Easy to Comment, Hard to Take Action
(This response is based on an article posted January 27th, 2015 in Education weekly.
The article may be found here:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/01/28/why-do-some-schools-feel-like-prisons.html)
I am a graduate of the AUSL Chicago Teacher Residency. I served my residency at Johnson School of Excellence in North Lawndale in Chicago and was lucky to be chosen to serve at Dvorak School of Excellence in North Lawndale as well. I am a proud first year teacher in a first year turnaround school.
I recently read the commentary by Samina Hadi-Tabassum entitled “Why Do some Schools Feel Like Prisons?” in Education Weekly. I was saddened and angered by her response. Ms. Hadi-Tabassum qualified herself for her commentary by stating she has been “coaching and mentoring” first-year teachers in CPS (Chicago Public Schools) for almost 20 years.
My first question to Ms. Hadi-Tabassum or others with similar opinions would be, “Have you been in a school that was chosen to be turned around the year before it was chosen?” Students at our school, a turnaround school, share stories of children running the halls, hitting teachers, and children running the school. Adults and children who did not attend the school were able to enter the school freely and limited security was in place. Based on the number of students I have in my class repeating the grade, I must believe it to be true.
So, that “eerie” silence you hear when you enter a turnaround school? That is order being restored so a teaching and learning environment may commence. Does this get looser the more years into a turnaround a school is? Probably. But the reality is, your “cacophony of children laughing, running down the halls and slamming lockers” is not a realistic goal for our babies from the get go. The environment our students come from are extremely different from the students you speak of, and controlled chaos has to be taught so they can be safe in the hallways and the classrooms. The language and often physical behavior our students exhibit when a cacophony ensues is not always safe or acceptable for school.
With regard to literary techniques that are frowned upon. I was sad to see you miss a large part of the feedback that was probably given to this teacher. I know this because as a first year teacher it’s the thing we forget most often. Everything must be taught to our students. They are there to learn so that is fair. So, coming up to the board, when in the past, this behavior created mass chaos, has to be taught. Good teaching entails modeling and then having students participate and then finally students leading the behavior or learning activity. So I would bet the feedback was not so cut and dry, but that is just my hunch.
With regard to your experience at lunch. I cannot speak for the school you visited but I know at our school and other AUSL schools, our scholars talk at lunch and recess. That is of course, unless an adult is trying to get their attention or to line up and then in this case, they do turn their voices off to hear instructions. When I worked on a bank trading floor, filled with educated adults, there came a time when we would have to be silent, for either a conference call, or possibly being addressed by a superior in the room. While I am in this space, I might add, we had a dress code too. We were mandated to dress professionally, which meant suits for the men and suits or professional dresses for the ladies. Our uniform policy at the school, which is khaki pants and a blue polo is extremely affordable and fair for our kids.
You mentioned that your first year teachers do not buy into this ideology of repression and then the very dramatic, “if their schools were white would they have the same rules.” Again, there is a bigger, socioeconomic issue at play here. There are many schools that are majority black students that have a strong climate and culture for learning already in place. So, if their school was white and a turnaround school would they have the same rules? Most definitely.
School Climate and Culture is the first and most important issue we address in the first year of a turnaround school. So how dare you ask “when will turnaround schools take school culture into consideration and produce a school that enriches the whole minority child?” Because we spent the first several month learning how to do school, my students enjoy shake brakes where they dance in between lessons to move around and release energy. We have great class debates using accountable talk and question each others opinions in an appropriate manner. We have valentines dances that included grade 3-8 where all the kids danced, played, ate and sang together with the help of a DJ. We have 6th grade chants that scream our grade level and school spirit. We greet each other every morning and afternoon with handshakes or hugs and we have peace circles when we have classroom issues. In addition, we recently started breathing and yoga stretching the classroom. It was of course, a process to build up to these activities.
Yes, we are still a work in progress, but I am damn proud of progress we have made. Together with some amazing parents, teachers, administrators and most of all KIDS we are closing and achievement gap while readying our scholars to be leaders of tomorrow and having some fun while doing it. I’d say we are enriching the whole child.
But I’m just a teacher in a first year turnaround. What do I know?
But I’m just a teacher in a first year turnaround. What do I know?
