Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Lord Have Mercy *Rant Ahead*

I missed nearly a week of posting, and for that I apologize. My first week of school went well, then the second week came- and boy howdy did it come like a fleet of Mack trucks to run everyone at my school (children included) over and send us into near chaos. I didn't sleep well for another week, so it's no surprise that I've caught a bug and am staying home from work today. Sleep deprivation and stress will do that to ya, you know?
-
Where do I begin? (rant coming on, so if you wanna look away now, please do!)
-
The school district I work for is large and underfunded. Oklahoma ranks near the top of poorly funded school systems and lowest paid teachers. Not something to be proud of to say the least. There are some districts nearby that are in better shape due to the area having property taxes and all that, but, my district as a whole isn't one of them. So, it came as no surprise when they implemented a new policy to change the way things were being done and ultimately to save the district money in hopes of providing better attention to students's needs and of course let us not forget passing those bleepin' state tests that are so ever important to show the public we are teaching children stuff.
-
If I sound a bit bitter, I am. Not going to lie. I get the need to redo things, I get the request for accountability with the state tests, but, as far as implementing all these new changes in the name of the bottom line you loose me. Last week thanks to said policy changes my school had to cut a teacher and shift four teachers around, dissolving their classes and putting the kids into new classrooms week two of school. As things stand now we have nearly thirty children in all of our third grade, fourth grade, and kindergarten classes. Now this isn't the worst out there, but, bear in mind we have nearly a quarter of our school population with learning disabilities, many more undiagnosed/untreated, and almost fifty percent of our school are learning English at school (ELL).
-
And the teachers are supposed to get everyone to pass those precious state tests (3rd-6th grade) with those odds. Oh lets not even go into home environments that perpetuation illiteracy and such. I could write a book at this rate.
-
Last week was obviously chaotic and the staff is on edge and the students sense it. Heck, even Leo was wiped out by last Friday! I know that there are no easy solutions here, and the school district lost state funding while implementing this new policy. One large part of the problem, on the district level, is they're implementing a new policy while enforcing it with old policy rules- it only makes sense, barely, when you realize that this was ruled on and implemented in less than a year. Yeah, it makes me want to scream too.
-
I think what frustrates me the most is the whole bottom line mentality when it comes to education. I know it's not as prominent in other areas, but, still money is the name of the game. There are sub-cultural attitudes that contribute to children who can't read, and of course, parents who don't give a crap about their kids education will inevitably result in many of those kids being unsuccessful in school. That said, however, education is an investment, both by parents and the state. It takes time, patience, and varied resources to help a child be successful. Results take time, learning is a life long process after all. The demand, however, for success now, to educate with virtually nothing coming into poorer schools, etc etc is one of the main culprits that continues the cycle of kids who can't read, kids who turn to crime as they grow, who become parents too early, and then raise children who don't care about education because what good did it do for them when they were kids. It's sad, and it's distressing and I know the school system isn't completely at fault. These parents should be responsible for what they do to their kids, absolutely. There's no easy answer, nor a perfect school system out there. But, surely, we can do better can't we?
-
I apologize if this rant comes across as political, I don't intend it that way. I'm just an educator who is witnessing first hand what these policies and mentalities are doing to those children who are growing up in poverty, by no fault of their own. It is them who are the victims and it is me who is on the front line, fighting, and quickly realizing that I cannot throw myself in front of every single bullet whizzing towards nearly all the kids.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

I don't blame you. And the hardest part is that the schools that have the problems, like yours and some on this side of town, get put on the NCLB lists, so then the better students (i.e. the ones whose parents care) transfer out and leave the ones who are struggling there to try to pick up the pieces and carry on, because if they don't then they lose even MORE funding. It's a nasty, vicious cycle. One day at a time! Rant understood!

Habebi said...

Sarah- God bless ya. It is a vicious cycle and there are so many factors that contribute. I can't blame parents for wanting to transfer yet that action en masse makes things worse. The school system falling apart is evidence as to why the 'MBA mentality' (thank you Matt Dameon for that!) isn't working!! In theory the parents leaving one school b/c of bad test scores would make that school work to be better, but, it doesn't work that way and we shouldnt let business rules dictate education. There's just no way to give as many kids as possible a fair and even good chance of learning and being successful in life that way! Epic policy fail and the kids are paying the price.