Is it revenge?

Sometimes teaching can be incredibly frustrating.  There are all sorts of reasons, which I'm sure most everyone has heard before:  grading, kids not doing homework, poor attendance, under-involved parents, over-involved parents, kids behaving badly, standardized testing, teacher evaluations...the list goes on and on.

What has me particularly frustrated lately is the complete and total lack of respect for the "stuff" that I keep in my classroom.  For a reason that happens all too often in middle schools but that would take way too long to explain, I do not teach in my own classroom for the first three periods of the day.  I teach in a different location, and someone else teaches students in my classroom for two of those three periods.  EVERY day for the last several months, when I return to my own classroom for fourth period, I discover something of mine that has been either broken, missing, or defaced.  

Here are just a few examples:  I had several USB drives, belonging to other students, in the top drawer of my desk.  They have all gone missing.  I had some spare change in there.  It was stolen too.  I have found candy wrappers and chewed up sunflower seeds are all over the computer tables and the floor.  I found my Keurig coffee maker broken with water inside, indicating that someone had been messing with it in my absence.  Snacks like cheese and fruit have been stolen out of my fridge, and candy stolen from my desk. Usually it is little things like lollipops or Jolly Ranchers, but one morning at Christmas time I brought in a 1-lb bag of Skittles as part of a gift for a "secret Santa" exchange.  I placed it inside a folded-over plastic grocery bag, underneath my purse, in the bottom of a drawer.  When I returned three class periods later it was gone. A quick e-mail to my colleagues was all it took to find out who on campus was eating out of a giant purple bag of Skittles all day long, but still - these are my things!  It isn't just my things that the kids have no respect for, it's the school property and classroom supplies that are there to make things easier for them as well.  I kept self-inking stamps for grading papers in my top drawer, but I had to lock them up because I kept finding that all of my tabletops had been stamped while I was away. Computer headphones and microphones - brand new as of this school year - have been snapped in two. Every day I find markers and pencils thrown in the trash or on the floor in the corner behind the garbage can - evidence of the "trashketball" games that the boys like to play for competition.  There's more - lots more - but you get the idea.  I've taken to locking up everything I possibly can, but since the only thing in my room that locks is my desk, my space is limited.  

Today the thing I found broken was a ceramic cross - somewhat sentimental because it was given to me as a token of love when I was going through chemotherapy for cancer treatment a few years back.  it wasn't out for the kids to find - it was in my top desk drawer - the only one that doesn't lock.  I found a piece of it on the carpet, and another piece all the way across campus in front of another building.  There were a couple of other pieces that I couldn't find.  I am used to this routine by now, but this one hurt a little bit.  

The kids in this classroom when I am away - they know me.  Not well, but they know this is my room and these are my things.  I was their teacher at the beginning of the year.   My administration moved me to another room to teach a different set of kids because I had certification that nobody else had. It wasn't my choice.  But it seems like these kids take it personally.  The class they are in is an extremely small group - no more than six kids at any given time.  They all happen to be black students from a low-income area, and come from backgrounds very different from my own.  I'm not sure if they think I abandoned them, or didn't like teaching them, or what.  What I cannot for the life of me understand, is why they do this to me every day.  I believe it is an intentional effort to upset me.  What I don't understand is why.  This is the kind of thing that makes it very hard for some people to want to teach kids in "urban settings."   I can relate.   How am I supposed to reach kids who treat others this way on purpose?  Sometimes it definitely feels like they are too far gone already.  

Very Sad News

I have these two students.  Brothers.  Both fail more classes than they pass.  Both are absent frequently.  Both get in lots of fights.  At least one has been arrested.  Both know how to get right under my skin without even trying.  They walk up to my desk and take things without asking permission.  They wander around the classroom all period looking for someone to bother.  They steal out of my classroom fridge when I'm not looking.  Both have mouths that could make a sailor blush.  They are well versed in the revolving doors of the dean's office and the in school suspension room.  At our school we have meetings about these children at least once a year.  To the best of my knowledge, no parent or guardian has ever shown up to any meeting.  Rarely does an adult even answer a phone call from the school.  And nothing with these two students ever seems to change.  "That mom," I've been guilty of thinking on several occasions, "Where is she?  She needs to do something about those kids.  She should show up at school once in a while.  She should return a phone call once in a while.  Oh, that's right," I think to myself smugly, "She's probably got more important places to be."  

