the kids are *not* alright

[ulysses]

The kids in the school in which I teach constitute a(nother?) lost generation of African-American youth. I can't imagine more than a quarter of them even attempting college or fewer than half the males not becoming wards of the justice system at some point. More than a few already have become just that, if for brief periods in most cases, and I teach middle school.

This has several root causes. None of them should be unfamiliar.

1. Kids in the inner cities largely don't get read to when they're young and aren't taught to value education. They're taught, by example, to fight. This isn't easy to say as a white liberal, but it's the goddamned truth, at least in the neighborhood in which I teach.

2. We - and I mean *all* of us - have abandoned the inner cities with predictable results. See #1. This is a large part of the cause, maybe the entire cause.

3. As a society, we simply don't give much of a damn about education, African-American kids or the poor. Where those three factors intersect, as in my school, the lack of interest hits you over the head like a brick.

4. No Child Left Behind. The worst law in American educational history almost demands that school districts segregate poor minority kids and, if at all possible, drive them into being dropouts in order to avoid federal sanctions. Think the reality behind the "Houston Miracle", in which minority kids were pushed out of school, is an aberration? Think again.

What are we going to do about it? Or are we going to continue to accept it?

[applegrove]

1. Educate just like you are doing. Educate, educate. I too see

some problem with the 'big vision' of the neocons. It seems all social monies will be devoted to the military. And schools, security, crime rates, will depend on small local groups to overcome (keeping the little people busy fighting and trying to fix things at the local level). No structural change program at the national level will be allowed.

Of course, as in the 19th Century in Canada & Britain, being poor and having no opportunity will require the poor to hope for the next war in order to have a kind of middle class existence and a salary..instead of the hand to mouth existence they and their families will have before they enlist. I also read in one 'pro American Empire' book that the blacks may be the new celts and be moving all over the world to help administer the American Empire (because like with the Scotch & Irish... there was absolutely no opportunity at home). Of course this is good news since the ones who move abroad and set up roots abroad will be the African Americans who were lucky enough to go to college and avoid the fate of the army. So you see how it will be a big plus.

I still cannot believe what I read. Yes structural changes the neocons hope to force upon the world will force huge labor migration and it looks like some neocons have already fantasized about who that will be.

So I am not surprised to see it looking pretty grim if you are teaching kids who find themselves win the middle of 3 waves of Repuke legislation. Waves build on themselves and the sum total of the pressure to stop school could very well be huge. I do not know and take what you say at face value. But - yeah the obvious hope of neocons economics seems to be that at some level - you will sink or swim and a permanent draft will not be necessary in the near future. And we will really have returned to the 19th Century.

[Wright Patman]

2. Well, if the black won't join the military

as they have been told, how can we help them? < /sarcasm>

[dsc]

3. It is beyond sad

My school has some signs of hope but not a ton. My school is about 60 percent black, 30 percent white, 10 percent hispanic. The whites are nearly entirely country whites. It is a somewhat odd combo to be honest. The sad thing is as you go up in classes the proportion of blacks plummets. By the time you get to the likes of calculus the white and black ratios are in reverse or even worse. Our geometry classes are jokes. People who have literally no business in such a class due to behavor or lack of any preperation are in with those who have the ability and the behavior.

IT is hard not to despair.

[sandnsea]

6. Geometry???

Please, explain to me how any high school student can be described as having no business in geometry. As a basic educational princple, apart from the problem that kids aren't prepared.

[dsc]

10. There are kids in there

who can't solve an equation, can't add or subtract decimals, can't sit still for more than a few minutes at a time, and can't write or read above say 6th grade. Eventually, some of them might be ready for this course but not now. Some kids just aren't cut out for geometry. I can't see why Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 aren't enough.

