Dear Dr. Alonso

The following is a draft of a letter sent to the CEO of Baltimore City schools (after some career considerations, I've decided to omit my school name from the blog. I left it on in the message I actually send to Alonso):

11/2/07

Dear Dr. Alonso,

I write to you today as someone deeply committed to the cause of social and educational justice with a question, “Why should I stay and teach here in Baltimore City?”

I will spare you all the details of my journey from the West Coast (I grew up in Seattle and went to school at Reed College in Portland, OR and grad school at the Stanford School of Education) to teach in Baltimore City. Suffice it to say, I came here knowing that urban schools are where I wanted to make a career and Baltimore was certainly a city which really (REALLY) needed committed teachers. Now, three years in as a Baltimore City middle school teacher, my commitments to city youth have not wavered, in fact, only deepened.

But, these days, I so (SOOOOO) want to go. Not because of the kids. Sure, they are tough and stress me out mainly because I know even with all the work I’ve done there is still so much I must do if I am going to do right by them. I bust my butt to do a better job for them. Problem is so much of my job is not for them. Worst still, most of that job is in too often maddening, insulting, and painful. Having come to feel so deeply for the cause of these kids’ lives, I can not help but feel that my energies can be better spent elsewhere.

Why should I stay a teacher in Baltimore City, Dr. Alonso, with a principal and vice principal who seem intent to cover for their incompetence and corruption by sabotaging the best efforts of their teachers? One of the best young teachers at our school (she started with me) works tirelessly for her 8^th grade students, and not only are her efforts unsupported, they are undermined at almost every turn. When she stays with her class because coverage has not shown up, she is threatened with write-ups upon arriving late to pointless meetings. She is bad mouthed to her colleagues and reprimanded (in a memo carbon copied to the Area Office) for starting Terra Nova testing a few minutes late because the breakfast she was providing her students went a bit long. She is not the only hard working teacher at our school subjected to such abuse. The administration does this, I think, so that when Glenmount fails to make AYP this year they can shift the blame to their staff (having been set up to fail). See, not our fault, look at what we’re working with.

I have been spared such explicit abuse. But, three years in as a middle school teacher in Baltimore City I am teaching my third different age group (first 7^th, then 8^th, now 6^th) and this year I am being used to teach Language Arts even though I am certified to teach Social Studies. Worse still, the administration has never been in my classroom (unless you count the two times the AP came in to ask me to go turn off the air conditioner in her office) to observe yet alone provide assistance as I try to put together a 6^th grade language arts class I am not qualified to teach. I was offered a 10^th grade American Government position at Patterson this past spring, but my move was impeded, and now I teach a subject I should not be teaching to an age group my graduate education was not geared toward (My curricular work at Stanford focused on high school). I could have had my pick of schools if I applied to jobs in other cities (pursuing my commitments to educational equity elsewhere), but I stayed here and as a result I feel my development and growth as an educator has been stunted. I am not the only young, educated, committed teacher here in this city who feels this way. I wonder what is being done to make BCPSS a more hospitable place for dynamic teachers to stay and work. We are tired of being set up to fail. So, what should keep us here?

I apologize this has gone a bit too long and perhaps reads a bit rambling at points. I thank you for your reading. I saw you speak as part of the NLCB panel at the Baltimore Book Festival and I left feeling quite certain you came here for the right reasons. (Perhaps, reasons similar to mine.) I was quite impressed to hear your insistences that every decision you make will be for the youth that populate Baltimore schools. You bring, I think, a refreshing bluntness that has yet to be offered up until now—perhaps, providing me some impetus to stay. I know you are busy, but I look forward to any response you might be able to shoot my way in your very limited time. Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

**********

***************

TFA on Slate

So, this weekend one of my favorite spots on the WWW, Slate Magazine, features TFA on its web-page frontispiece as part of its Give it Away Now philanthropy issue. The piece by Lincoln Caplan, "Great Expectations: Why Big Donors Back TFA," purports to account for Teach for America's darling-dom among big time corporate donors. He explains the organization's success thusly,

The performance that matters most to exacting backers amounts to this: For generations, the people who went into teaching compared unflatteringly with those who went into business, law, and medicine. TFA is helping correct that disparity. The woes of public education were considered, basically, unsolvable. TFA is helping show why we should raise our expectations.

So, if I follow him: Because Teach for America brings more and more high quality college graduates into the teaching fold (those would-be successful businessmen, lawyers, and doctors) "exacting backers" begin to see education as a problem finally worth throwing money at.

