We've all seen it this week, the calumny being visited upon the UT school that threw away the "debtor kids" lunches. It was horrible! Unimaginable! In OUR schools in the US of A! Lions and tigers my friends, and perhaps bears. Do you have or know kids or know grandkids who are eating lunch at school, in a cafeteria? According to my research, here in the Midwest, this has been happening for years and, according to 20 and 30+ year olds I asked, it finally hit the national news. Perhaps because...Farm Bill? They snuck another 8 Billion dollars out of SNAP when they passed it "bipartisanly". I did see a diary here somewhere on DK about the ignominious cheese sandwich that was de riguer before the First Lady took charge. That's why they got fruit and milk. But there's another kind of hunger in our schools, one that is ignored at our peril...
Flip me an Orange
The hunger that matters just as urgently as that for food is the hunger for an education. I for one, omg I'm in trouble, am all for the Common Core. I am a product of what used to be called, first "The Iowa Achievement Standards", and then, the "California Achievement Test" standards. And yes, I just dated myself. Both of these gave actual goals and how to get there, not just goals. So, if you changed schools, in the Western half of the US during the 60's & 70's, you could be fairly sure you'd land in a grade level with expectations very similar to the one you left at your old school. Was it homogenous and homogenizing? Yes, but it did teach children to think, not just regurgitate. I didn't hear, "is that on the test?" until I got to University.
You had assigned reading and everyone had the same book, so everyone had at least a basic foundation in American Literature. Everyone had to take "Civics & Economics" by senior year in high school and this, along with the required US and "insert your state here" history gave you a grounding in how your government ran. Sciences and maths were the same. You had foundational learning that allowed you to find other things you might like or do better. And when you graduated high school, most state universities expected you to have those foundational skills and didn't have to spend a year or two with remedial classes for incoming freshmen.
I'll leave that there and put a graph of what you had to have then/now to get out of high school. Just about anything is better than the unfunded mandate known as "No Child Left Behind". That piece of crap held teachers to a bar they could not meet without paying, out of their own pockets, for things the particular school district wouldn't or couldn't pay for like art, music, books, pencils, extra tutoring etc. I struggled with that piece of garbage for 10 years in Alaska, a place replete with its' own particular weirdness in educational mandates. It was ok, we spent out of pocket, these were "our kids" after all. At that time, 2004, the average out of pocket expenses to teachers in the school I taught primary class in was $7000.00 per school year.
Then we moved to Illinois and, after much back and forth, I decided to retire rather than going back to school for another 18 months to get IL certified and then have to deal with the real reason I couldn't bear, there's the bear!, to go back. I still loved children, loved watching them learn and bloom as they did so. What I had begun to despise was the parents. Helicopter style were a pain, but sometimes could be brought in for a landing. Parents who don't care about anything but what they, themselves, want is another story.
Try teaching anything to anyone without backup of some kind. It's twice as difficult because the "job" of children is to test the teacher, even if that teacher is dad teaching his girl how to mow a lawn, the child will want ask mom if he's doing it "right". Try teaching when the parents actively undermine what you are putting out there for their childrens education. This is especially hamstringing in the primary school where the foundations for future learning are laid. I'll throw out a few examples:
Teacher: "Please don't miss school unless you are sick. We do important learning every day."
Parent: "But he wanted to go to the hockey game the night before and I couldn't expect him to wake up so early the next day."
Teacher: "Please do not allow your 1st grade girl to bring or wear makeup to school. It is distracting from my ability to teach her to read and spell if she's "doing her colors".
Parent:" (m) But she likes it and it makes her feel pretty." "(f) It's just baby makeup, what harm can it do?"
Teacher: "Please help your child fill in the emergency contact form."
Parent: "I don't believe in homework and I'm not going to make her do it" (this is a summary of an actual 3 page reply from a parent.)
Teacher: "We have a problem with Johnny hitting his classmates. What can we do to help you to curb this behavior?"
Parent : "Giggle, boys will be boys!"