[sandnsea]

13. Here....

It's Algebra I, Geometry and then Algebra II. 9, 10, 11. Everybody takes Geometry, everybody took it when I was in school. CA, OR & MT. That's why I'm a bit baffled. I can understand being frustrated that the curriculum isn't preparing them for Geometry, but not just removing the expectation altogether. Where else are they going to learn angles, circumferences, and all of that?

[dsc]

15. Maybe tech math

We also do alg 1, geom, and alg 2 but I think it should be switched around. We have a semester system here so I get only 18 weeks to try to teach them geometry well enough to pass a pretty hard test. If they fail the test they fail the class. WE have people in geometry for their third and fourth time. To top it off we are offering geometry in 8th grade so the really good math students aren't in our high school geometry classes. We had about a 1/3 pass rate last time and much of that was due to an utter lack of anything like a prepared class.

[sandnsea]

17. That would be good

I know we have Principles of Technology, but I think they take that instead of 10th grade earth science. It would probably be pretty similar to a tech math. Our courses are also a year. I just go a little nuts whenever people start talking about reducing expectations. Alot of kids just seek the middle ground, wherever it is. If you keep reducing it, then they're just going to keep sliding downhill.

I think the most important thing kids learn from higher math is how to think.

[sandnsea]

4. Connect problems, for one thing

Forcing kids out of school has been the norm in my white rural high school, before NCLB. I noticed it right away when we moved here. The teachers and administrators just flat quit paying attention to kids who weren't at the top of the class or were rattling cages. My daughter learned to rattle cages, my son got attention because he was an athlete, which is a damned shame for the other kids.

Not valuing education is rampant among males here too. They don't get into the fighting thing as much because it isn't what they live with. But they do get into an aimless lifestyle, pregnant girlfriends, and drugs.

I'm not doing a whining "we've got problems" too thing. I'm saying that there's something going on in our culture. It's why we elect presidents based on who we'd like to have a beer with. You can't expect kids anywhere to value education when society riducules intelligence, especially intelligent men.

[ulysses]

20. I definitely agree with this.

I'm saying that there's something going on in our culture.

[roguevalley]

5. I don't know what we are going to do about it but nothing is going

to change until everyone involved steps up to the plate. First goal? Get rid of poverty in this country. Intervene with programs to catch little kids when they are young and filled with love of learning and hope. I would pay more taxes for these things.

[Wright Patman]

24. You would

but *'s base, the "haves" and the "have mores" are dead-set against paying taxes. Taxes are for lib'ruls. Or, as Leona Helmsley once said, for the "little people."

I think a lot of the whitebread elite get off on watching the suffering of the bedraggled blacks and browns in the ghettos and barrios. And they are moving farther and farther away from them into the suburbs and exurbs. We are also moving farther and farther away each day from the concept of a united America where "we're all in this together."

I felt more of that in the 1960s and at that time blacks had only just received enforceable civil rights and yet I felt that people cared more about the fate of the young blacks back then. It was thought that they were on the verge of a great breakthrough and we would all help them. I blame a lot of this on the economic stresses put on the white middle class over the last 40 years. People experiencing a declining standard of living inevitably look for scapegoats.

Racism, as even the evangelist Billy Graham has said repeatedly, is tthe biggest problem not only in this country but in the world. Racism I define as also including thinking one's own ethnicity or religious affiliation is superior (e.g., Anglo Protestant) and all others in the world must be denigrated, disparaged, devalued and ultimately, in extreme cases of the brown Islamics sitting on "our" oil (where greed meets prejudice), destroyed.

