I chuckle each day I drive up to my school and see smoke coming out of the chimney and lights on when I walk in the door. No matter what kind of hell the day before brought or how dysfunctional the school system is, we always do manage to put on the show each day. The bell always rings.
I have another good conservative friend I met at Teach For America (TFA) training back a couple summers ago. A very sharp and humble guy from Texas, he brings an amazing attitude to his work as a teacher in another Northeastern city. We will both be finished with our two year commitment in June, but are trying to decide what the next route is. After seeing the state of our inner city schools, any other job we take will feel very shallow. Knowing the desperate need in these schools, any good person would have a hard time leaving.
During a recent email exchange, I asked how he was doing and told him that things were going well in my classroom, but were maniacal in the overall school and district.
His reply:
Things are going well, but honestly, I am counting down the days. My kids are learning, and aside from the administrative and district deficiencies, I really can’t complain. I think it is a testament to our work that we can truthfully report such stark paradoxes with all seriousness. Adjoining sentences like, “The school year has been quite good” and “Our school is a hell hole and a natural disaster” (as I wrote to him) bring clarity to what each of us is up against everyday. Strides are made, but to a certain extent we are only a band-aid. I look forward to our movement reaching critical mass. Hopefully we can broaden our impact and gain support for innovative and conservative answers to the most embarrassing problem we have in our country.
His last sentence is very powerful. The state of so many inner city schools nationwide is nothing short of embarrassing. To think that we allow this to happen in America!
Michael Steele says he will be taking the conservative message to every community in the country. Let him start in places where communities, adults – parents especially, and leaders are failing children. I am confident that he would be spending a lot of time in areas that vote overwhelmingly for liberal Democrats.
4 responses so far
1 pro patria // Feb 4, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I liked the last sentence in that email reply too, especially the “our country” part. I think one of the real problems is that a lot of suburban Americans consider the inner cities a whole different coutry or even a separate world. How do you make someone feel embarrassed about a place/problem they don’t even consider themselves related to?
2 thomasgibbon // Feb 4, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Thanks for the post, pro patria. And this goes on
every single day in schools in cities across the country.
Schools 15-20 minutes away in the county are among the best in the country. People out there, whether educated or uneducated, black or white, could go their entire lives as Americans and not consider this their problem. I wonder where you think the Republican or conservative message fits in.
Regards.
3 sinz54 // Feb 5, 2009 at 9:50 am
Pro patria: The main reason that suburbanites can ignore the schools of the inner city, is that they don’t pay for them. In this country, public school is paid for by the local school district, through local property taxes. That setup means that folks in one school district focus only on their own property tax bills, and they can ignore what’s happening in other school districts. That’s not how we pay for highways, or airports. We really need to change how we pay for public school education.
4 thomasgibbon // Feb 5, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Sinz, you’re definitely correct here. Is there a place for conservative involvement then when it comes to inner city schools? Of course there is if more of us teach or work as administers there. Do you think it’s a place conservatives should put political stock into, though?
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