An Article Submitted to "Drop Out" (written in 1998)
Pam has invited me to write a column for this zine. I want to thank her for this opportunity.
I am a public school teacher. I
work at an alternative school. It’s
a day-treatment center that takes kids that have been adjudicated.
In other words, all of the students that attend my school have been
ordered there by the courts. They
all come from one of the three juvenile detention facilities in Wisconsin. (They call them juvenile detention facilities, but in
actuality they are jails; in every sense of the word.)
They are all labeled as delinquents and many are also CHIPS (Child In
Need Of Protective Services). The
ages range from 12-18. Our roster
includes gangbangers, shooters, armed robbers, rapists, the list seems endless.
These kids are not strangers to the court system.
Most of them have been dealing with very serious issues for most of their
short lives. There are 45 students
presently enrolled at my school. There
are four teachers. I teach Math and
Science.
My Students
I guess the best way to give you an idea of the lives my students lead is
to give you an example of one of our students.
She was sent to a detention center for the armed robbery and assault of
an 80 year old woman at a bus stop. Her
home life, like virtually all of these kids, is horrendous.
Her mother is an addict, whose past five boyfriends have been drug
dealers. The student’s house is
constantly filled with drug users, so none of the student’s possessions are
safe, and she has been sexually assaulted on numerous occasions.
She has a child. The father
of the child is abusive and once tried to bite off her ear.
He almost succeeded. She
tries to hide the scars. But she
says she loves him and wants to marry him.
He cheats on her regularly. She
saw her eldest brother shot down in a drive-by shooting 5 years ago. The police
estimated the brother was struck by over 150 bullets. She was with him when it
happened. Her younger brother was
also struck by a stray bullet while playing in the street last year. He’s confined to a wheelchair now. Last week there was a shooting in the hallway of her
apartment building. The police came
and proceeded to beat the shooter into a bloodied pulp.
I was told there were blood trails on the walls and floor of the hall,
and all the way out the walkway. Once
again, the student witnessed this. I
can only guess what else she has witnessed in her life.
But she tries to hide the scars.
Hiding the scars is something my students have raised to the level of an
art form. It’s manifested by what
we might call antisocial behavior. But
it’s the behavior of the society in which they live.
So perhaps antisocial is an incorrect term. Most of the students have been labeled as Learning Disabled
and Emotionally Disabled. Some can
not read, others can not make change at a store.
Some of the younger students were once crack babies.
These students have severe emotional problems and usually severe
attention deficit disorder. They’re
also generally medicated within an inch of their lives.
Our school office looks like a pharmacy.
Ridalin, Lithium, depressants, anti-depressants, they’re all there. Some take so many different medications for the side effects
of the original medications, even the students really have no idea what these
medications are for, or whether they are working for them.
I love my job. I love my
students. They drive me crazy and
constantly inspire me. Often they
manage to do this at the same time. There’s
no end to the stories I receive at school, and often I think I’m the one
who’s really getting an education. I’d
like to say that they students are a source of constant enlightenment and
wonder, but I can’t. Often they
drive me to near insanity. I have
my good days and my bad days. I
guess it’s like almost any other job in that respect.
Today was a bad day. The
students (in general) were restless and agitated.
These students have so many issues at home, that school is often the only
environment where they can act out their anger and frustration.
Unfortunately for me, as a teacher and therefore default authority
figure, I am often at the receiving end of some pretty hostile attitudes.
It sometimes takes a thick skin to teach them.
They regularly alternate between rage and compassion.
Often the turnaround is so quick that it startles me.
One hour a student will be swearing at me, calling me every name
imaginable; the next hour they are
claiming I’m the only person in the school who’s “cool” or cares about
them. This isn’t an isolated
incident. It happens all the time.
But, as I said, they constantly surprise me.
Many are unable to read or write, yet they have an amazing grasp of the
world that surrounds them. They
express ideas and thoughts that are insightful and advocate complex theories
about their lives and situations as well as events in the world.
For example, I have a student that is a textbook existentialist, and
another who could be a spokesman for the Libertarian Party.
They have come to these views on their own, and have very likely never
heard of the word existential or know of the Libertarian Party.
They may not be able to eloquently articulate their views, but they have
a complete and cohesive theory of their viewpoints.
The students are generally the high point of teaching. The low points tend to be dealing with administrators and
politicians. Here is a story.
A story of politics and the
schools
My school is under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court system.
There are three alternative schools in Milwaukee.
Each year, the system assesses and ranks each school according to a
number of variables. We have put
together a very successful program at our school, and this year we were ranked
number one, even though we receive the least funding of all the schools.
Traditionally, the results of the assessments are used to restructure
funding to the schools. Those
schools that perform the best are rewarded with additional funding and hopefully
emulated by the other schools. Unfortunately
for us, the school that ranked last this year has a woman in charge that is very
politically connected. She
threatened all out war with the oversight board if her funding was cut or her
program was redesigned in any way. Rather
than open themselves up to a political battle, the board decided to cut funding
for all schools equally.
Now, this isn’t such a big deal. We’ve
done fine with the funding we’ve had, and it never really made much sense to
me to cut funding to schools that aren’t performing up to standard.