[seabeyond]

7. ultimately, it HAS to sit on parents shoulders

the school, the government cannot raise these kids. i agree with you. i too look around and see all those that dont have engrained in them education is so very important and their ticket out. but we have to look at our break up of our society

example, i talk the tv the kids are fed, and people get so angry at me. it is still a resulting factor to what is happening to our kids. not going to effect mine, i parent. how adults have created such an angry nation and the kids are fed this, it filters down, becomes their world

our kids today are unique in that they have a zillion more stimulants coming their way than we ever did, and then to not have homes with a balanced two parent home teaching and nurturing, spending the time, kids are spinning out of control

then we can go to funds not being in the poor school. or government not caring, or teachers not caring, but i buy that the least

ultimately i say this is to do with the parents. not the systems

and i am sad for it. i dont merely dismiss the children because of it. i am a believer it takes a village. and all children i come around, i set a good example, i live the example of homesty and integrity adn good christian value (i am not a "real christian" i just understand jesus and know what he was talking) it is all our jobs

[Modem Butterfly]

8. I think the African American community needs to take the first step

There is so much deep-seated mistrust between African Americans and whites (and so much misunderstanding on the part of whites) that I think the first steps need to be taken on the part of African Americans to provide rolemodels and standards of behavior. Nothing is more powerful than someone who can stand up and say, "I have been where you are and I worked hard and got an education and a good future,"

I think the larger society has to raise the expectations for African Americans - we need to object to stereotypes that show African Americans solely as criminals, athletes, or entertainers. We need to demand equal access to education, including higher education through loans, grants, and work study. We need to stop fucking around with voucers and start looking at how to FIX our schools, instead of just writing them off.

[ulysses]

9. while I agree,

it seems as if there is a great deal of worry in the African-American community about taking that first step. There *are* folks who will regularly come through the schools and make that speech about hard work and the future, but it falls on deaf ears with our kids. Going further, and addressing the fact that these kids already have one foot out the school door before they even hit pre-k is worrisome to some.

[Modem Butterfly]

12. Actually, I was thinking more of mentoring programs

Such as the Big Brothers/Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta (and other cities, of course), church and scouting. But I fear the problems are so entrenched that they will take generations to resolve- after all, many of the problems that we're talking about have been problems since slavery.

I think the other side of the coin is that non-African Americans have to realize the part they've played in the problem. Withholding funding, promoting stereotypes, clinging to outdated concepts of race... these things may be a more subtle form of discrimination than segregation, but they are no less destructive.

Edited to include all non-African Americans in the second paragraph, not just whites.

[redqueen]

28. This is my opinion as well.

Not just for inner-cities or minority areas, but everywhere.

As sandnsea pointed out above, the lack of appreciation for education has flourished everywhere. I think we have to address the problems locally, and early.

It's true that the onus lies mostly with the parents, however most of these parents were not very well-equipped by their parents to do the job in the first place. So we have to reach out to friends, family, neighbors, etc.

Too many people are willing to let their friends who have children 'raise them as they see fit'. I think they have this attitude because most people don't understand how to communicate suggestions on parenting in a non-threatening way... or in a way that doesn't trigger defenses.

If we can learn from psychologists the ways to approach people we don't want to offend with friendly suggestions on how to solve their parenting issues or better address the problems they face with respect to getting their children to learn, we could accomplish so much.

I've heard parents of my daughter's classmates talk about beating the children to motivate them to improve their reading skills. If that doesn't say it all... I don't know what does.

[punpirate]

11. I think it was Michael Harrington...

... who said something like, "poverty is invisible."

I think it's a kind of suspended animation.

Both statements may be true. If they are, then making poverty visible to others might be part of the solution, and understanding what that suspended animation means, in terms of both the future and daily life might be helpful.

Without a perception of a viable future, the end result is a kid in the midst of stasis. A lot of the violence in the inner city may be rooted in the desire to feel alive, to be an actor in life. If that's glorified, if that becomes prototypical behavior, it's much, much harder to convince a kid to see new models, new archetypes--especially when they don't see opportunity in the same way that the average white, affluent high school kid does.

The great danger is that the longer that suspended animation continues, the more desire for instant gratification builds, and that ultimately leads to mistakes in judgment.