Last week I found out that she really does have more important places to be.  She's in the ICU.  It's grim. That's why the boys have been absent so much lately.  Boy, did that knowledge put me back in my place.

You know what?  I love kids.  I teach the kids that others don't want to teach, and I tolerate a lot more than most teachers would because I look for the motivation behind the actions rather than just punishing the actions.  I work really hard to be tolerant and loving and kind.  And guess what?  I still have a long way to go.  Sometimes I really screw up in my assessments.  I am ashamed to say it, but it was much easier for me to blame what I perceived as bad behavior on what I perceived as negligent parenting than it was for me to really try to get to know what was going on with these kids or this family. Stereotyping is always easier than listening, but the right thing and the easy thing are rarely ever one and the same.  

Addressing "Racist" Teachers

In my setting I spend a lot of time with "struggling" kids.  I'm more of an at-school parent or mentor than a teacher.  Every day I review students' grades with them, help them understand what needs to happen to bring them up if necessary, and try to help them reflect on the choices they make so they can see the consequences more clearly.  I often hear a variety of excuses from students for their low grades or repeated behavior referrals, and the one that I hear most often is, "That teacher doesn't like me."  It usually isn't true, of course, but it feels like reality to some of those students.  When I ask the kids why they think that I hear all kinds of reasons - "She gave me lunch detention," "She called my mama," "I turned that paper in and she didn't give me credit" - things like that.  Unfortunately, I also occasionally hear from my students the opinion that certain teachers are racist.  And sometimes, I see where the kids are coming from with those remarks.

I have heard colleagues share some nasty opinions about some of their students.  In those comments race is never mentioned, though it is always implied.  With other colleagues, I have never heard anything offensive come out of their mouths, but the expectations they have for their students and their responses to the students' behaviors make it clear to me that race is a divisive issue in their classrooms.  I may be one of the few teachers on campus who has the opportunity to make such observations due to the nature of my role, and I often struggle with how to respond to my colleagues when students point out that race is an issue with those teachers.  I am curious to hear how other professionals would approach a colleague, if they would at all, when they hear students describing that teacher as "racist."  Please share your thoughts.  Thanks!

Unexpected Encounters

This week I popped into another teacher's classroom after school to see how she was doing.  I was still there chatting when the custodian came in to clean the classroom, and the three of us ended up in a pretty intense conversation.  Our custodian, let's call him James, is an African-American man, possibly in his mid thirties, who grew up in an impoverished neighborhood outside of Syracuse, NY.  James takes pride in his work, always has a smile on his face, and takes the time to greet teachers and students on campus every day.  He overheard the conversation I was having with the other teacher about how difficult it is to reach certain students and how trying day after day can be disheartening, especially when there are cultural differences that I don't always know how to overcome.  Upon hearing this, James started talking - telling us about what life was like where he grew up, and how these kids we work with, even the ones who resist us, still have the means and the desire to learn.

During the course of that conversation, James shared a lot about his own upbringing.  He told us about what it was like to grow up where drive-by shootings were a fact of life, and where boys proved they were men by stacking the most cash.  He told us how in a neighborhood of several square blocks, only four kids he knew actually graduated from high school. He told us about friends of his who stayed up all night selling drugs, slept on the playground, and met their moms in the morning to give them enough cash to pay the rent and have a meal. He also told us about friends who were going hungry, because all the expired food in the cabinet was just a "set" designed to fool the social workers who would come to the house to check on the children's well-being.  James told us that today, as a college graduate with a full-time job, he doesn't let the little things stress him out.  Things like marital arguments, coworker drama, and nagging bosses don't bother him much, because he is no longer living in those streets, living that difficult life in a completely different world that so many of us can't even begin to understand.