If anything, more money should be spent at these schools to educate
teachers and modify existing programs to try and better serve the students.
The goal of our programs is to advocate for the student, and try to give
them the best care and education possible.
But the interests of the students are very rarely at the heart of these
political decisions.
This was proven to be the case when we learned that a corporation based
in Texas was attempting to start a new alternative school here in Milwaukee.
In order to secure the funding for their new school, the corporation flew
four of the board members and their families to Las Vegas to show them a school
there. They were put up in fancy
hotels and given the royal treatment. When
the proposal to fund this new school was put before the board, the director of
our school leaned over to me and asked if I could guess who had been taken to
Las Vegas. It was clear from the
looks on the faces of the board members who had gone and who had not. I was able to pick out every single member who had been
taken. The hearing was held to hear
the community’s feelings and concerns regarding the funding, and those who
were taken to Las Vegas sat behind the panel staring fixedly at their water
glasses while community leaders voiced their opposition to this new corporate
school. It was clear the decision
had already been made. And it had
nothing to do with the welfare of the students.
Political lives were in the balance, money was talking, and votes can
still be bought.
In the end, funding for the existing schools was cut across the board,
while this new school was allotted half a million dollars to fund its new
venture. This is twice as much as
any of our schools receive. The
welfare of the students is clearly not at issue to these politicians.
This is just one example of some of the barriers you might face if you
choose to pursue teaching. I
would encourage any one who has thought about going into teaching to pursue it.
It’s a constant battle, but with all of these impediments, it can still
be one of the most rewarding experiences you will ever have.
So I’d encourage you to get in touch with me if you’re interested in
teaching. And punk teachers, get in
touch! I’d love to hear from you.
Society and, by extension,
the system has repeatedly shown it would rather sweep my students under the rug
by jailing them, rather than give them the treatment and education they truly
need. Perhaps we can’t change the
world or smash the system through our work, but maybe we can reach a few kids
and change their world for the better. And
I can’t think of anything else I’d rather dedicate my time and effort to.
Speaking of Drop Out...
The title of this zine is Drop Out.
The focus of this zine seems to be an advocacy of dropping out of school
and pursuing your educational goals on your own terms. This is only my interpretation, and I in no way speak for Pam
when making this assumption. So it
may be strange that a teacher would provide a column for this zine.
It might also seem strange that, to a large degree I would agree with the
theme of this zine, given a certain set of criteria are met.
Let me explain.
I believe in education. I
believe individuals should be exposed to opportunities to expand their
experiences and their horizons. I
believe people should be given the tools to be capable of making their own
decisions based on what they believe to be their own self-interest.
I believe people should be given the opportunity to create their own
future.
All of these beliefs are based on the creation of opportunities for the
individual to learn. Schools
provide these opportunities within an institutional framework. I have many problems with the way in which the schools of
this country are set up, but I do believe they provide an opportunity for
students to learn all sorts of academic and social skills. Now, here’s the tricky part.
There are ways other than institutional schooling to master these same
skills. Many of these ways are, in
my mind, superior to schools. So, I
believe, if an individual has access, opportunity, and interest to pursue these
other options, they probably should do so.
This may mean dropping out of school to learn on their own, or learning
from experiences, travel and personal study.
The key to this path are the words access, opportunity, and interest.
For those individuals who do not have these pre-requisites to learning, I
believe school is the best path for them to achieve the optimal educational
outcomes. My students come very low socio-economic backgrounds.
They have very little in the way of access to books, or opportunities and
time to study. If you’re too busy
dodging bullets in your neighborhood, oftentimes school provides the only
structured and, hopefully safe, environment for you to learn.
I don’t assign homework to my students.
They have bigger problems to deal with on the streets than doing their
math work. It’s silly to ask a
student why he didn’t do his homework if he didn’t go home last night
because his father was drunk and threatened to beat him up. Survival is not a certainty for many of my students.
We get them for a very short period of their day.
In that time, we try to counsel them and hopefully pass on some knowledge
in a caring and safe environment. I
think that’s positive.
Interest is another crucial component.
If you don’t want to learn, you aren’t going to take the initiative
to read and educate yourself. Unfortunately,
my students come from environments in which education and knowledge are not held
in particularly high esteem. I
believe that, education is the only positive way out of the harmful environments
most of these children live in. Whatever
you may think of this society, it remains a fact that it is easier to survive
and care for yourself if you are able to read and write. I have a student who is 13 years old. He can’t read or write.
He doesn’t recognize letters, and can’t identify his name printed on
a page. He lives in this society.
What kind of future does he have if he continues to slip through the
cracks in the system? And so I believe he is best served by coming to school every
day. He hates it.
The work is hard for him and, I admit, I’m demanding of him.
But I believe it is his only hope to improve his chances for a good life. Because the chances don’t look good for him at the moment.
And he knows it.
What does all this mean? Not
much I guess. It’s just my
opinion. If you’re an individual
who has access to information and the tools to continue to learn. And if you have an interest in doing this and feel confined
in an institutional academic setting, go ahead drop out, I wish you the best.
But please understand that not all individuals in this society are in the
same position of relative privilege as yourself.
Think of this before making judgment on the schools.