It's hard to address the problem without veering toward what many consider stereotypes, but there are still patterns to be observed. Lack of opportunity encourages fantastical thinking (every kid can escape the inner city by playing basketball or football well, or maybe just a few months of drug dealing will be the way out, etc.). But, that said, it's difficult to change kids' perceptions when one is talking about a potential way of life that is in direct contradiction of the world they see around themselves every day.

As for structural improvements, are the reading problems with kids in your area a result of problems with adult literacy? If so, perhaps instituting, or creating more, adult literacy programs is part of the answer. Most parents would like to see their children do well, but they may not have the information they need to point their kids in directions leading to the success they desire because they themselves don't read well.

How much latitude do you have with curriculum? Could you, for example, freely give kids an assignment that required them to make rap out of some of Langston Hughes' poems? Would the school board go nuts if you gave them some of the less sensational bits of Richard Wright's Native Son, just to show them that characters such as Bigger have experienced the same sort of uncertainty and confusion as they? Bits from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to show that an entire country can come to terms with its past, etc.?

It's not a problem with a set body of solutions--if it were, smarter people than you or I would have found them and implemented them long, long ago. Some of it comes down to money, some of it to overcoming institutional racism, but a lot of it is instilling a sense of possibility when daily life constantly reinforces the belief that there are no genuine possibilities.

Cheers.

[LWolf]

14. You nailed this one.

I don't think we are going to make a difference with our "at risk" populations until we address the roots of the problem. I don't think anything we do in school at this point is going to change things.

What do we do?

We put an immediate halt to the abandonment of our cities, and we pour resources into revitalizing them; not for the "upscale" population, but for the people who live there.

We address poverty first.

Then we address parent and family education. Once we've made sure that all kids have safe, adequate shelter, clothing, health care, and food, we also have to make sure that they have adequate attention and supervision from their parents. I don't mean that as a punitive thing; I think that whatever resources are offered for the physical needs of the people should also be offered for the emotional and social needs. Parent and family education could include things like how to express anger without loss of caring, how to discipline without anger, how to develop good habits of mind and body, how to organize, and self discipline. How to engage in activities with your kids: the kinds of activities that develop language, nurture curiosity, and, of course, model the love of books and reading. Maybe it would include classes offered to all expecting parents, from conception through high school. Maybe it would include teachers doing home visits, tutoring, helping with homework, etc. as a whole family activity. I'm sure there are many ways to address those needs.

Then you turn public ed upside down by abolishing the factory model. Small schools, small classes, and a focus on individualized instruction, with the only "standard" to meet is that of making sure that every child learns how to learn, to love learning, and develop as a healthy, learning person.

I loved browsing through the thoughtful responses to this thread!

[mzmolly]

16. Here is another interesting article about the kid who shot up his class

mates.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/156/5308100.html

The school he attended tested second worst in the entire state of minnesota in reading and third worst in math. The area in which he lived has a 40% unempolyment rate and 60% live below poverty.

I agree something MUST be done. I think inner city schools should offer free classes to "parents" on parenting and many other subjects for starters. But were to find the $.

We also have to have positive cultural influences and make this a real GOAL. I despise many of the video stations for example because they glorify so much negativity/abuse/death/destruction.

[LibertyorDeath]

18. Offspring

THE KIDS AREN’T ALRIGHT

When we were young, the future was so bright,
The old neighborhood was so alive,
And every kid on the whole damn street,
Was gonna make it big and not be beat

Now, the neighborhood’s cracked and torn,
The kids are grown up, but their lives are worn,
How can one little street
Swallow so many lives

Chances thrown, nothing’s free
Longing for what used to be
Still, it’s hard, hard to see
Fragile lives, shattered dreams

Jamie had a chance, well, she really did,
Instead, she dropped out and had a couple of kids,
Mark still lives at home ’cause he’s got no job,
He just plays guitar and smokes a lotta pot

Jay committed suicide,
Brandon od’d and died,
What the hell is going on
The cruelest dream, reality

Chances thrown, nothing’s free
Longing for what used to be
Still, it’s hard, hard to see
Fragile lives, shattered dreams

Go!