And they just so happen to throw it TFA's way. They give to TFA not because the organization has shown progress towards its avowed aims of "closing the achievement gap" nor because it has conclusively demonstrated that it's teachers perform better than others (at best, it is a wash), but because those who fill the ranks of TFA are just more impressive "people" than those who enter the education field through other routes (all those low status women!). Wow, that is one cynical reason to give money. And while I do not think Caplan actually has such an unsavory take on the situation (the concluding sentence of the above quote suggests as much), his garbled and disjointed piece left me feeling this was the conclusion one must draw.

So, what does this say about TFA and its hopes for "closing the achievement gap" by ensuring that all children "one day" have access to a "quality" education? A lot. Teach for America's success as a fund-raising juggernaut is a product of the same world view that empowers an oligarchy of the rich and white at the expense of the poor and minority. Furthermore, as TFAs growth is predicated on the robust support of a financial elite, one can't but wonder how truly invested the institution as a whole can become in breaking down an "achievement gap" that plays a crucial role in maintaining the wealth and privilege of the same financial and corporate bodies who fund the organization. To break down the achievement gap is part and parcel with breaking down the class system in this country, and no corporate entity is interested in that.

Suffice it to say, something tells me the financial officers of Wachovia (having just given 100,000$ to TFA Baltimore) might cancel payment on their donation check if it meant that tomorrow they awoke to a population of the poor and Black of Baltimore City--having finally received an education worthy of a doctor or lawyer (or TFA recruit)--demanding the respect and consideration so long reserved for the doctors and lawyers and business people of our society. "What do you mean you are tired of being fleeced by the bank fees which make us rich at your--the working class and poor--expense?" Ha.

I'm done rambling for today. And don't get me wrong: TFA does put warm bodies in classrooms that often would lack them. And by and large, the TFAers are pretty dynamic, hard working warm bodies (If, as a TFAer, I don't say so myself). There is good in this. But, do not confuse this plugging-of-holes in a system which generates the achievement gap as a substantial step toward "fixing" it. After all, you can not fix what ain't broke: Our public schools--in service of our social and economic order--do a great job of helping keep poor people poor and they always have. If TFA hopes to change this it would have to take on a class system that extends beyond the school house doors. And to do this, as I have already suggested, would mean confronting the very interests who fund their organization. It would mean a good long look in the mirror and an honest reckoning, "At the end of the day, who are we really for?"

Veggie Nugget Day!

First things first: Fords are pieces of shit. Car cost 10,000. 2 years into ownership: 4,000 worth of repairs. So, here I wait as the alternator is replaced. And while I am angry with my car and the Ford Motor Company, I am quite impressed that the service shop offers complimentary wireless(which is more than can be said of Starbucks coffee), so here I sit:

Yesterday was Veggie Nugget Day in Baltimore City schools. In fact, the veggie nugget was given a special icon on the school lunch menu under the heading "A Champion's Choice!" and cheerleader for vegetarianism as I am, I made sure my students took notice. For a full week, since the October lunch menus were handed out, the daily grammar warm ups included sentences such as, "Mr. Sallee might weep tears of joy on Veggie Nugget day."(Underline the verb phrase and identify the helping verb and main verb) Mr. Sallee gobbled the veggie nuggets. His Students gobbled them, too. (Combine into a single sentence using a compound subject) Mr. Sallee licked his fingers after finishing the delicious veggie nuggets. Mr Sallee burped, too. (Combine using a compound verb) High fives were exchanged. A countdown was kept up on the chalk board. The build up for the big day was, to say the least, palpable.

I brought 6 bucks worth of lunch money to school with me (enough for 4 orders). The students seemed to understand the importance of this day, so seemed to cooperate more than usual as I lined them up in the hall way at 12:15. I walked my class briskly down to the cafeteria. Cutting in front of the few 1st graders still waiting for lunch, I stood before the lunch counter and took in what was on offer. Those look like chicken tenders. "Yes, sir?," asks the lunch lady. "Yes, veggie nuggets? The Champions Choice on the menu?" "Yeah, I don't know why they put those on there. They haven't even sent us veggie nuggets." I ordered two Styrofoam bowls of oven fries and grabbed two of the PBJ sandwiches they reserve for students without their lunch money, paid them 3 bucks and walked away in a huff. "Veggie Nuggets, Mr. S?!" "Peanut Butter sandwich? man, Mr. Sallee, what about the veggie nuggets?" Of course. "Mr. Sallee will be annoyed for the rest of the day. He will be short-tempered, too." (Combine using a compound verb)

You see: My job makes me lie to kids all the time. Most of the time, the lies play out inadvertently and the kids do not understand them as such. After all, I was certainly the saddest of the lot when veggie nuggets did not materialize. In truth, the students were pretty happy about it (Chicken nuggets are gooood, Mr. S). Still, it is a form of lying to build up expectations with students and fail to come through. And this happens over and over. I bust my ass, but I know too often my students should not trust my word--And it is my word because as the teacher my job is to mouth the lies these schools tell these students constantly.