Finally, James told us how he can look in a child's eyes on campus and, because he lived the life he lived, he can tell what kinds of experiences that child has had.  He can tell which kids know about drugs, sex, prison, prostitution, and so on.  He makes it a point to say "hey" to the kids that very few others want to talk to, and that when he does get to talk to them he cuts right through the small talk and asks the kids where they are headed in life.  If they have an answer, he says, he knows that no matter how hardened a kid may seem, there is still hope for him if he has a goal in life.  Some of them may be growing up in difficult conditions, but here in most areas of Orlando these kids have no idea how bad things can really get.  When I asked him how I can possibly "get through" he encouraged me, saying, "No matter how much they resist, if they can picture their futures you still have a chance.  All it takes is one person.  Just let them know you care.  Let them know you love them, they're safe here, and they can put all that other stuff aside and focus on success."

I can't express how encouraging it was to hear those things at a point in the year when tension is highest and student behavior is at it's worst.  He's right, all it takes is one person.  And for me, that day, the one person was him.  

Tying it all together

This semester I am taking two graduate classes, and as I move further along through the course readings I find points of contact where the information from one of them influences my thoughts about the other and vice-versa.  Of course, I am enrolled in EDF 6496 Teaching and Learning in Urban Settings - that is the class for which I keep this blog.  I am also enrolled in a course on learning theory.  This week my aha moment came from my readings about Lev Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory of psychological development.  Thrilling, right?

First, a general primer on Vygotsky for those who haven't had the pleasure.  Vygotsky believed that mastering the signs and symbols of one's culture is the key to development of complex mental functions and mastery of learning.  He considered signs and symbols, including verbal and written language, as "psychological tools" that bring about transformation of human consciousness.  The potential for development of mental capabilities is determined by the cultural-historical heritage of the child's culture and the child's social experience.  Essentially, "through others we become ourselves."  He also believed that adults represent the "ideal form" of behavior in any given culture, and are extremely important as both models and guides in a child's development.

One particular section from this week's readings stood out for me with regard to teaching diverse populations of students.  That is, "According to Vygotsky, the culture does more than simply provide the setting for the individual's cognitive development.  The culture provides cultural symbols (psychological tools) and the child learns to think with these forms of reasoning."  The author of the text goes on to describe a study from the Soviet Union in which women from different cultural groups were given skeins of yarn and asked to name and classify them by color.  Women from one of the cultural groups maintained that the task could not be done.  Women from another group arranged the skeins according to brightness, placing pale pink, yellow, and pale blue in the same group.  Still other women arranged the colors in seven or eight groups, using categorical names.  The study concluded that comparing objects and grouping them into logical categories are not universal  operations.  

How does this apply to teaching in urban settings?  If Vygotsky's theory holds any water, then the implication is that people from different cultural backgrounds literally think differently.  If something as seemingly common as organizing items by color cannot be generalized among certain cultural groups, then we really cannot make any assumptions about what is or is not "common knowledge" or "common sense" among diverse students in our classrooms.  Our expectations need to be explicitly clear, and we need to be sure to take the time to listen to our students so we can understand what cultural symbolism they bring to the table and how it can benefit the group as a whole.  

Black History...More Than Just a Month

These past two weeks I have spent a few class periods showing and discussing videos with my 6th and 7th grade classes.  Both videos detail events from the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.  My students were, overall, very interested in the videos, and we all learned a lot by watching them.

One of my students in particular was very upset by the videos.  She has told me repeatedly that she can't stop thinking about the things she's seen, and that she spends time thinking about these events during evenings and weekends at home.  In the conversations that occurred after the viewings, some great questions were brought up by my students. They were questions like, "Why did White people feel that they needed to control us like that?  Were they afraid of us?" and, "Is it true that some White parents tell their kids not to date Black people?  Why?"  I told them that I don't know all the answers, and that I don't understand either, but I am willing to try to figure it out with them.

