Chicken Soup For The Teachers Soul

While being formally observed by an administrator the other day, one of my students who likes to show up completely stoned to class (he only attends about once or twice a week) kept blurting out, “Man, this is bullshit, man.” I wanted to jump out the window.

While guiding kids through a lesson on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a student drunk off his rear end (9:00 a.m.) started cracking jokes about my glasses and outfit. I kicked him out and lost my cool, asking him if he is proud of the fact that he’s still in high school and only a couple years younger than me. He’s just about 20.

I take a break from posting when all my thoughts on kids, urban issues and urban education would be highly negative. I think you all have a good grasp on the things that happen in inner city schools; do you need me to tell you they are bad, that kids cuss at adults and fight and carry on; or that girls get pregnant or boys locked up for selling drugs?

I didn’t think so.

Read these two books and decide for yourself where you fall when it comes to the education reform debate:

One is Real Education by Charles Murray. He doesn’t even include schools like mine in his studies because he says there are some inner city schools that exceed all outsider imagination as to what goes on in them. I would say mine is one since we are actually being shut down by the state at the end of the year for failure and persistent danger.

Another is Whatever it Takes, which is a biography of Geoffrey Canada, the education crusader in New York City who founded the Promise Academy in Harlem.

Murray makes me as a teacher cheer because he makes me feel like it’s not all my fault that some kids are far behind and there’s not much I can do in my short time with them to bring them all the knowledge they need. His basic premise is that some kids aren’t college bound and some are and we shouldn’t try and trick ourselves into thinking all kids are going to be or want to be scholars.

Tough makes me as a teacher cheer because he takes into account all the things that inner city children have to go through and then tells the story of people who work to achieve the American Dream in the most difficult and destitute places.

Canada, the man featured in Tough’s book, takes some hard shots at liberals when it comes to education. This is interesting because Canada comes from a tough inner city childhood background and longtime career as a community organizer. He says in the book that the people who seem to care most about education (liberals) are the ones who destroy it. Canada runs his school like a company – promoting success and personal greatness and high expectations for all.

You can’t understand urban schools by watching Coach Carter or Freedom Writers or by immersing yourself in The Wire. Read up to find out where you fit. Policy ideas should stem from both these studies and histories.