I substitute teach to occupy my time and for travel money.
Today I was at the Intervention School. This is always my preference for working in a school. The staff is small and the classes are small in size. However today as most days that I’m there I looked around and wondered how some of these students managed to get placed there. They seemed so normal and so out of place until you looked into their eyes and could see the rage. They are angry at themselves. They are angry at society. They are angry at their parent and or guardian. They are angry for being left out. They are angry for being forgotten by society.
Students from grades 6th through 12th are placed at this school for various reasons including excessive absences, fighting, class disturbances, disrespect, misdemeanour and even felony offences away from school. The one commonality they have is that they are not being raised by a biological parent. The majority are being raised by a grandparent or an aunt and in some cases an older sibling. Many are from foster homes.
I realize when I’m there that all they are doing day after day is trying to survive. Same problems but different days; where am I going after school? Will anyone be at home tonight? Does anyone care where I am? Most of these students certainly don’t care about learning! However this did not happen overnight. Their teachers nor anyone else cared about teaching them when when they were in Elementary School.
After all they probably came to school demanding attention and getting it by disturbing class: they certainly didn’t get it by having the cutest pony tails. They weren’t taught to read on a parents lap and show off their skills in class. So what could they do! They had no choice so they started getting “referrals” in 1st Grade! Yes the majority of the students at the Intervention School started their career as bad students in 1st Grade! Imagine that! Horrific.
For starters lets take teaching off the Internet and put it back in the books! Yes, I mean real books that children can learn to develop a love of reading with. It not only creates a basic skill, reading, but it also gives them an avenue for imagination and way to see beyond their current life! Some say that the Internet is needed for teaching in today’s classrooms! It is a valuable tool but is ONLY a tool! Not all students have wifi at home.
It is not our right to judge the poor choices their parents have made. It is not our right to judge what kind of car their parents drive. It is not our right to judge what kind of cell phones they have.
However it is our responsibility to ensure that all students are afforded the same passion for learning and given every opportunity there is to learn at the highest level.
What has happened that we no longer think that a hungry child is our problem! What has happened that we no longer mow the neighbors yard that can’t do it themselves? What has happened that we shun those that don’t fit into our circle? They don’t smell right.. They don’t look right.. We are not doing this right.
The children we don’t teach to read are the children we read about in the papers 5-10-15 years later as felons or they become parents without jobs to only have children that they too,will pass along to someone else to raise. This is a viscous circle that isn’t going to change until WE change.
Two Wrongs Never Make a Right.