Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 14, 2007 - 16:24.
I have been an inner city teacher, administrator and assistant to the superintendent. This is my 25th year. Reality is, many of us know what it takes to reach a kid. It is not in the curriculum, it is not in the rule book. As long as morons who monitor our every move and measure our student progress with nary a concern for the actual child we are attempting to reach and teach,run the show, we will be Prometheus Bound. We are stopped by NCLB and money concerns and dictates by those who are impossible to inform; like rookie principals (who come to the inner city and are considered acceptable for training based on an internet interview), ambitious administrators ( who believe #'s make them shine), greedy, vain glorious superintendents (who visit schools to impart their wisdom), you know the breed; Margaret Spellngs and company.
The adolescent's view that 'they' don't care and are just keeping 'us' down, is a hard argument to win, because those of us who have committed a life to trying to balance these odds, know the kids are right. I don't know the answer, I just keep plugging away, trying to show kids their strengths and their magic. It never ends. Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg just gave report cards to schools. What the **** do they know. They have advance men and body guards when they enter our schools.
There are a million hearts and minds like mine in the inner city, and we are successful when we circumvent the psycho system and partner with kids.
We do it every day, never though, has the bull**** been so prevelant and our work been so compromised.
The Wire
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 14, 2007 - 16:24.
I have been an inner city teacher, administrator and assistant to the superintendent. This is my 25th year. Reality is, many of us know what it takes to reach a kid. It is not in the curriculum, it is not in the rule book. As long as morons who monitor our every move and measure our student progress with nary a concern for the actual child we are attempting to reach and teach,run the show, we will be Prometheus Bound. We are stopped by NCLB and money concerns and dictates by those who are impossible to inform; like rookie principals (who come to the inner city and are considered acceptable for training based on an internet interview), ambitious administrators ( who believe #'s make them shine), greedy, vain glorious superintendents (who visit schools to impart their wisdom), you know the breed; Margaret Spellngs and company.
The adolescent's view that 'they' don't care and are just keeping 'us' down, is a hard argument to win, because those of us who have committed a life to trying to balance these odds, know the kids are right. I don't know the answer, I just keep plugging away, trying to show kids their strengths and their magic. It never ends. Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg just gave report cards to schools. What the **** do they know. They have advance men and body guards when they enter our schools.
There are a million hearts and minds like mine in the inner city, and we are successful when we circumvent the psycho system and partner with kids.
We do it every day, never though, has the bull**** been so prevelant and our work been so compromised.