First of all, I'd like to clarify that I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be a pro football prognosticator. At least not a successful one, as evidenced by my woeful prediction of Bears vs. Jets in the Super Bowl. I will point out, though, that I predicted the Bears would get 14 points, which in fact they did. The Packers got just a few more than my predicted 10, unfortunately, leading to the derailment of the Bears Super Bowl Express. At least we have the Bulls.
But today I'm not going to speak about sports, as much as I could, and as much as I'd often like to considering how nice it is to concentrate on the mindless joy of being a fan, as opposed to the often disheartening reality of the world around us. But believe it or not, there are more important things than sports.
I was caught by two things President Obama said in the State of the Union address, earlier in the week. The first, is a nice segue from the topic of sports to the topic of education. The quote was as follows:
"We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline."
Absolutely. We live in a time where not only is celebrity and fame celebrated, it is almost expected. Reality TV gives the impression, that not only can you be a celebrity, but you should be. And if you're not, you're nobody. Just watch 10 minutes of any American Idol open audition and you see the consequences of this outlook. Hopeful kids have been so pumped up on the "You're capable of anything!" mantra that they don't realize just how terrible they really are. Or if not terrible, just mediocre. That should be okay, but in our culture, if you can't play a sport, sing, be on TV, then you're somehow "less". Or worse, you humiliate yourself trying and become a national punchline. Or maybe even worse, by a fluke, (see Antoine Dodson, the "Bed Intruder" guy), you become a You Tube sensation and now think you have found your "in". Sorry, but the public's attention span grows shorter by the moment. It's not 15 minutes of fame anymore. If you even get it, it's probably more like two minutes, if you're lucky. And that's what fame is really about: luck. That or freakish amounts of talent. You might be able to shoot a jumpshot or make a layup, or even dunk a basketball, but you're probably no Derrick Rose. You might be able to get rousing applause in your community theater troupe, but very few actors are Meryl Streep or Robert DeNiro. Not to say one shouldn't try if they're passionate about it, but at the same time, one should know their limitations and the grand unlikelihood of fame.
Here's the second quote that caught my attention in the State of the Union address:
"In South Korea, teachers are known as "nation builders." Here in America, it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect."
This ties in with the first quote, but I'll get to that in just a moment.
I used to be a teacher, so I can say from first-hand experience, that teaching is a tough gig. There's a large segment of the population who seem to think otherwise. But let me tell you, it's exhausting. It's mentally and emotionally taxing. There's always a new mandate delivered from the top down. You have to be doing this, this, and this in your classroom and teaching this particular thing because it'll help test scores and because the board says so, even though, it may make no particular sense to you as the person in the classroom day-in and day-out. The majority of your instructional time is often lost to disciplining unruly students. It is often heartbreaking, as one day you see the "difficult student" making progress, the next day, five of your sixth grade students get suspended for suspected gang activity, which is something I faced in my last year as a regular classroom teacher.
I get really tired when people make generalizations about how many bad teachers there are or how it's a cushy job because of the summers off. Sure, there are plenty of bad teachers and/or ineffective teachers. Some shouldn't be doing it. I'll count myself as one of those, which is one of the reasons I left (there were other reasons, but I'll leave that for a separate blog entry). Some do stay in the field far beyond the point of burnout and it's sad not only for the students who have to put up with this, but for the teacher himself/herself, who probably came in to the profession with high hopes.
And now I'll bring this little rant back to Chicago, since this is supposedly a Chicago-centric blog. Teachers at Chicago Public School have to put up with these types of negative generalizations all of the time. And, as I eluded to before, some of it is not unfounded criticism, but much of it is. In Chicago, supposedly, you have a handful of "good schools" and a whole lot of "bad schools". Parents clamor desperately to get their kids into the Whitney Young's and Northside Prep's, which are undoubtedly excellent schools, but in the process, certain neighborhood schools, who may be doing a lot with a little, get unfairly branded as being inferior.