So, why go back? Why put myself back into that situation? Why endure the frustration? Well, because...hungry children. There are children and teachers out there who are desperate for help, so I volunteer as a tutor and sometimes a teacher. This past year, I volunteered at Washington Park Freedom School in Chicago. In July. When it was over 100F every day and we had no A/C. I plan on going back this year too.
You see, Washington Park is the heart of the 'Hood on the South-side of Chicago. The place they partially filmed the Blues Brothers movies. The neighborhoods that are blighted, benighted, and unloved. It had a neighborhood school right around the corner, but that was closed in the unprecedented shutdown Rom Emmanuel enacted. That school was not under utilized as RE said, it was packed to the walls. But they closed it. So a wonderful woman, named Marissa Brown got an idea. She researched and read, collated and compiled until she had almost the full 1963 Freedom School curriculum resurrected. She put in the summer program first and asked me to come up to help her with the kickoff. Because the program was new to the neighborhood, only a few of the children who actually lived there had been given permission to attend. The people who these children stay with don't trust strangers, with good cause and while they knew Marissa, they didn't know me. Since I am older, I'd told Marissa I had 2 boundary requests. 1. I'd only teach from 9am-2pm. and 2. I had to have at least a small a/c in the room where I was to sleep. She informed me, no problem and I was off to Chicago.
I arrived the same day as the Zimmerman verdict. I was a bit freaked about what my reception would be, but nothing was said. I had 10 children in the program, ages 3-16. We started with "you can't judge a book by it's cover" using a picture of my mother, whom I don't resemble at all! Then we progressed to something I've found breaks through the "it's too new, I can't do it" ice really well. I taught them a song in American Sign Language. I've been doing this for years but these kids were fast! So fast that they had the one song down in about 15 minutes and it's not a "baby song". So fast, that when 2pm came and they went out front on the stoop, they started teaching the kids who were hanging around to "see what the crazy old white lady did". Those kids had it in 15 minutes too. And they wanted MORE! They were starving! They wouldn't let me go until I'd taught them all the same things I'd just taught for 5 hours. And this happened day after day after day. These kids are so voraciously hungry for knowledge it's sometimes frightening. And they aren't stupid, just underfed by the system that marks them as "unfit, forgettable, too hard to handle, doesn't learn the "right way" etc.
And they wanted me to come back last summer for the end of term but family finances prevented it. They said they wanted me back for this coming summer then, and I'm going to do my damnedest to make it happen for them. And it is for them. None of the teachers that teach there are paid for teaching. No one gets paid for travel expenses or food etc. We are there because of the hungry children we can't deny sustenance too which, for most of us, is why we started teaching in the first place.
COMPARISON HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES REQUIRED FOR GRADUATION
1975 & 2010
1975=Arizona (a "bad" school state)
21 CREDITS=TO GRADUATE 2 SEMESTERS=1 credit hour same as IL
4 ENGLISH, must inc. English Reading &Writing, English Literature, Oral Communication. 1 Elective English class Sr. year.
4 SCIENCE: Earth Science, Biology, Physics/Chemistry, Advanced Bio/Chem. Sr. year.
4 MATH: Algebra 1-2, 3-4, Geometry, Trigonometry/Calculus Sr. year
2 PE must be fresh and soph year. Comprehensive Sex Ed in 2nd year PE.
2 Social Studies: Western Civilization, World Cultures required
2 ART: Music (band, instrumental, chorus), Arts: Req. Art Appreciation. Pottery, Drawing, Sculpture, Painting.
3 HISTORY: AZ History, US History.
2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE: German, French, Spanish, Latin
2 ELECTIVES:
2010=ILLINOIS (a "good" school state)
20.5 CREDIT HOURS 2 SEMESTERS=1 CREDIT HOUR same as AZ.
4 ENGLISH
4 PE
3 SOCIAL STUDIES (must inc. Civics)
2 SCIENCE
3 MATH (must inc. geometry
4 ELECTIVES
.5 HEALTH (abstinence only sex ed included)
If you've stuck with me this long, I think you can see the difference and why kids are not ready for college even when they graduate high school.
4:42 PM PT: For those of you interested in helping the Washington Park Freedom School survive: http://www.youcaring.com/...
And to keep current:
https://www.facebook.com/...
