A Teacher's Perspective: Inside the Public Schools

[Craig]

For months, I have been looking for an opportunity to share what physically and mentally goes on inside a classroom. This may be the place. I won't (at least I'll try) get into a lot of philosophy, just the day to day stuff or, as they say in sports,"keeping it between the lines." I'll have to give some of my background and since I'm almost at the end of my career, I will bring you up to speed as to where I've been and the things that went on at those schools. This will be an ongoing process so get ready to ride with "Teacher Man! I will try to let you in on some of the things that really go on in the Public Schools, Monday through Friday, bell to bell! I will share a little bit about my training and I'll try to bring you along using my ears and eyes. Hopefully, you can feel, see and hear what I feel, see and hear because I will give it to you like/as it happens. And trust me, I need this discussion as much as anyone!

Coming to Memphis, Tennessee, in the early nineties, I had an opportunity to get certified in a program called 'Project Teach!" It was a collaborative program involving Memphis State( at that time!), LeMoyne-Owen College and Shelby State Community College. It gave a few minority students with bachelor degrees an opportunity to get certified in elementary education. I jumped at the opportunity since working for temp services throughout this city was not what I considered my cup of tea. I also felt I could really give back to the students. I knew it was a great opportunity. Not that it meant anything but my father was an educator and so was my mother. So I thought I could do this. I was nearly 40 at the time and I had never given any real thought about making teaching a career. I had taught several months with an emergency credential in South Central Los Angeles and I thought it couldn't be any worse than that. And at least with this program I could get some valuable and necessary training to really help kids learn and be successful. So I took advantage of the opportunity.

My brief experience in Los Angeles was at Bethune Junior High on 78th and Broadway. It was in the middle of a strong Crip gang presence and there was beginning to be an East Los Angeles' hispanic growth spurt with gang issues too. Most of my students were Hispanic and Black. Many of the Hispanic students couldn't speak English well or at least they played like it. Many were new arrivals to the US and the LA community and, by law, all children have the right to attend public schools in America. I was teaching Algebra and was sharing a room with a white guy. I had scored high on the CBEST teaching aptitude test in all areas and particularly math so since they needed math teachers, I got hired. You see I had received a strong math training while in the public schools of East St. Louis so I knew I could do this. I didn't have any classroom management skills but thought I could handle the students since I was raised in East St. Louis and had survived the military. I had never had any education courses so I wasn't prepared for what I was about to deal with. It was a trip! Students wouldn't listen!! They would throw erasers!! Uniforms were whatever! At that time most students wore their colors.

One incident I remember was with Javier, a Latino kid. I spotted him tagging a wall and I shouted "stop"! He bolted and my instinct told me to go after him. He jumped the fence and boy was I embarassed. I thought I was doing what teachers are supposed to do. Right! I was told by a more experienced teacher to never chase after a student. That was that! They brought him back into the school and, subsequently, back into the room. Before the semester was over, I think he quit coming. Another memorable situation happened one day with a young Black student. He was really a good guy if/when he came to school but one day he dropped some weed after showing me a bankroll of money. He was affiliated with the Crips but that didn't bother me. Most were affiliated with some organization. When he dropped the money and the weed, he quickly picked it up and ran. Again, I ran after him but this time I stopped at the office. He left the building and eventually returned. I don't think much happened to him in terms of consequences. We laughed as a matter of fact about the money and the drug situation. He quit coming to class too, I think!

I lasted at Bethune until that Spring. It was daily chaos and confusion for me. They had several dances. The students got a snack break about 10:00am in the yard which was surrounded by fence. It reminded me of a penitentiary yard. Snacks were given and the students had an oppportunity to socialize and plan! The Principal was a Black lady (cute) and seemed rather under the radar. I dealt with her a few times because I had taken a lot of days off! (smile) I enjoyed teaching but the rigors day-to-day were rough. One day the white guy I was sharing a room with got pissed at me for some reason. I told him the room was the kids, not ours. It lead to more stress. He was very territorial while I was just there trying to help the students learn some algebra. Anyway, by the Spring I had found a job in the defense industry. I'll stop here for now. Next, we'll head to Memphis!(smile) Boy do I have stories to tell about this experience.

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

Excuse me????

Please clarify. "I worked "security" (the metal detector) with an assistant principal Monday thru Thursday mornings this week. It was in the morning and at the entrance area. Every student was required to walk through it! Guess what? It buzzed everytime! "

1. Why are you working security?
2. Why is no one stopped and checked (searched)?

[Craig]

Barry,

1. Why are you working security detail?

My name was on a list and my assignment was at the cafeteria entrance. I got to this school in October after the schhol year had started. It appears every teacher is asked to assist somewhere throughout the school for at least one week. It was my week and my spot just happened to be there. I do my job, didn't mind but as the week went by I knew the metal detector piece was a farce.

