Note: This is the first entry in what I hope to be an ongoing discussion of the state of education in America. I welcome any and all input, from educators and non-educators alike.
First, a bit of background: At the end of the last school year, I was faced with a choice. The public school at which I taught English and theatre was facing severe financial shortfalls, and teachers knew that several of us were going to be surplussed. The school itself was lower-income, overwhelmingly minority (over 90%), and heavily immigrant (Jamaican and Haitian, mostly). So, being proactive, I began applying at other school districts and at private schools. The day after I was informed that I was not to be surplussed, I received a job offer from a wealthy private school. I struggled with the decision, even going so far as to ask for advice from my fellow Kossacks.
In the end, I took the job at the private school. And, let me tell you, it is an entirely different world when you're teaching the children of south Florida's elite.
During my pre-service training, my department head pulled me aside and explained that there were really five overlapping categories of students at the school. First, you had students who were either attending on scholarship (about a third) or those whose parents paid full tuition. Secondly, you had "regulars," "specials," and "special-specials." Regular - all right, self-explanatory. "Specials" were students whose parents had some sort of pull; they were high-powered lawyers, judges, surgeons, politicians, even sports stars. The "special-specials" had parents who were in some way connected to the president of the school, either socially or through some sort of work connection. And while I was directly told that I was not to treat any student differently from any other, I got the message: some students are to be handled in a different manner from others.
All right; you know, this actually happens in public school as well, just in a different fashion, so I understood. I wish education was a simplistic affair, but it's far from it. So I looked upon this as merely one more hoop to jump through; I would do my job, I would do it well, and there would be no problems (there were indeed problems, but that's a subject for another diary).
The difference is marked, between the students I taught in public school and those I teach now. An example: as a public school teacher, I routinely broke up fights; it was just something that came with the job if you were a male teacher. I was swung at a few times, had to go to court once, and generally accepted it as standard. So it struck me as odd when, by this past October, I still had not had to step in between two students. Finally, as I was walking between buildings, I saw two young men in the posturing phase of a fight; you know, before the fight actually begins, when they both puff out the chest and clench their fists and make inane threats. I tossed my bag down, stepped up to them, and said, "Back off, children." And, to my wonder and amazement, they did! Both glared at each other, then turned around and walked away. I was flabbergasted; before, even if it hadn't progressed to actual blows, there was at least another five minutes of name-calling and threatening. I related this story to a fellow teacher who has taught at the school almost a decade. He laughed, and told me that many of the students were actually afraid of their parents' wrath should they get into a fight. It's still taken me some time to wrap my head around this one.
The differences, of course, are not all positive. Many of my students are addicted to cocaine and to prescription medications. Random drug sweeps occur every few weeks, and I've had a few of my students expelled for possession. Many of these children are starving for attention, just as those low-income children were. Before, the attention was lacking often because it was a single-parent home, and their parent was struggling to work enough to pay the bills. Now, the attention is lacking because both parents are so involved in their own work or social lives that they have little time to spare for their children. So instead of love, these children receive money and luxuries. I have seventeen-year-old students who drive cars which cost more than I make in TWO years, students whose weekly allowance exceeds my weekly take-home pay, students who have every creature comfort and every new technological toy as soon as it hits the market (and sometimes even before). But deep down, these children know that their parents give them these things instead of love, and they resent them for it.
As I go through the school year, I will be jotting down my thoughts on the differences between the public and private education system. I invite and welcome your thoughts and your comments, as I brave the strange world of the children of the wealthy and powerful.