Veggie Nugget Day was a small lie. That BCRs (Brief Constructed Responses with their 4" by 6" answer boxes are the preferred form of expression on the Maryland State Assessment) are worth the bulk of their academic and intellectual effort as developing readers and writers is a bigger lie. That us adults are doing everything we can to ensure the education of these kids in Baltimore City is perhaps the biggest lie I am expected to mouth. And the kids may not realize it, but they understand the deception. They have come to expect it and they bring these expectations with them everyday to school even as they might leave their uniforms, books, and homework assignments at home.

My car is just about ready. Suffice it to say,

Education: The Champions Choice.

The Oldest Profession on Earth

I know, I know, "Prostitution is the oldest profession on Earth," I hear you saying, "this is a blog on teaching, correct?" Correct. And in my first official post as a blogger, I thought it appropriate to come with something provocative to get the anonymous reader's juices flowin' and their interests peaked. Linking prostitution t0 teaching is, I think, quite provocative. So, having skillfully commanded your attention, let me come right out and say it: Prostitution--while I am sure its been around for near as long as there has been both goods and bodily fluids for exchange--could not possibly be the oldest job on the planet. Teaching has gotta be older. After all, someone surely must of taught the beaten-path walkers of yore about basic units of exchange; the relative worth of certain sex acts; the best beaten path corners on which to stand to pick up a B.C. john. At the very least, it is a tie: Professional screwing and professional instructing (in one form or another) have been around for time immemorial.

And the ancientness of these two career paths is not all they have in common. For much of their histories, these two jobs have been almost wholly the province of marginalized women. This has been especially the case in the United States, where Puritan taboos on publicized sexuality and Victorian obsessions with femininity (as properly defined inside the patriarchal, husband-headed home) have slotted these jobs for unmarried women especially far down the status hierarchy. Of course, the town spinster never experienced the kind of abuse as did the town whore (people rarely stoned or imprisoned the kindergarten teacher) still teachers represented a group of women to which most people would just assume turn their backs--Those [women] who can't [find a husband], teach.

I think about the inter-twined historical development of the teaching profession in the USA (from the Dame schools in Puritan New England to the Progressive-era compulsory schooling movement) and the social marginalization of the wrong-kind of women (plain, unmarried, poor, non-white) a lot these days as I consider how it is that the school system in which I work--Baltimore City Public Schools--can fail so miserably to achieve even a little bit at the task with which it is charged: Educate the youth. Up an down, schools and administrative offices are staffed with too many of the criminally under-educated, incompetent, and corrupt. And nothing of significance is being done about. Teachers are disgruntled, tired, under-paid, and far too many are [like their bosses] under-educated and apathetic. And nothing of significance is being done about that, either. Why? Because very few have ever [not just recently, ever] really cared public schools--from its birth, an institution staffed by low-status women serving low status kids. Public schools were and still are a band-aid solution for the problem of societal others (with unmarried, poor women as the teachers and Immigrant, minority, and poor kids as the students) and the band aid so placed, no one really gives a damn if anything is healing underneath.

I know, I know, "What about No child Left Behind?," I hear you saying as you read, "sure seems like some people give a damn." Surely, some do give a damn enough to create legislation mandating that schools keep tabs on the "performance" of everyone--even the poor, and non-white(!)--on standardized tests, attaching penalties for schools that consistently fail to make progress toward 100%(!) achievement. But, they certainly do not give a damn enough to ensure that it is properly funded nor do they give a damn enough to actually develop checks to determine whether the markers of "performance" and "achievement" advocated by the standardized testing regime say much of anything real about the respective educational opportunities being enjoyed by students in different schooling contexts. One thing we do know from all this "disaggregated" data--Poor and minority kids, do poorly. But, we didn't need standardized testing mandates to tell us this. And I do not need a well developed historical perspective to make a prediction: NCLB will do nothing to "fix" this reality, because poor and minority kids (like poor, unmarried women) are a group to which most people would just assume turn their backs.
So what am I--well-schooled, middle class, white, and male [though unmarried]--doing here? Ummm....good question.