2. Why is no one stoped and checked (searched)?

I am not an administrator so I didn't even ask. As I was greeting kids I made sure I was observant. An Assistant Principal is there every morning so I was just assisting. Some days a few are searched if people from the board come, I hear.

On the evening news Friday a young black male near another Memphis high school was found carrying a loaded shotgun. Thank God he didn't come to my school. I'm sure he could have gotten in.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Craig, the idea of inferior is so in shadow that most people don't even know it exists. That is what we are seeing in the schools, the results of inferior thought and thinking. The issue is about why in hell you'd need security in school in the first place. If that is the primary concern then they are no longer schools, they are holding facilities or prisons.

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

Al, if you had your druthers, what would you want to see happen in a government (public) school in terms of producing scholars?

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Barry, it would take a long process, but I'd offer the option of community schools much like optional schools, but the parents, who would have to be trained, would hire the principals and teachers. Since public schools are funded by tax dollars that would pay for it. I'd greatly reduce the Board of Education's staff.

Any student that wanted to attend could and the cost for acting up and out would be progressive and severe. In other words if they didn't want to be there they would not be there. There would be no beatings and we'd operate on a code of honor. The penalty for breaking the code, immediate expulsion. As you can see a whole lot of children couldn't get in my school. I am not concerned about those that don't want to learn how to learn, truly I am not. They are not my problem. No one can instill desire in someone else. It's an inside job.

I truly think public education is a device of evil intent. So I'd dismantle the whole system.

[Craig]

Let me share something positive for a change! Fuzzy feeling things do happen to teachers every day. Last week a young female student shared something with me. Let me preface by saying she had been out for several weeks before she returned. When she did returned her jaw had been wired. She told me she had been punched by her brother. He thought she had been seeing a young man. Too much, I presume! Even as she was telling the story she was smiling. I have never had a broken jaw but I judge it does hurt. This was also a good student. She has a sweet personality and does everything I ask in the classroom.

Mind you, I didn't ask or get into her business. She seemed to be quite calm about the whole situation. I asked her was she coming back to school for good or just coming to get her make-up work. She mentioned she might be home schooled. I told her no problem and not to worry about the make-up work. "Just continue doing what you're doing!" The next day I saw her at school. I was surprised. Then I saw her the next day and the next. She said she wasn't going to be home schooled and would finish the year out with her class. I was impressed but not surprised. I asked about her ability to eat and swallow. She said she would be fine.

About a week later she came to me after a field trip one day and she just started sharing. No problem, I listened. She was still smiling and shared with me that she had moved to another part of town. It caught me off guard so I asked her "Why?" She said the authorities said she had to move from the place where she was living. She said she had been in foster care. It blew me away because she appeared to be so "normal", whatever that looks like. She went on to share that since her brother had done what he had done she had to move and that she liked her new place. I went on to ask her where her mother was. She told me her mother had abandoned her years ago and left her with her grandmother. She went on to say she "hated" her father! I didn’t ask why.

It touched my heart to hear her story as she began to open up. Mind you, without my asking. She shared with me also that by Tuesday she had to decide where she wanted to stay. Being that she was 16 years old, she had that option. She mentioned that she liked a female teacher at school and the teacher would be willing to take her in. She also mentioned a friend of her mother's would also be an option. It was heart wrenching to hear this sweet young lady's story. I had no idea! I had just watched "Precious" and the story shows the things that many of our children have to deal with. It opened my eyes and softened my heart. There are so many Precious' and Antwone Fishers in these schools. There are so many students with so many stories. I was really shocked by this young lady's story. I had no clue.

Another situation involves some of my ex-students. See I have reconnected with many via the social networks. One young lady thanked me for being tough on her. She is now in the United States' Army and appears to be focused on her career and mission. She was always smart but I never would have thought she would have chosen the military. Another young lady remembered me from teaching her in middle school. She is doing well also. She is attending a local university and understands the value of hard work. I have many that I have reconnected with in college, in the service or are parents themselves. This is satisfying and it makes me feel good to know that they have turned out to be productive young men and women. This gives me hope and shows me that what we do as teachers is for a reason. Often we don't see the impact but as we run into students after they have left the public school systems and they thank you for what you do, it makes it all worthwhile.

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

First I'm happy to hear that the students feel safe around you to open up.
Second I'm happy to hear that the young lady moved away from an abusive sibling.
Third, I'm happy truly to read about the success stories!!!!!

