Money Will Never Be Enough

The walls of the stairwell leading up to the third floor, where I teach, are full of blotchy paint jobs. Each night, or at least a few times a week, the custodians paint over the stairwell walls. The walls and the steps are littered with gang symbols and warnings. The one sign that always makes my heart skip a beat is the one that reads: “W-Zone.” Though it might have a different connotation to the people who wrote it, I believe it to mean “You are entering a War Zone.”

During my first year, this daily routine of walking up bleak stairwells full of hateful and evil messages and feelings put me on the defensive for the day – prevent defense all day long. As long as I walked out physically whole at the end of the day, it almost didn’t matter what happened in my classroom. Family members and friends would laugh and ask if I wore a Kevlar vest to work. That wasn’t funny to me.

I felt that what happened in Room 303 would happen whether I was there or not; the kids would cuss the teacher out, throw stuff on the floors, ignore the lesson plan, come without pencils or pens or notebooks, walk in 30 minutes late with no excuse but a look that said “What are you gonna do about it?”

I found ways around the demoralization of teaching in a dangerous, low-performing and mismanaged school by seeking external releases: Running up to 100 miles per week to train for a marathon, drinking too much on the weekend, reading three newspapers per day – anything to escape the “W-Zone” and the internal feeling that I was completely helpless in this situation.

Those things brought little but a bad left knee, headaches and depression and strained relationships with people I love. I had to turn it around not by seeking extra resources within the school district (because there were none worth asking for) or professional help (though my mother told me I needed it). I turned it around by believing in myself and my ability as one committed young man to promote academic achievement in a place where the vast majority of people don’t think it’s attainable because of various “systemic” deficiencies.

But this year, my second, I’ve approached the “W-Zone” not as a hell that I am trying to survive my two year commitment in, but as one that I am trying to lift myself and my students out of.. I haven’t been 100% successful, but my classroom is decorated from top to bottom to invite students out of the “W-Zone” in the halls, and I have 90 minutes worth of good instruction for each class period. I don’t let the students run me, scam me or cuss me out. No, I stand up for myself and for the majority of great kids there who don’t want to be bogged down by a system full of low expectations, disruptive and disrespectful kids, mismanagement and broken promises.

So I get irked when Nicholas Kristof, the liberal commentator who takes up a different liberal cause each week, claims to know what “works” in urban schools. In a recent blog, Kristof swipes at Republicans who are arguing against spending massive amounts of money on education. It’s the old ridiculous argument that somehow pouring more money into education will make it work better. It’s the argument every college student in America hears in their mandatory freshman sociology class.

He also writes:

We’re gaining a much better understanding of what works in education, and early childhood education is a major element of that. I haven’t visited a KIPP school, but everyone raves about their success rates. Improving teachers would help, which means a combination of four elements: lowering the barriers to entry, more rigorous assessment of teacher performance, pushing out more under-performing teachers, and more compensation. And of course, we need the good teachers in bad schools, not just in the best ones.

Kristof really ought to visit a KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) school and see what makes it tick; the KIPP School in this city I have spent time in is in a beat up old building that is made beautiful by a staff that pours their life blood into it. Everyone from the administrators on down decorate the KIPP school to promote achievement and the ultimate goal of sending children to college. They don’t do this because they are funded well, but because they want to promote professionalism and respect. Excuses aren’t part of this culture.

It’s very tough to get a teaching gig in a KIPP school because they don’t just hire anyone; they hire people they know are ready to commit to one of the toughest jobs anywhere – demanding high quality, above grade level work from mostly minority students in low-income areas. These schools also discipline kids: They kick them out if they want to play the games that are allowed in the regular city schools.

Every city school teacher knows this: The federal, city or state money will never be enough. You do the best with what you have. For many apathetic teachers, that does mean showing up and collecting a check. And yes, we do need to find ways to fire those teachers. For those of us who are truly committed, however, it means working day and night to make sure our kids succeed with the few things we do have right now. Better that any day than expecting some government stimulus or social experiment based on our supposed need to “be our brother’s keeper” to come save us. To know what “works” in inner city schools, look inward.