mind you, im fairly new to education, at least from the point of view of the teacher... having been a student for over 20 years from first through college, i have vast experience as a student... but in the midst of my second year as a teacher, i have made some observations has led me to draw some conclusions regarding the public educational system...
ive seen the slogan "Excellence in Education" in many places, and used as a "call to arms" so to speak... ive attended ceremonies with motivational speakers, and big grand performances reminding me that the students we service are "the future of our nation"... im reminded consistently to "not give up" on my kids, and to "keep up the good fight"... i have to keep my team motivated in meetings, and redirect any conversation thats headed down a negative path...
all of that is well and good, and it makes for good drama... but when it comes to actually being in the classroom with the kids, it means nothing... no amount of pep talking, or motivational speaking can make a productive classroom... and lets be honest, as an educator, my livelihood depends on my students...
from the beginning, we are beset on both ends by hostiles... on one side we have our administration... an administration that is under the microscope from governmental agencies to educate everyone... which brings about a conundrum... we are charged with the task of educating every citizen... but not every citizen wants the education we provide...
revisit... i just went blank...
ok, ive had a couple more months of experience, and i guess from this point i can continue the thoughts i so passionately wished to express earlier...
truth of the matter is, not everyone wishes to have the kind of education we are forced to provide them... i know thats hard to believe, but there are people out there, that their goal in life is to be a truck driver, or ultrasound technician, or work offshore, or go into the military... for those people, the kind of education that we are pressing upon then, the things that we are asking them to know, are counterproductive to them actually getting out there and pursuing their lifes work...
then there are those that just dont wish to be there at all... the ones that come to school for the sole reason that they are legally obligated by their age to attend school... these kids are easily recognizable by their active participation in failing and rule-breaking... these are your 17-year old freshmen... the kids that spend more energy running the hallways skipping class than would be needed to go to class and sleep in the back...
i am a firm believer that if you don't want to be here, i don't want you here... for those kids, i would undoubtedly reinstate expulsion... and if i were a government official, required enlistment into the military...
i truly think that the problem is that these kids see no real consequence of their actions... teenagers by nature are a "right now" minded group, they cant cognitively comprehend long-term consequences of their actions... one thing that i have noticed about NCLB, is that it has successfully removed short-term accountability from the hands of the administrator... Principals are more concerned about attendance and enrollment, and the amount of funding they get... yes, they are responsible for providing a safe environment, but when we cannot essentially refuse those that create the adverse environment, then we make it that much more unsafe for those looking to achieve...
ok, so lets talk about where this behavior comes from... because it had to start somewhere... yes, i am talking about the parents now... well lets look at this... this are the grandchildren of the civil rights movement of the 60's, the children of the teens of the 70's and 80's... these are the result of 'black folks doin better"... the kids that grew up watching the cosby's and a different world... also the kids of the "john singleton movie era", where violence and thuggery were romanticized... these are the kids if the "tupac and biggie" era...
what im trying to get to is this... these are the children of the kids that were taught to "get ahead" and also to 'not forget where you came from"... i know we are all taught that, but none were subjected to this more... at least in this exaggerated world of music and film... we were told to get money, but when we did, we were marked as a sellout for doing so... so our goal was to remain as typically "black" as possible, while being as ambitious as possible for our place in life...
the children of these parents grew up with a strange conflict... they are spoiled, spoiled rotten some of them, but they are also taught that they must be a s "real' to who they are as black children... meaning they have to be hard, have to be the stereotype, have to "not be a punk"... which leads even the intellectuals at my school to perpetrate with sagging jeans, and tall t-shirts... even years after the fad has passed, and jeans have returned to a reasonable level, these kids have to hold on to what they know to be true, that anything less would single them out as a punk and subject them to ridicule...
more later, gotta take a break...
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