every week is so filled with news when you are a teacher. you are constantly listening to the news searching for new and creative ways to connect your students to the happenings of their world… exposure to expansion of worlds. then there is the news that your classroom generates, the news of the students, and other teachers… where to begin? we will start big and zoom in…
this week the congress and the president signed into law the edujobs bill and now the money is flowing towards schools… meanwhile the media is framing the topic of education reform in a manner that is angering many of my colleagues and has prompted a boycott of the los angeles times for an article published this weekend regarding teacher effectiveness – an article that needs further digestion for me to write informatively on… but was interesting nonetheless. my nemesis seemed to have been able to pull together more coherent sentiments here regarding this… however i was in the middle of another thought…
as we narrow into the scope of the world i interact with directly, the sphere of influence seems to remain quite large while the locality collapses ever inward. while the “union” and “district” made up by individuals who simultaneously are agents of both institutional entities (a weird juxtaposed and often hypocritical reality that needs further exploration) prepared ideological battles, i had an interesting experience with some of my colleagues who represent one or both of those institutions… while filling up my water bottle in our parent center. i was stopped by MY UTLA chapter chair (my representative who’s main priority is to look out for the well being of teachers like myself)… he informed me that i could not drink the water from the parent center as it was only for parents. in a tone reminiscent of reprimands handed down by many administrators for countless minor infringements like this not worth mentioning here, he proceeded to tell me that it was ok just this time but that i should cease to drink the said water. i was taken a back and upset but not enough to respond with anything but a nod… in my mind i was thinking that i would continue to drink said water until an administrator and not my union rep. directed me not to… yet shortly after that my direct supervisor found me outside and told me that in fact (like i had suspected the policy was on taking care of a basic human need such as hydration) that i could drink whatever water i damn well pleased… the next day my principal reiterated that sentiment. both of my administrators were very adamant and quite bothered that i had to undergo this inconvenient non truth at all… but it got me to think about the typical model from which many of our teachers, especially young ones, like myself, are indoctrinated into thinking… that all administrators are the “enemy” and that our union brothers and sisters are our only allies in the “trenches”… well at least this time, they got it wrong.
as i retreated back to the “safer” space of my classroom, it was a common ride of ups and downs experienced when teaching 9th graders and new superintendents sitting in … as i met with successes and failures in simultaneously teaching and writing a curriculum on community action research, students delved into studying agency and awakening to the fact that they have potential to become active agents of change in their communities and schools…
during first period on friday i saw one of my students being escorted out by security… he was studying gang violence with his group in my class. he was largely (no pun intended… he was the largest 9th grader i had every seen… it took me a good 3 second internal dialogue with myself to remember that he was a child and my new student when he walked in the door for the first time) responsible for coming up with his group’s inquiry question:
how have gangs evolved from a positive to a negative force in the community?
i found out later that he was escorted out by security for his own safety. the local gangs had put the word out that he was not to remain safe… not even in school. i don’t know if i will ever see “manny” again but i hope that our short time together proved to be as positive a learning experience for him one day as it was for me… for what he taught me happened in the first seconds of our meeting each other. he reminded me of a simple fact. we take our students as they come… and we push them to be the best students they can be… no matter what.
