Entry # 9: The question hasn't changed:
Will we choose chaos or community?

I have been on a mission, reading books and articles in search of text for our discussions of diversity and democracy at the National School Reform Faculty's Winter Meeting in December. The material needs to be a springboard for discussion and, by extension, changes in our practice.

As I've been reading, I have been struck anew by the notion that our children are not so much failing to learn or meet our standards, as refusing to give up large pieces of themselves and their cultures.

Today in "Bone Black, Memories of a Girlhood" by bell hooks, I read and reread her grandmother's sentiments about school. Ms Hook's grandmother says "we go to school to learn the white man's ways, to learn to deny parts of ourselves."

I remember learning about my own heritage, just a few years ago, and my initial surprise at the strong anti-academic attitudes among most Italian immigrants. I had to admit that nobody in my extended family was pushed to finish high school, let alone go to college. Making a decent living was the goal, supporting the family came first.

As I read and thought about it, the antagonism made sense to me. The schools were trying to separate the children from their families and their cultural norms, to"Americanize" them. Sometimes the separation was a subtle, even unconscious attempt by the teachers to help their charges advance in society. At other times, there was blatant disdain for the children and their families. Often these two attitudes merged.

In order to achieve success, children needed to absorb and emulate the values and attitudes of their teachers, and their teachers were not poor immigrants.

In this process of trying to be like one's teachers, what's the price emotionally? Is it possible to really become part of another group? How does it feel? What does it look like, sound like...? Is it worth it?

Is the price higher still for children whose parents are people of color? What about kids from households where English isn't spoken?

Selling something our kids aren't buying

In Sonia Nieto's book, "The Light in Their Eyes...Building Multicultural Learning Communities", she writes about Mexican children who refuse to speak Spanish because they have learned early on that their native tongue is seen as low class.

Similar questions can be asked in relationship to gender and or learning style. Although most teachers may be female, do they acknowlege or support "female ways of knowing"? Are girls, many of whom have different learning styles, getting to practice and blossom within those preferred modes of learning and producing?

Ms. Nieto also discusses the wear and tear on students as they are forced to choose between their peers, who reject homework and conformity to our demands, and school success. We tell them that choosing us will bring them success in the future, but will it make them happy? Will it even bring them financial success?

We can't even promise our kids that they'll find a decent job. In this so-called "booming prosperity" we're experiencing, most of our kids can find jobs in the "service" sector, a euphemism for jobs as clerks, security guards, waitresses and the like.

I'm not looking down on any of these jobs. In fact I've held them all, except for the security one, but nobody grows up dreaming of working in these positions. Nobody fools themselves into thinking that they'll get anywhere doing this kind of work, and no one believes they need algebra or life science to work at McDonalds!

Here we sit, trying to sell something our kids aren't buying. The American dream has become the American Myth and lots of students are too savvy to go for it. Lots of our students are just trying to survive.

Will we choose chaos or community?

So what's next for teachers? Yesterday I participated in a discussion about African American males in our schools. We examined data which showed that our test scores are dropping precipitously in grade 11, for all groups, but most dramatically for young, Black men.

Their scores are low, their rate of death or chance of being seriously injured before age 21 is high. What do we have to offer by way of support? "Just say no" and similar platitudes about fighting and guns are not filling the void for them.

Trying to separate them from their families and friends, their true sources of love and support, cannot be the answer. There are some things we don't fully understand, if we have not lived them.

I am heartsick with worry about these issues. This work is frustrating and the stakes are all too high. I watch my son, as a new teacher, and I hear his painful confusion as he tries to address these same questions.

Dr. King asked, "will we choose chaos or community?". The question is still the same and the answer or at least the road to the answer looms ahead. We cannot do this thing called teaching without building strong ties with our colleagues and our childrens' families. We cannot build those ties without owning the mistakes of our past.

A new community must be built and the membership must include all stakeholders. We cannot assume the "If 'we' build it, they will come" approach. The community must be built by all who live there, not just those at the top.

It will not be easy, fast or fun, but there is no alternative. We are losing our children. We are losing our future.

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


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