Entry # 35:
Uncivil War

St. Louis City and St. Louis County love each other just about as much as the South and North just after the Civil War. The city proper battles many of the same problems as other large, urban areas --failing schools, the mass exodus of the middle class, and a downtown that resembles a ghost town once the sun goes down.

City officials commission study after study to investigate the problems. They create revitalization plans and send delegations to cities that have been successful in their urban renewal projects. Splashy programs are proposed time and again while the real work -- the real drudgery in the details -- is largely pushed to the side because it is not newsworthy.

The county, on the other hand, spends its time finger-pointing and endlessly highlighting all the reasons why people avoid the city. Few productive solutions are offered. Instead, we are bombarded by fire-and-brimstone criticisms from the safety of the suburbs, far away from the realities of living or working in the city.

County residents balk at the idea of teaming with the city on any plan that involves their tax dollars, seemingly forgetting the benefits they enjoy regularly at city expense, namely a world-class zoo that charges no admission, Forest Park's jogging and bike trails, the Art Museum (also admission-free), and a myriad of other opportunities. Within the city limits are the St. Louis Symphony, several theatre companies and venues, the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Rams. We have a world-renowned botanical garden in the neighborhood I live in, and there are endless other activities and institutions that county residents take advantage of but take care to forget when the time comes for them to get involved with their time and dollars.

In any case, city and county residents are involved in an ongoing argument about whose fault it is St. Louis has deteriorated and what, if anything should be done about it.

Boiling blood

Although I have strong feelings about this issue, I have resigned myself to the fact that I cannot make anyone do or believe anything unless they willingly choose to do so. My husband and I are trying to effect change in our little sphere of influence, and I have learned to keep my blood from boiling as I read the editorial section of our newspaper each day. As my husband rightly pointed out one morning when I was waving my fists in the air about the ignorance of one writer, getting upset will not change anything; getting involved will.

I have followed my husband's wise advice pretty successfully, at least until this week.

Last week at the hiring fair we made an offer to a gentleman to join our staff. His credentials were outstanding; not only had his students won numerous awards for their performances, but he had been teacher of the year in his building, district, and state more than once. He seemed to be someone who held high expectations for students and believed they would succeed if pushed to their limits, and he had a passion for his profession. All last week we anticipated the great things in store for our students in the next school year.

He made arrangements to visit our school to see our facilities and speak with the principal about what resources he would have. He arrived just as the kids were boarding the buses for home, and I happened to meet him on the sidewalk. I offered to escort him to the main office, and he gladly accepted.

He told me he had read up on the city schools and understood we were facing some serious challenges with student achievement. He went on to tell me about the comments of some members of a prominent city-based choir he participates in that includes county members. Essentially, the members of the choir told him he was wasting his time teaching in the city schools, that he would be attacked or his property would be vandalized, and he was wasting his considerable talents. "Come out to the county," they told him. "We'll find you a good school."

I managed to keep my cool, but I told him that never, in my full five years at Turner, had I ever been threatened or felt unsafe. At that point I left him in the care of my principal.

Suburban hypocrites

Even now as I write about this, I feel a keen sense of anger at the dolts who made those comments. These are the people who are only too eager to call city teachers unqualified, lazy, and inadequate, yet in the very next breath they appear to be saying my kids do not deserve a highly qualified, energetic, exceptional teacher. I do not see how the two viewpoints can exist in the same body, and I imagine if I pointed out their gross hypocrisy they would shrug it off as the rantings of a city dweller.

Their comments seem to suggest that my students do not deserve a good teacher. Is it because they are poor? Black? In their statements every prejudice is revealed; they believe my kids not only are thugs and criminals, but they also believe they cannot learn.

I wish I could say this was only an isolated incident. Back when I accepted my position at Turner Middle and left the county high school where I was a permanent sub, teachers and administrators told me stories about friends of friends who tried to teach in the city, only to be mugged and attacked.

My own grandmother clucked her tongue and swore it was unsafe. However, the high school I was working at was not offering me a teaching position, and my grandmother had not set up a trust fund for me, so I accepted the job with the idea that kids were kids, and I would learn to deal with whatever problems I faced. And I have.

I am seeing now that many people in the county (and the city) rail about the quality of city teachers because it is socially acceptable to do so while it is decidedly politically incorrect to proclaim that poor black and immigrant children cannot learn. St. Louis is a racially divided city where everyone talks the talk of equality but few actually walk the walk.

My message to those people who spend their time criticizing the city, its schools, and its teachers from the comfort of their suburban dwellings is this: If you are not part of the solution, you are definitely part of the problem. Do not complain if you are not willing to work for a solution.


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