Chances thrown, nothing’s free
Longing for what used to be
Still, it’s hard, hard to see
Fragile lives, shattered dreams

[Turn CO Blue]

19. Johnny Can't Read...but neither can Rosa, Lupe or Maria

I am very burdened by the idea that Hispanic/Latina/Chicana girls have the highest high-school drop-out rate of any other segment of youth.

[MollyStark]

21. poor communites needs JOBS and HOPE

Until the government makes some radical changes in the way we think of employment and fair compensation how can we expect these communities to have any hope or expect them to read to their kids or value education?
The idea that America is the land of opportunity is laughable.

[holden007]

22. They way many people see it.

The sad fact remains that many people believe that if we just had better teachers and tougher curriculum kids will rise to the challenge. Education is being undermined by the very people who are claiming to make the education system better.

[scarletlib]

23. never accept it and keep on trying for your kids

your sincerity and desire to teach them has a greater effect than you may realize.

Even the ones who dropout can be affected by what you have tried to do for them.

If you help even one rise above expectations that is a success to be proud of.

YOu are battling against a mighty tide but you do have an affect on these kids.

My husband taught poor, minority kids for many years. Even today he will meet some and they remember him. He taught math and had high standards for them in his class. Without fail, they thank him for what he did/tried to do for them.

[jpgray]

25. I overuse this analogy, but this is our educational system:

We have two baseball teams of equal athletic ability. One has practiced virtually from birth, has had access to all the equipment, is actively encouraged at every step, and knows the coaches and officials personally. The other has scarcely had any time or opportunity to practice, has barely had any contact with bat or glove, is actively discouraged at every step, and is unknown or at worst purposely shunned by the coaches and officials.

The two teams compete against each other, and the one that does better gets more funding, better coaches, and better equipment while the other gets punished by less funding, worse coaches, adn poorer equipment.

Ability can't make up for all those disadvantages in experience and encouragement, and instead of those disadvantages being addressed, they are used as justifications for punishment. A child with a single mom who has to work three jobs to survive just isn't going to have the same advantages as a child who has parents that can read to him or her many hours a week. Until our educational system understands that, we have a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and ignorance, though no "ability gap" exists.

[UdoKier]

26. Please don't equate "inner city" with "ghetto"

I'm so tired of that. My kid's school is in the inner city, and is so superior to what is in the suburbs, it's not even funny.

"Inner City" and "poverty-stricken ghetto" are not synonymous. THere are quite a few crime-ridden, poverty-stricken suburbs these days, and some of the best public schools are in the inner cities of San Francisco, Boston, Manhattan.

I don't really have a problem with the rest of your piece, but referring to poor neighborhoods as "the inner city" just feeds the misconception that inner cities are somehow more dangerous/worse places to live than suburbs, and promotes "white flight".

"Inner Cities" are seeing an unprecedented revival in many parts of the country, with property values skyrocketing, gentrification remaking whole swaths of cities, and more professionals - even those with kids - choosing to live there.

My friend Richard was a special ed teacher in Sarasota, FL, and he described much the same situation you describe, with many of the kids being children of meth addicts, abusers, one parent in jail, etc - and that was hardly an "inner city" classroom.


I know you wave your work cut out for you, and as hardworking as most teachers are, I'm also aware of how unresponsive and disinterested most school systems' administrative levels are. Just know that you are making a difference, and keep up the good work!

[ulysses]

27. that's a fair point.

That was poor shorthand on my part. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. I'd like to support what Udo said

One of the nastiest parts of the Portland metro area is the outer eastern edge of the city: tiny, rundown 1950s houses, cheap apartment buildings, grafitti, gangs, and low school achievement.

The areas closest to downtown are actually some of the most affluent parts of the city, and the highest-achieving high school is just across the freeway from downtown.

