the problems with our educational system? Of course, you say. Money is always the problem, but aren’t you going to tell me next that I work in a poor district and I should expect these issues? That’s where I get my hackles up. EVERY child in this country deserves computer classes. Every child in this country deserves to sit in a comfortable room with no bees flying around where they can concentrate. Every child deserves effective teachers and a fair and equal education no matter where they live, what language they speak at home and how much money their parents make. I know I sound like I’m preaching, but really, isn’t that a basic right of all children in America?
There are so many problems and proposed solutions to education in America…it’s going to take a lot longer to discuss them than Maelin is going to sleep. However, to pick just one:
I have over $70,000 in student loans. I did that knowing I’ll pay them back and I did it so I could have a profession that I truly believe in and that I think I’m relatively good at. However, it is very tempting to take my degrees and split for a job that actually pays me what I’m worth. Waiters make more money than I do. Recent studies show that the single most important factor in determining a student’s achievement isn’t the color of his skin or where he comes from, but who the child’s teacher is. How do you attract talented, qualified people to the profession when you can make more money waiting tables? EVERY teacher I have ever known has had to work another job at some point during their careers. It’s not so they can have fancy cars or lavish vacations: it’s so they can pay down their student loans, or get some extra cash for the mortgage.
It’s a fact that over 1/3 of new teachers will quit after 3 years and never come back. It’s a consequence of low pay, a lack of support from our No Child Left A Dime government and feeling attacked by people who have never even set foot in a classroom but feel they have the right to criticize teachers and public education. How many of those teachers that leave the profession every year would have been the one that would reach your child?
Barack Obama said it best when he said, “…while I was talking to some of the teachers in Chicago about the challenges they faced, one young teacher mentioned what she called the “These Kids Syndrome”—the willingness of society to find a million excuse for why “these kids” can’t learn; how “these kids come from tough backgrounds” or “these kids speak Spanish at home” or “these kids are too far behind,” “When I hear that term, it drives me nuts,” one young teacher told me. “They’re not ‘these kids.’ They’re our kids.”
How well America does in the future with technology and language compared to all the other nations depends largely on that wisdom. They are our kids. All of them.
So to answer my friends’ question about how to find a good school: it’s not the amount of bees flying around or the amount of computers in the classroom because even with those challenges, our kids are learning and they’re learning well. She (and every parent) needs to scope out the schools: talk to the teachers, interview the principal and get a feel for the climate in the building. Our school turns out educated students because we believe every single one of them can learn and they’re our kids. That’s the type of school I will send Maelin to.
2 comments:
Interesting topic-
You are lucky, and so are the parents and kids that get to go to your school. Sadly, I think your school is the exception in public education.
There are MANY, hard working and dedicated teachers, but unfortunately, there are just as many who are not, and still get paid the same, regardless of the type of results they turn out. You have an interesting perspective, in that you will be on both sides of the coin, when Maelin goes to school. What if the school you should send her to is under performing, or you don’t think the teacher(s) there try as hard as other teachers? What if there are so many other students in her class who need help, or are below level, the teacher is so busy w/ them, she / he doesn’t have time to devote to M. to help her thrive?
I think those are a lot of the dilemmas and situations that parents have to face now, in deciding what school to send their children to. I know just thinking about it for Ryan, I have thought a lot about this.
People feel they have a right to criticize schools and teachers, because they pay the taxes that support the school and pay the teachers and administrators. Of course there are other ways to work for change, beside criticize, but if concerns are always met with ,”you don’t know what it is like,” or “you have never been a teacher,” that just makes people defensive, and more likely to criticize the system, in my opinion. I have never been a doctor, but I would speak up if I felt like I got bad treatment from a doctor, or I felt like he needed to address my concerns. If the doctor said, “Well, you aren’t a doctor, so you don’t have the right to question my methods,” that obviously doesn’t work, doesn’t get the problem resolved, and just pisses off the patient.
In my opinion on the whole situation, in the end, my number ONE priority is the education of my children. I don’t care if the school, administrators, or ineffective teachers get their feelings hurt if I raise concerns about the situations in their schools / classrooms. I don’t want my children sitting in the classroom waiting while the teacher has to help kids that shouldn’t be in that class, but are anyway. That is taking time away from the education of my child. What do I tell my children if a school fails them? “Sorry, you can’t read, or do math, but we were good parents and sent you to the school your were supposed to go to, and didn’t question the teachers or principals?”
I am sorry you have so much debt and some waiters make more than teachers, but I have to say to be honest, that most people getting into the teaching profession, know what the salaries are. They know ahead of time, they are underpaid. No one forced a teacher to be a teacher. I wanted to be a florist, but the pay sucks, so I chose to get into another line of work. Maybe you should look at another profession for a while, where you can make more money and pay off debt. You certainly have the education and you have a family to look out for now. On the same token, I don’t think you have an obligation to your school and students, if need more money to live on. I loved being a florist, it was a creative, fun, job, but in the end, I couldn’t make a living at it, so I had to move on to something else.
Finally, I think if school districts want to see changes and have more support from taxpayers and parents, they need to come with a plan, that rewards the good, hard working, and result achieving teachers. Pay them the most money, offer them performance bonuses, but when a teacher who works their butt off gets paid the same as the one who doesn’t care, puts no effort into their job, and passes students, even though they clearly shouldn’t be passed, it doesn’t seem like things are being running effectively. There is ZERO consequences when a school fails a student. No one is held accountable. That HAS to change- When there is some accountability and a way to judge teachers on their individual results, maybe that will mean more pay for the BEST teachers, and then these people can finally get the pay they deserve, and the poor performing teachers, can leave the industry.
Sorry, no one wants their child in a system like that, and unfortunately, that is more often than not the situation in schools, where parents decide to take their children out, send them to charter schools, private schools, or drive them to another school or school district.
Very interesting points. We are SO lucky that we found Bay's school when we did and fit into his GT needs... I think teachers are SO under-paid and under-appreciated. Makes me sick for so much that they do!! There needs to be some obvious changes in the system in place for public schools...
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