Let me give you a personal example. My son is a kindergartner in Chicago Public Schools. Before the school-year began, I still lived in the Lakeview neighborhood and was encouraged to enroll my son at Blaine Elementary because of it's glowing reputation, many partnerships with various arts organizations and sports teams (their artificial turf field was made possible in part by the Chicago Cubs organization), and a multitude of other reasons as well. His mom and I enrolled him into the kindergarten program, but soon ran into a couple of issues.
First, we were told that because of lack of funding for the kindergarten program, he'd most likely be in a classroom of around 35 kids. Yikes. Studies are pretty clear on this. Especially for the primary grades, any time you go over 25, instruction suffers greatly.
Second, because of said funding issues and the high expectations of Blaine parents, each parent was asked to contribute $2000 out of pocket, as an "at-will donation". This is supposedly free public education, mind you. And though no one could force us to make this donation, it was pretty clear there was an expectation.
After thinking long and hard about this, his mom and I decided to check out the local school in her neighborhood, Stockton Elementary. We hadn't heard anything bad about Stockton, but we hadn't heard any type of Blaine-esque reviews either. I took a tour, and thought, "Well, I'm not bowled over, but there are no particular red flags either". In the end, somewhat skeptically, we enrolled our son at Stockton.
Yet nearly halfway through the school-year I can tell you with no amount of skepticism at all, that my son's teacher is an outstanding teacher and the school on the whole does a fabulous job. My son loves school and is in a school environment that is both nurturing and filled with high expectations. I honestly don't know if he'd be getting that at the "good" school. There's not as much parent involvement, unfortunately, at Stockton as there is at Blaine, and unfortunately, the school-year has been plagued by neighborhood violence that has affected students and their families directly. Despite these challenges, though, they keep pushing forward with an immensely talented administration and staff.
What's my point exactly? My point is that I hope one day education will be as truly valued as it should be. I hope that schools like Stockton and other overlooked neighborhood schools get their rightful due. I hope that teachers like Miss Cullen, my son's teacher, get the proper support and respect that they deserve, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because we need people like this for society's sake.
What I REALLY hope for too, especially with an election that is less than a month a way, is that the leaders we elect, not just on a national level, but on the oh-so-important-but-often-overlooked local level, understand the need to support teachers, not constantly criticize them. They need resources and political leaders who can galvanize communities, not divide them. Chicago will have a new mayor and several new aldermen and hopefully they will be able to help drive the discussion of education in the right direction.
I'm an idealist. I've grown a little weary with age, but I maintain a lot of idealism, for better or worse. I believe in things like education and community and the possibilities inherent within them. There is of course personal responsibility, which is something not government, nor school boards, nor community organizations can dictate. A child's parent is their first, and by far, most important teacher. And I don't say this to try to paint myself as parent of the year or something, but clearly there are some parents that put their kids at a horrible disadvantage from day one of their school careers. Because of this, it's often an uphill battle for even the best teachers.
That being said, though, I think it's time we as a society not just pay lip service to the importance of education, but really start to show it with action. It could be a simple as voting for candidates who have the best plans for moving education forward or as involved as running for local school council.
I know I'm biased. Hey, I warned you. I have a child and am a former educator so I feel strongly about these things. Maybe you don't believe in voting and think children are hideous little beasts. You have the right to think that. But at the very, very, VERY least, to those who want to paint broad generalizations about the Chicago Public School system or educators anywhere, know that for every bad/lazy teacher, I guarantee you there are ten dedicated, tireless advocates for not just the well being of the individual children in their classrooms, but for the future of this nation. Our country on the whole will be a better place when we realize this and act accordingly to support them.
So next Sunday as millions of us, myself included, ingest copious amounts of beer and snacks in the name of freakishly talented athletes, let us not forget about the regular people like my son's teacher who dedicate their lives to making their communities and the world on the whole, a better place. Hopefully one day their contribution will be valued just as much as the ability to throw a perfect spiral. These people are the ones the youth of America should aspire to become.
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