No Child Is Left Behind?

I just dropped the kids off at school. It may be Wednesday, but it's their Friday and I'm almost as excited as they are that there's no school the next couple days. In fact, there is a school-wide costume parade scheduled for this afternoon which will be followed by classroom parties so today really only counts as a half day as it is. Mrs. Rogers (gotta love that name) asked me to come help get the first graders costumed up. I'm happy to lend a hand and be a part of the celebration.

I helped in Miss Bit's classroom on Monday too. I left work a little early because 19 eager, enthusiastic 6 and 7 year-olds were creating storybook pumpkins. This project included hot glue guns and push pins and, therefore, as many adults as possible. At the end of last week, only 2 parents had volunteered. I was surprised because from what I've gathered thus far, most of the kids have SAHMs, but I know that is a busy job too. First I worked with Miss Bit to create her spittin' image of Fancy Nancy, and then I went on to help with a Clifford, a Runaway Bunny, a Pinkalicious and a Jack and the Beanstalk. Most of the kids came with complete planning sheets, ample supplies that obviously required a shopping trip, and plenty of creative ideas. They were artists extraordinaire...I was worker bee. A few kids came with nothing and I thought to myself...how does this happen? We had 2 weeks of notices to prepare for this project, but the truth is that I know exactly how this happens.

I think we all know how and why just not what to do about it. It's been weighing heavily on my mind the past couple weeks.

Recently, Geoffrey Canada has been much in the media with the release of Waiting For Superman. He rallies against our broken public school system and I agree with a great deal of what he says. Canada points out that in any other miserably failing business, employees would work harder and longer to turn things around not take months off and come back to repeat the failing model year after year. It's true, but it's also true that our educational system is set-up to offer mediocre pay in exchange for good benefits (easy tenure resulting in ridiculous job security, Cadillac insurance plans, attractive and generously funded retirement plans, lots of time off). I wonder what the results would be if we treated teachers more like CEOs and schools more like businesses? How would performance reviews, incentives and bonuses change the educational landscape? What would be the effects of accountability? Canada places a great deal of blame on our teachers as I've also been prone to do. I must admit Monday's experience made me see things a little differently.

Mrs. Rogers did not punish the children who came without with words, or sighs or annoyed glances. No, instead she worked a little magic with the leftover felt, pipe cleaners and google eyes to help them create something they could feel proud of. Instead of scorn and shame, she gave them her undivided attention, and please note she was able to because there were 15 prepared kids and 3 other sets of hands to help them. She's lucky to have parental support in and out of the classroom. Let's be honest, who knows what Miss Bit would have come up with and come to school with or without if I hadn't worked with her along the way to come up with the fanciest Fancy Nancy. She's 6 and can barely read the instructions, let alone come up with and execute a vision. It's so easy and tempting to blame teachers who get burned out and disillusioned for giving up on our kids...for not doing enough. And what about the parents? Certainly struggles and all they share in some of the abundant culpability. Oh there's plenty to go around: unions, poverty, teen pregnancy, single parenthood, drugs, politics, classism, racism... Failure pointing fingers can be aimed in all directions the way I see it, and little good comes from that. Look just how far we haven't come.

Our children are the ones who suffer generation after generation. They didn't ask for any of this even as they find themselves caught up hopelessly in this vicious cycle. The way I see it the only way to begin to break it is monumental, uncomfortable even excruciatingly painful, far reaching change, yet there's so much opposition to this kind of upheaval on all fronts that it's daunting if not impossible. So we all keep doing what we're doing even though it's not working, and every once in awhile we throw our hands up in the air and ask 'why?' just for good measure.

Because really who answers rhetorical questions?