Any sibling that would break another's jaw, for whatever reason, is NOT loving the sibling. That is an act of selfish emotion, NOT an act of love.

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

All, it would appear that the MCS does not wish to speak about its Security practices (or lack thereof).

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

Craig, what school in Memphis are we talking about with the laxed security in regards to the metal detectors?

[B. Crittenden Freeman]

I read the Bill Gates foundation donated 90 million dollars to the MCS in November of 2009. How is this working for the education of the children?

[Craig]

Barry, most schools in Memphis have relaxed security if you call using the metal detectors and not searching the person or the belongings security. If you go to the airport the process requires you to arrive early because you may get searched. Are the students going to arrive early? I doubt it! The problem with school searching is the time it would take and, I believe, students' rights violations. We would have to have females search females and males search males. I don't think schools have the resources yet to do that on a regular basis. Imagine how many searches it would take daily? It is almost impossible! I am aware of the 90 million that the Bill Gates Foundation donated to our school system. I hope it is used effectively and wisely. I am not sure how/when it is going to be disbursed. I'll keep you posted though. Are you aware of the Harlem Learning Zone Project? It appears to be an exceptional program.

[Craig]

Here is a story of urban success!

Four years ago, Bryant Alexander watched his mother weep.

She stared down at a muddle of D's and F's on his eighth-grade report card and threatened to kick him out. He had barely passed elementary school, and high school wasn't even on his radar.

"Something just clicked," Alexander, now 18, said. "I knew I had to do something."

On Friday, Alexander proudly swapped his high school's red uniform tie for a striped red and gold one — the ritual at Englewood's Urban Prep Academy for Young Men that signifies a student has been accepted into college.

As the Roseland resident and 12 others tied their knots, Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges.

Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.

The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago's most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.

Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, said Tim King, the school's founder and CEO.

"There were those who told me that you can't defy the data," King said. "Black boys are killed. Black boys drop out of high school. Black boys go to jail. Black boys don't go to college. Black boys don't graduate from college.

"They were wrong," he said.

Every day, before attending advanced placement biology classes and lectures on changing the world, students must first pass through the neighborhood, then metal detectors.

"Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it," said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school's director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.

He met the students the summer before they began their freshman year during a field trip to Northwestern University, the first time many of them had ever stepped foot on a college campus. At the time, Hutchinson was Northwestern's assistant director of undergraduate admissions. Inspired by what he'd seen, he started working for Urban Prep two months later.

"I'm them," he said Friday as he fought back tears. "Being accepted to college is the first step to changing their lives and their communities."

Hutchinson plays a major role in the school, where college is omnipresent. Students are assigned college counselors from day one. To prepare students for the next level, the school offers a longer than typical day — about 170,000 minutes longer, over four years, than other city schools — and more than double the usual number of English credits, King said

Even the school's voice-mail system has a student declaring "I am college-bound" before asking callers to dial an extension.

The rigorous academic environment and strict uniform policy of black blazers, red ties and khakis isn't for everyone. The first senior class began with 150 students. Of those who left, many moved out of the area and some moved into neighborhoods that were too dangerous to cross to get to the school, King said. Fewer than 10 were expelled or dropped out, he said.

At last count, the 107 seniors gained acceptance to a total of 72 different colleges, including Northwestern University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Rutgers University and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Alexander was accepted to DePaul University.

While college acceptance is an enormous hurdle to jump, school leaders said they know their job isn't done; they want to make sure the students actually attend.

To that aim, King said, staff made sure that every student has completed the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid, lest the red tape deter them.

Later in the year, the school plans to hold a college signing day where every student is to sign a promise to go to college, he said. Staff will stay in touch through the summer and hopefully in the first years of school.

"We don't want to send them off and say, ‘Call us when you're ready to make a donation to your alma mater,' " King said.”If we fulfill our mission, that means they not only are accepted to college, but graduate from it."

For now, students are enjoying the glow of reaching their immediate goal.

Normally, it takes 18-year-old Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On the day the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decision online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him to his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he remembers screaming. His mother burst in and began crying.

That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting "I got in" on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.

"We're breaking barriers," he said. "And that feels great!"

As a Morehouse graduate and a product of East St. Louis, Illinois, this story brings me hope. There are things that are out there working. The Harlem Learning Zone is another great story I have been hearing about. Have your heard of it? These formulas of success take money. I hope Bill Gates' money is used in this fashion. Students must be tracked and held accountable. Standards must be high. Teachers must be held accountable and curriculum must be reevaluated and not so vague. If they want to fix things they can but we can't continue to do/allow the same things on a daily basis or Bill Gates, Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts could give money and it wouldn't help. Change is Change, not "Talk" about Change.