Entry #10 - Nov. 9, 1998
"Reviewing the report card comments this week, I reflected
that some of my students really are progressing well: developing good work
habits, pride in their efforts, and new skills. Bearing in mind that these
are all struggling readers and writers, small steps forward are cause for
celebration!"
Now I can empathize with those on Death Row. The week has been a roller
coaster, beginning with a community meeting Tuesday night which brought
out throngs of people concerned over our threatened school closing. Most
were parents (staff were doing report cards, alas -- some will spend as
many as 120 hours doing this -- in their "spare" time), but the
business community was well-represented, and there were others, too.
An older woman, sitting next to me, said sadly, "I will be really sorry
to see this school close. I graduated from here before the new building
-- back in 1952 -- what will this do to our community?" Cynics like
me suspect it was no coincidence that so many of the schools earmarked to
close were in working-class neighborhoods, where community protest was expected
to be muted. Well, guess again!
People were present, angry, and readying for militant action -- including
barricading the school, sit-ins, or occupying it by force. Their theme was:
"WE own this school! HOW DARE they take it away from us! Where will
our children go? The neighboring schools are full to the bursting point
now!" Some good strategies and action plans came out of the meeting,
and I think the government may rue the day it wakened the slumbering giant.
All over the city (and the rural areas too), there have been protests and
rallies. One parent, quoted in the paper, said : "They've picked the
wrong target. We're not the big bad unions or fat cat bureaucrats -- we're
moms and dads fighting for our kids!" I'll bet there are a lot of politicians
swigging Alka-Seltzer this week.
At the last moment, the government blinked and said they would delay the
closures for one year. A stay of execution! It doesn't solve our problem,
but it does buy time. I'm hoping we can incorporate some meaningful change
strategies into an overall plan to keep the school open, now that we'll
have extra time to work on it. I have some ideas to present to the new parent
council for consideration; the administrators are too busy fighting fires
to look at school improvement initiatives, so it will have to come from
parents and teachers.
I think the real insight is, there are no easy answers or quick fixes --
just teachers, kids and communities constantly struggling to improve their
lot.
Reviewing the report card comments this week, I reflected that some of my
students really are progressing well: developing good work habits, pride
in their efforts, and new skills. Bearing in mind that these are all struggling
readers and writers, small steps forward are cause for celebration! With
review of word-attack strategies and a lot of guided reading in class, most
are becoming independent readers, and I think we can even contemplate a
novel study unit (no big deal in many classes, I know, but for "non-readers",
it is!). I'll have to organize it so all work is done in class, though.
Most of the students do NOT do homework reliably, and in fact some have
no place or time at home to do it at all. We need a Homework Club, which
the Student Council is supposed to be organizing, but is not apparently
a "go" yet.
I had a deeply disturbing experience this week:. for the first time in my
years of teaching, I reported a situation to the child welfare authorities.
Once you do this, a whole chain of events follows automatically -- police
and agency involvement, for instance -- and if one's suspicions are groundless,
it is terrible to put a family through all that. But, I reminded myself,
if this child really IS being neglected, and/or abused -- and I have good
reason to think so -- it would be MORE terrible not to act.
There was a recent news item here about a child murdered by family members,
where despite clear-cut signs of trouble no one took the initiative to report
it. I gritted my teeth and shared my concern with the administration, who
got onto it right away. The Children's Aid will be calling me on Monday.
The child is not even one of my students, but she is a sweet little waif,
one of my "drop-in" regulars, who has had me worried for awhile.
I had noticed the last few days she seemed severely withdrawn and depressed
-- unlike her -- and I stopped her in the hall when I was on duty and asked
her if she was feeling OK? She burst into hysterical sobbing, and I gathered
what I knew already, that all was not well at home. Whatever the situation,
this is clearly a family in crisis, and I hope they will get some help as
a result of intervention. I feel uncomfortable, but I know it was the right
thing to do.
I'll be glad when I have these reports and IEP's finished this week, so
I can organize that novel study and some extended writing activities for
my emergent writers; maybe some research presentations using PowerPoint?
I have a co-op student from a secondary school coming in several times a
week, and she has many talents and skills I'm eager to tap into for our
benefit. She promised to start by showing us how to use the scanner I just
got a great deal on!
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