Right now, I am struggling with my own questions.  Like, why don't I know the answers to theirs?  When I learned about the Civil Rights Movement in school, there was a lot of focus on the positive: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, and Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat.  While I learned about the important events, like the desegregation of schools brought about by Brown vs. Board of Education; Black sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter; and the Montgomery Bus Boycott,  they were always presented in a mindset of, "Look how far we've come!"  I was never challenged to explore the deeper issues, like "Why did White people ever think that any of this was ok?"  I am not saying that I need to feel what some would call "White guilt."  My generation wasn't part of the problem.  But if we don't speak honestly about the ugliness and address how those circumstances came to be, we are at risk of failing to become part of the solution.

 It is hard for me to believe the kind of treatment Blacks in this country were subjected to at the hands of White police officers.  It is even harder to believe when I realize that these events occurred just 50 years ago - within the lifetime of my own parents and my students' grandparents.  There are millions of people of every race alive today for whom these events are very vivid memories.  How do those memories consciously and unconsciously get passed on, shaping the way their children and grandchildren (White and Black alike) view the world?  It would be crazy to suggest that racial issues are nonexistent in the U.S., so why can't we acknowledge them and discuss them in an intelligent way?

For anyone interested, the videos I showed in class are from TeachingTolerance.org, and they are free to anyone who asks for them.  They come with lesson plans and teachers' guides.  The second one below was our favorite.

Is the American Dream really just a myth?

One of the concepts that I am still struggling to wrap my brain around in my Teaching and Learning in Urban Settings course is this idea of the "Myth of Meritocracy." Merriam-Webster defines meritocracy as a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement. Sounds reasonable enough. As educators we can easily argue that student performance is a function of hard work, ability, skill, intelligence, and persistence. Meritocracy is an idea that is ingrained into the American psyche: "No matter what circumstances children are born into, all have the opportunity to become educated and, if they work hard, to pursue their dreams." We all know anecdotes about famous people who have pulled themselves up out of bad situations to become wildly successful, and we point to these success stories as proof that our "American Dream" philosophy holds true. However, the author of our textbook, H. Richard Milner IV, argues that meritocracy is a myth. He challenges educators to become mindful of the many factors participate in the shaping of a student's academic success. To illustrate one of the problems associated with the myth of meritocracy, Milner quotes sociologist James Henslin:


"[All] positions would be awarded on the basis of merit. If so, ability should predict who goes to college. Instead, family income is the best predictor - the more a family earns, the more likely their children are to go to college...while some people do get ahead through ability and hard work, others simply inherit wealth and the opportunities that go with it...in short, factors far beyond merit give people their positions in society."


Now consider that a person with a bachelor's degree makes, on average, $20,000 more per year than a person with only a high school diploma. What are the chances that the high school graduate's children are going to make it to college? Yes, economic realities are linked with educational opportunities, and this is only one of the examples disproving the meritocracy myth. The problem that I am having with accepting this viewpoint is that I look at the above example and I think, "I understand that there are forces working against the children of the high school graduate, but it can still be done." I understand that there are a million and one factors contributing to every student's success on any given day. However, I have trouble with the idea of saying, "Well, meritocracy is a myth so it will never happen." I have trouble giving up the idea that people in this country can make it out of even the most dire circumstances if they really want to. Maybe it is because I AM the child born to two parents with a high school level education who found my way to college. Maybe it is because I am perfectionist who doesn't accept excuses. Maybe I'm even brainwashed. I don't know. In any case, I am reluctant to give up the idea of the "American Dream."

Here is an interesting article about the meritocracy myth from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201006/the-myths-the-self-made-man-and-meritocracy

Thoughts?

Credits and disclaimers:

The class I'm taking is EDF 6496 Teaching and Learning in Urban Settings, taught by Dr. Angela Griner.

The textbook we use is called "Start Where You Are, But Don't Stay There," written by H. Richard Milner IV. All quotations in this post come from our textbook.


Also, I should note that one of my parents now has a master's degree. However, when I started applying for colleges in 1997, this was not the case.