Entry #26 - March 15, 1999
"Every time you pass that class, the teacher is regaling them
with another funny story about infant hijinks. At first, they laughed and
loved it. Now they see that other classes are doing other things, and learning
stuff they will need to know -- and they aren't happy."
With our support workers still out on strike, conditions in our school are
slowly deteriorating.
Since the kids have been pretty cooperative, on the whole, about keeping
the place orderly and taking their garbage home with them, it was a while
before the lack of routine maintenance started to show. This week, though
we really noticed it. The floors don't sparkle any more. The bathrooms are
malodorous. Carpeted areas have an unkempt look, and litter peppers the
stairwells. Basic supplies are either used up or unavailable -- one day
the administrators were bandaging an injured student with Kleenex and masking
tape!
We keenly miss our colleagues. Our caretaking staff are fantastic -- not
only efficient at making the place gleam, but jocular and pleasant with
even our most obstreperous students. Individually, we've brought donuts
and snacks and coffee for the picketers; we also took up a staff collection
and went out and bought them all some substantial Virginia hams. Many of
these folks don't make much money, and they have families to feed. We couldn't
lend much moral support this week, though, because their strategy changed
to mass picketing of high schools, where they succeeded in closing several;
meanwhile, parents successfully blockaded several elementary schools by
linking arms and requesting staff not to enter. We're hoping for a settlement
soon; the negotiator has imposed a media blackout.
Our school psychologist, true to her word, was prompt in contacting the
parent of my student who has seemed depressed and talked of suicide. We
had a conference about him early one morning before his mother went to work.
The discussion seemed to go well-- our psychologist is a personable woman
with teen-aged children of her own, and she is both forthright and relaxed
talking to parents about their children's difficulties. She emphasized that
we were not dealing with a crisis situation, but that we have definite concerns
. . . especially since the boy has mentioned his plans to several staff
members.
I could empathize with the mother, who clearly had conflicting reactions.
One was relief that her son was not "in trouble," but also denial
that the boy is as unhappy as he clearly sometimes is; guilt, because she
is out working and rarely sees her son except on weekends; and helplessness,
because she doesn't know what to do to improve the situation.
She shared information about his earlier years, when health problems were
a big issue, and talked about his after school interests and activities,
which seemed pretty limited. We suggested Big Brothers or perhaps some formal
involvement in the community recreation center? She promised to think about
it. We stressed all the many positive things about her son, but I left with
an uneasy feeling that maybe no one is really hearing his plea for help.
Maybe I'm just being melodramatic. I hope that's all it is.
Meanwhile, another group has forced me to confront an awkward issue: a colleague
who seems to be, shall we say, not delivering the goods? Ours is a very
hard-working staff, and usually if things don't get done it's due to insuperable
obstacles, not to teacher negligence. But...... one group of eight students
I see several times a week is a fairly high-functioning bunch of kids (what
some districts call "learning support" students). They are achieving
for the most part in the low average range for their class, but are significantly
below grade level in language areas. Their IEP goals call for directed practice
in reading and writing skills, which is what we've been doing together.
But I've faced increasing opposition from them, and this week one student
led an outright mutiny. They came in just as another group was leaving:
the others (from a different homeroom) had been working on a history mural.
The newcomers demanded, "How come WE don't get to do any history!"
I said, "You do that in your homeroom. We're supposed to be working
on your reading and writing."
The most articulate in the group, a diminutive girl, stamped her foot and
said, "We don't EVER do any real history or geography! We don't read
the text or do any of the units! Our teacher only talks about his dog and
the baby...." Ulp. What to say? I knew that what she described is largely
true.
Every time you pass that class, the teacher is regaling them with another
funny story about infant hijinks. At first, they laughed and loved it. Now
they see that other classes are doing other things, and learning stuff they
will need to know -- and they aren't happy. There are always assignments
on the board, but it doesn't seem their teacher actually goes over much
of the work with the class. What passes for "writer's workshop"
is the class being told to hush up and write in their journals. Not much
conferencing, no mini-lessons -- no real learning, either. No wonder they
rebel when I want them to "write" some more!
Unfortunately, I can't touch this one with a barge pole. However, a couple
of times, their teacher has asked me to review some math material with them
before a test -- and I noted their math skills were very weak. Maybe there's
an opening here? "Well, I don't know," I said. "Maybe we
could do some math together instead of reading and writing. But I'll have
to talk to your teacher and the principal." Also, their IEP goals are
exclusively in the language areas -- that could be a problem. And how to
bring up the suggested change? They all agreed they needed work in math
-- I'll bet some hands-on stuff would be fun. I could make a case for it,
but I'll have to tiptoe around the real reasons.
Hopefully, this veteran will decide this is the year to retire. Thankfully,
not ALL "old codgers" go out on a downward slide. We have several
veteran teachers who are still gung-ho and brimming with energy and ideas
-- an inspiration to the rest of us, and the kind of "old fogey"
I plan to be!
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