Entry # 38:
We need districtwide conversations
about race and culture


The rain finally stopped and I was able to head outside for breakfast with my newspaper and my dog. Sitting outside has always been a big part of my life, although I used to just have my front steps without a tree or blade of grass in sight. Today, sitting on my little patio with shade from a big tree, is almost like a piece of heaven right here in the city!

Aside from simply enjoying my little slice of green, I'm thinking about the latest push to relax Philadelphia's residency requirement for school employees. Just about everyone is clamoring for an end to this "obstacle" in our teacher hiring practices.

Today's Inquirer examines the "Turnover Rates for Middle Schools" and points to a number of factors why new teachers don't stay. Not surprisingly, the residency issue is given as the number one reason cited by new teachers who were leaving our schools.

So how do I feel about the requirement? In the past, I've always supported this rule because I felt folks who lived in the city had a vested interest in the conditions, taxes, elections and general outlook of this area. As a born and bred Philadelphian, who sent her children through the public schools, I thought these experiences informed my thinking and practice as a teacher.

Am I saying you should have to live here to work here? Am I saying you have to be a parent to be an effective teacher? No, I don't think that's the case, but I am saying that each step you take away from these shared experiences with our kids and their families will make your job that much harder.

The gap is wide enough already

I found that most students and their families expected me to live in the suburbs. I didn't announce where I lived or where my kids had gone to school, but it usually came up in the course of conversation as you got to know your students and their families.

It was a connection that I was glad to have. I also enjoyed bumping into my kids when I was out shopping or sometimes at the movies. It made me more real, more approachable.

I'm not saying my life is, or was, exactly the same as my kids' lives. I'm just wondering how wide the gap can become before it's too wide to bridge with the time and resources we are given.

The residency requirement will be dropped, it seems inevitable. We already have a serious teacher shortage, especially in our middle schools. The shortage will grow in the next few years as more and more veteran teachers get ready for retirement.

So how can the gap between the lifestyles of our students and teachers be bridged? How can an increasingly suburban, Caucasian teaching staff connect with a student population that is mostly poor and predominantly made up of children of color?

Middle school certification

Today's paper looked beyond the residency requirement to the lack of specialized training for middle school. The article stated that PA is one of only a handful of states that don't require middle school certification. The author went on to state that "only three of the 19 local teacher-preparation institutions offer middle school programs."

Will requiring middle school certification fill the bill? Some course work that focused on adolescent development would help avoid a lot of the misunderstanding that goes on now. It certainly wouldn't hurt if teacher candidates did their student teaching in middle school, or at least half of it. I know, I was worried about seventh grade. I had trained as a kindergarten teacher and student taught in both kindergarten and grade four.

However, I don't think that any course I've seen or heard about, or any certificate or degree that gets awarded, really addresses the impact of race and class in our schools or our society. Instead , I've seen some movement toward a view of multiculturalism and diversity as something that gets celebrated in festivals and on certain holidays.

While this approach is a step forward from the total lack of recognition that previously dominated our instruction and curriculum, it is a baby step at best.

Teachers must talk about race and culture

In their book Beyond Heroes and Holidays, editors Enid Lee et al, describe their ideas about multicultural education as "resting on their vision of a multicultural society where everyone would recognize and honor differences in race, ethnicity, gender, culture, class, language, sexual orientation, religion, abilities and so on...a truly multicultural society would be a just society...where institutions would do everything in their power to provide all people the sources for meaningful livelihoods, ensure true physical and emotional safety and security, and create an ecologically sustainable environment for the survival of future generations."

Unpacking their mission statement should begin in teacher training, but would need to be part of an ongoing conversation through the new teacher induction program and beyond. Conversations about differences need to take place on all of our faculties and in all of our offices.

Too often we avoid these discussions, maintaining a phony sense of mutual respect. In many schools teachers segregate themselves at lunch, during meetings and in their social lives. We make time for diversity when a problem arises or when it's convenient during the holidays, but it is rarely infused throughout our instruction or in our ongoing community building.

Far too many teachers pride themselves on being "colorlind" when our students require recognition not invisibility. Meanwhile, our data shows that our disciplinary actions seem to be far from colorblind and most any student of color will speak to their experience of the double standards we call equal consequences.

A district conversation

I don't have the answers to these admittedly thorny problems, but I am trying to examine my own thinking and practice. Yesterday, I began reading Black Masculinities and Schooling: How Black Boys Survive Modern Schooling by Tony Sewell. I am anxious to think about and discuss this ethnographic study with my colleagues, but we'll have to do it on our own time.

Will more teachers apply and work in our schools if they don't have to live here? We will definitely get more applicants and new hires. Will they stay in our schools? More importantly will all of us who teach "other peoples children" do so effectively, if we don't examine who we are, and who they are, as part of the foundation of our work together?

Our District doesn't prioritize this type of conversation. We'll be too busy organizing further student testing and developing summer remedial programs to talk about the reasons why so many kids aren't making it. We certainly won't have time to look beyond certification or residency requirements at the deeper issues of who we are as opposed to those whom we desire to teach...at least not on school time.

Note: The only District-supported conversation I have ever had about these topics took place in a study group I participated in this year as part of the Teaching and Learning Network where I have worked since last summer. On Friday the Network had its last official meeting. We have all received certified letters that our positions have been eliminated and that our network has been dissolved. These steps have been taken to cut costs in our District. By cutting these costs I am afraid we have cut much too far into the lifeblood of our admittedly troubled system.

[Editor's note: Deb is co-moderator of the MiddleWeb listserve.]


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