[barbaraann]

29. What do you think about John Taylor Gatto?

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

Does he have any solutions?

[redqueen]

30. What's he saying about schools?

I can't find anything too descriptive on that website. Tried to look at the forum, but it crashed my browser.

[barbaraann]

36. Here's a short blurb that sums up his philosophy:

From Library Journal
"In this tenth-anniversary edition, Gatto updates his theories on how the U.S. educational system cranks out students the way Detroit cranks out Buicks. He contends that students are more programmed to conform to economic and social norms rather than really taught to think."

Having struggled with the public schools while raising a son, I agree with him.

[redqueen]

39. I think I see his point...

however I hope he doesn't advocate throwing the baby out with the batwhater, so to speak.

I cringe when I hear blanket statements about education. Mostly due to things like this.And this, too.

[barbaraann]

40. I know what you mean.

The critical thing is whether he has good solutions to offer. Unfortunately right now I don't have time to read much but perhaps sometime in the future I can read one of his books.

[ulysses]

31. I have a book of his but I haven't read it yet.

Howard Gardner (http://www.pz.harvard.edu/PIs/HG.htm) has a lot of great ideas, but they'd be almost impossible to implement as long as we're burdened with NCLB.

[redqueen]

32. WOW!

I see a visit to our central library in my near future.

Thanks for that link!

[ulysses]

33. yeah, HG is good stuff.

I just read The Disciplined Mind last fall - pick it up if you get the chance. :hi:

[redqueen]

35. Thanks for the tip!

Soooo much to choose from. :9

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Our pop culture bears a lot of the blame

I'm not saying it's the only cause--a kid can ingest a lot of awful pop culture without harm if the family is solid, but for a kid without good role models in real life, what do TV and the music industry and the movies offer? Violence as the first resort to solving problems, anti-intellectualism, mindless special effects instead of plots and characters in movies, degradation of women, glorification of criminals, in other words, major parts of the pop culture today could serve as a guidebook for "how to grow up mean and dumb."

The entertainment industry may say that they're just "giving people what they want," but if there was a great public demand for WWF wresting and gangster rap before the industry started promoting the hell out of them, I must have missed it.

Fifteen years ago I saw this anti-intellectual in upper middle class college students. They didn't want to explore anything that wasn't sanctioned by the pop culture. They didn't want to see any movie that wasn't mindless ("Our lives are really stressful, and we want to kick back when we have free time." Yeah, right, real stressful lives you live there on your cul-de-sac amid the $500,000 houses), didn't read for pleasure, and deemed everything "boring" that wasn't currently in the pop culture.

Jimmy Carter coming to speak on campus? Boring! Composer of accessible music Alan Hovhaness in residence? Boring! Foreign students taking over the dining hall and cooking wonderful renditions of their ethnic cuisines? Scary--let's go to McDonald's! Movie with neither car chases nor fart jokes? Boring! Books? Boring! Chance to study abroad for the same cost as staying on campus? But I'll miss football season! Read a book about Japanese culture? I'm a business major--could it be about business? All these general education classes, all that literature and history and science and stuff--Boring! :grr:

If that's the mindset among the comfortable classes, is it any wonder that kids whose families have to struggle to survive are disengaged from learning?

[YvonneCa]

38. I agree with what you say...

...but there is a lot of hope. I've taught in public schools for over 20 years. I've seen exactly what you describe. I'm lucky to work in a district that has tried to fix these problems during the time I have been teaching. The positive result for the students in my district has been amazing! After reading the entire thread, I am heartened at the caring all of you have for the children in our public schools. It can be difficult to keep doing the hard work, day after day, in an environment that is unsupportive of educators. Keep working hard...it does make a difference, and our children sure do deserve it. We have no other choice...children ARE the future. NCLB will pass (I hope sooner, rather than later).


Teachers:
:yourock:

[redqueen]

41. Kick for more comments...

:kick:

[ulysses]

42. thanks

one more...:kick: