RANTS by Heather

This is going to be a random rant. I can do these types of things in the summer because I am not exhausted. So, I can read books and get really worked up about their content.

I read a lot of books about education, educating inner city youth, the inner city culture, etc. I read things I agree with, and things I STRONGLY disagree with. One things I do not read is those feel-good books that former inner-city teachers write after they've quit teaching about how they worked 20 hours a day and "saved" all the black kids. No thanks. (Probably linked it before, but here is the BEST ARTICLE EVER, just for good measure: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/opinion/19moore.html?_r=1&ex=157680000&en=e1a70ef41a0ef04d&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink )

For what it's worth, here's what I think:

1. I know I've talked about this before, but I CANNOT STAND the constant portrayal of teachers as martyrs. That if I **really** cared, I'd devote every waking moment to helping my students succeed. Sorry, but that is simply not a sustainable model. And, what are you DOING all of those hours? I mean, seriously.

2. I've read a lot about the KIPP model of schools. If you don't know about KIPP, basically the kids go to school from like 7am-5pm, have a longer school day and a longer school year. They are bombarded with learning. I have lots of problems with this, which I will expound upon. But my main problem is that it cannot be held as the standard for school reform because it is simply impossible to replicate on a large scale.

I get that maybe there are some parents out there that want this for their child. I also get that there are some parents that don't. It seems most people do not understand that second part. You want your kid to do well, but maybe you want to SEE your kid sometimes too. Learning is important, but so is family. Why should you be made to feel like you are a bad person/parent if you think that is simply too much?

And what about trying to make these kids successful WITHIN their neighborhood and their life? Aren't we trying to grow people here? So, they are in school for 90% of their childhood, but what happens when they go back home to the neighborhood? Do they enrich it? Or do they move away because it is "bad"? It seems to me that you should be trying to make the neighborhood itself better, rather than trying to "save" a select few from it.

KIPP has had major success in past years, and lots of critics say this is because they make parents sign a contract (we all know how many parents I'VE seen this school year) and because they can kick out low performers...which will of course inflate their scores.

3. I just read Geoffrey Canada's "Whatever It Takes." He is the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, which does what I spoke about earlier: tries to transform the neighborhood instead of just the child. During the first half of the book, I was in complete agreement with him. You can't take one child and learn them to death and make everything okay. You have to look at the parents, the neighborhood, everything. He has Baby College, which teachers young mothers about cognitive development and reading to your child and things like that. At first my only concern was that he seems to have an endless supply of money. But while at first he talked constantly about transforming the whole neighborhood, towards the end you find out that to get into his elementary school, the parent has to sign the child up WHEN HE IS A BABY. Well, if you have a parent already that involved in their child's education, they aren't one of the "at-risk" ones.

4. Lastly, I hate Teach For America. Most of them that I've met have been taught that they are better than "regular" teachers and will go to great lengths to make sure you know it too. I read an article comparing them to going on a "two year jungle safari to teach the natives." Two years and then they go become investment bankers. Just FYI, hardly anyone is a decent teacher after two years. I only figured out what I was doing around year 3, and I'm still not great.

After all that rambling, my whole point is this: everyone who has a solution to fix schools is wrong. I don't know what the solution is either, but I know it's not these things. I know we need more money. I know teachers shouldn't have to deal with all the extra crap they have to put up with, they should be able teach. I know school success shouldn't be based on constant testing. I know kids should be taught to appreciate the process of learning, not rote memorization and "test-taking strategies." I know my kids need more than just extra algebra in the mornings--they need better nutrition, better medical care, more involved parents, earlier interventions, and more counseling.

P.S. I mostly hate all of these things because they have published books and made lots of money. Meanwhile I have this blog about--a white girl teaching black kids!!!---and yet, no famous book and no money. :( Oh well.