"Waiting" for Whom??

So I watched Waiting for Superman. I am vastly familiar with Michelle Rhee, Geoffrey Canada, Wendy Kopp (who does not appear in the documentary), the KIPP guys, etc., etc. As I watched this film and have, over the past several years, listened to the messages that the film and these individuals are repeating over and over and over again is one idea: we need better teachers. Hmmmmm......really?

Now, let me say that yes, great teachers are key in any educational institution. You cannot have a school filled with 30-year tenured veterans who hate their jobs and are just showing up to collect a check and health insurance until they can hopefully retire in a couple years. You cannot have a school filled with people fresh out of college who aren't willing to stay in one place longer than two days before they run for the hills. You need dedicated people in this field. People who are unwavering and unshakable and who are willing to fight this education battle each and every day. However, all of these "superhero" folks in the education debate are solving the whole public education catastrophe about as quickly as NCLB has. Yes, there are some terrific ideas such as the charter school movement that has helped so many young people in under served communities gain better opportunities and a focus toward attending college and become career oriented. The idea of the charter school is pure in it's intent: let's take kids and parents who "care" and put them in an environment with a rigorous curriculum, make parents come to conferences, and give kids the tools to attend college while hiring teachers who won't be tied to unions and tenure. Most charter models make the school day longer and teachers are required to be there from 7am-5pm and most come earlier and leave much later and are required to give out personal phone numbers and emails in order to be "on call" to their students at virtually any time of day or night. But what about everyone else? What about the majority of the other students in the inner-city who get left out because they didn't win the charter school enrollment lottery?

To another issue, when Michelle Rhee came on the scene, she took to firing "bad" teachers and shutting down "bad" schools. She created the DC Impact evaluation system that put tons of pressure on teachers to perform at a much higher level and hold schools more accountable for poor performance. Even though, since Rhee was ousted from her role as DC Schools Director, DC Impact has been facing scrutiny for unfair mechanisms within its evaluation formula, other school systems, such as Memphis City Schools have picked it up to help inform their teacher evaluation process.

My point is that while charter schools, harder hitting evaluation systems, and threats of shut downs for failing schools make sense on paper, none are completely solving the problem. The problem lies within the community that surrounds the schools. Waiting for Superman implies that schools are failing the neighborhoods that surround the schools. I argue that not many other people outside of teachers and schools are being looked to as saviors of these poor and failing communities. The pressure is all on teachers and other school officials to save these kids. People look at teachers as almost other-than-human. Can we really pay teachers $35,000 a year, give them insufficient resources, insufficient training and professional development, and then turn around and ask them to save the world? Most teachers I know are doing the best they can with what they have with both the resources they have and people they teach.

In order to attempt to round out this post, I offer this: we have to change our way of thinking and reform the entire public education system, the one that exists now. Unless charter schools are going to be looked to as the new way of doing things and eventually all current public schools, primarily those in the inner-city, are going to be transformed into charter schools (which I am not certain is the right way to go about solving the problem), then something has got to give. We must start with the root of the problem: the communities that surround these failing schools. Schools need to open their doors to parents and other community members by not just offering job skills classes, medical assistance, housing advice, etc., but to show parents and other stakeholders that what is going on in the schools in their communities is important. What better way to help these young folks who attend our schools feel a sense of importance in our world, where they otherwise often do not, than have people who live around them be supportive of the work they are doing behind the school walls? Better yet, let's take our kids into the communities to focus on helping solve the problems that exist within them. Let's grow food in the school yards and have community dinners. If "public education" has such a negative connotation, then let's change that notion. No better way to do that than do whatever it takes to help people become more informed of the importance of education and that it does in fact almost always lead to a better life situation than welfare and poverty. Education, more specifically public education and public school teachers and administrators should not be seen as the problem with our country. The public education system needs to be viewed as a purposeful and beneficial right for all people of the United States: a way to gain knowledge, personal freedom, a viable career, and create so many other opportunities. I am working to develop a plan of action to do just this. I want to blow the roof off of the current system and transform our public schools into a thriving community of not just teachers and students, but also include the people within the neighborhoods that surround our schools. I believe that when we can bring all members of a community to the table and show them that when they are promoting education, not belittling it, then students will begin to thrive and failure rates will go down and graduation rates will go up. It will take some heavy ground work to get people interested, but that should not be an excuse. Reaching out to community members, speaking positively about public education, showing off the hard work students are doing, and working with students to help solve social problems will, in my opinion, be the key for not only public education survival, but also for advancement of the communities that surround schools and it will take a lot more than teachers at the schools to create this change.

I will end today with this last thought: Let's take the blame off of public school teachers and start looking to the root of the problem. It's not simply the teachers' fault that communities are failing. It's not simply the fault of the communities that school's are failing. It's everyone's problem and we are spending too much time pointing fingers and not enough time taking action. If you are waiting for a superhero, then good luck.