Shhh! Do You Want To Know a Secret?
Some of us actually enjoy working in low income, minority neighborhoods.
I’m not sure why this is a secret, but apparently it is. If you listen to the propaganda that is used to recruit teachers into low income neighborhoods, you would think that they were leper colonies or something.
Many of us who work in such neighborhoods went through traditional teacher programs. We spent a lot of money on many years of education and have chosen to work within the inner cities. We don’t look at the job as community service or some kind of temporary experience. We actually like being there. We enjoy the children.
Surprise, surprise! I have met some of the greatest children through my experiences. I can honestly say that some of them are far nicer people than I have ever been. Yes, some of them are tough, some of them are mean; just like anywhere else. The majority of them, however, are nice kids who are trying to do the right thing.
I’ve actually been involved in the analyzing of the results of anonymous exit interviews for teachers who leave the inner-city school at which I work. We ask them to identify the main reasons they are leaving. No one ever says the students. They always say the same thing-the system.
It’s a system that will eat you alive if you let it. It’s a system that seems to have the sole purpose of not-educating kids. Teachers become enormously frustrated at the dysfunctional policies and lack of necessary tools to perform their jobs. When I speak to former colleagues who are teaching in “better” neighborhoods, they always say the same thing; I miss the kids.
This is why I have such a huge problem with efforts to ‘fix the system’ from the outside. Instead of looking at the simple things that we all know can easily be done to provide for a better learning environment, hypocrites like Joel Klein pass the blame. They invent and encourage new ways to recruit teachers, without addressing the factors that make so many with experience leave.
I can’t stand the condescending attitudes and elitist ramblings of some individuals who are being ‘recruited’ to perform community service in our schools. I am offended for the children.
You hear them all the time.
Here’s one from a newly hired TFA member:
Sounds like a Steinbeck novel.
Here’s another:
Yet another
Relegate them to the ghetto? Who are you to relegate anyone anywhere?
This idiot even wrote a book, Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America
The trenches?
And what is with the the war analogies, anyway? The trenches, the corps, Troops for America?
This line from a US News interview with a TFA member Hrag Hamalian sums it all up:
I believe that Hrag really doesn’t know whom he’s fighting. Soldiers rarely do. They march to battle when they are told. It’s not the fault of the individuals who are coerced into battle. They honestly don’t know who the enemy is.
There is definitely a war, but it’s not a war to educate children in low income neighborhoods. It’s a war against the children in low income neighborhoods. It’s a war that is deflecting the real problems that cause neighborhoods and the schools within them to fail. It’s a war that allows propagandists like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee to divert attention away from the fact that they don’t want to fix the system.
Ask any inner city teacher and they’ll tell you some very simple, low cost methods to improve their schools.
Klein could snap his fingers and do it in a heart beat.
He chooses not to.
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Comments
I think the point of the book is that they were really,
really brave to go into those horrible neighborhoods. Don’t you see? They’re heroes!!!
YES!
Great post!
I loved working with these kids and their parents too. I spent 27 years teaching on Bushwick Ave and most of my colleagues remained there too. The same at most schools in Williamsburg. Though there were some weird politics, the schools were stable and that means something to people - which Tweed has no understanding of and is why they will leave the schools in shambles. Of course they will say “look at the results” and I will say look at their results after you remove all the shennanigans from total test prep all the time to stat mainipulation and you will see that things are no better, if not worse - at least according to my former contacts in the area.
Norms last blog post..Teacher Advocacy Group NYC (TAGNYC): TAGNYC Statement at P.E.P. Meeting of May 19, 2008
It’s a big game to milk as much money as possible out of the
system. Bloom/Klein trades contracts with their friends and
the corporate vultures see an opportunity to make a profit.
They deliberately undermine the morale of teachers with
some experience so that they can bring in cheaper labor.
The cheaper labor doesn’t even realize they’ve been manipulated by feel-good sales techniques that play upon
what may be sympathy to some, and is probably ego to others.
The moronic journalists seal the deal by writing ridiculous
puff pieces that extol the heroic actions of the do-gooders.
In the meantime, Bloom/Klein and their billionaire friends,
sit back, laugh, and watch it all unfold.
I think teachers, being one of the last bastions of unionism in the country, make a great scapegoat. I’m continually amazed that people who’d benefit from unions are convinced to revile them, and rather than demand them for themselves, complain that we’ve got no right to them.
NYC Educators last blog post..Throw the Book at Her
I concur. I think that you, or Reality Based Educator wrote a post in which you alluded to this topic. It really got me thinking about about this attitude of,’I don’t have it , so why should you’ mentality. ‘I don’t have a pension, why should you? I don’t get sick days, why should you? I’m not guaranteed loyalty for 15 years of service,etc, etc.
Instead of saying, why have I allowed my quality of life to be stripped, many individuals simply accept the situation as self-deserving and buy into the vilification of those who still fight for basic human rights.
What a refreshing post. When people find out that work in a low-performing school, they are usually shocked. The tell me how brave I am and say things like, “oh, tough area” and then suggest that I move to Westchester. I love teaching the children that I teach. I love their strength and the fact above all else, they are normal kids in search of guidance and love and respect.
I have been in the system four years. I came in through the Fellows Program and I stayed. I stayed not because I could get a job else where, but because I’m needed. I’m needed not because I am the best teacher in the world but because I grew up in the neighborhood and I am a role model. I am one of the few that they get to see and I need them to know that they can make a difference.
I’ve seen many books from folks who taught for a year and quit. I really question what makes them authorities. I tried this and failed, I tried that and failed, I tried everything and failed. It’s all the fault of the system, or my supervisor, or the rules, or whatever.
I really wonder what exactly people expect to learn from books like these.
NYC Educators last blog post..Throw the Book at Her