By: Todd Long
Submitted: 2010-10-19 08:29:32 | Word Count: 472
March 17 th Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took the Obama Administrations "Blueprint for Reform" to Capitol Hill. It is the newest re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, now known as "No Child Left Behind." The plan has already been attacked by some professional teacher's organizations, who believe that the Blueprint still puts the onus of success or failure on teachers.
I don't know if it was just a weird alignment of the stars, but I was watching the movie Precious as I was reading the Blueprint. It put the real challenge that lays before us in stark relief. Those lowest performing schools that the bill talks about are like the one that Precious attended in Harlem, where a teacher seemed to have little success in even getting his student's attention. I know that kind of school. I taught in one in Philadelphia, actually with some success. Ironically, I knew what the teacher was doing wrong and what I would have done, as well.
In the movie, it was also the educators who made a significant difference in her life. It started with a principal who had some faith that there was more to Precious than appeared on the surface, and she risked the wrath of Precious' mama to give Precious the name of an alternative school. At the alternative school, she met a teacher who had faith in her, and challenged her in ways that helped her bloom.
Still, I get frustrated when I read something like the second priority of the Blueprint: "Great Teachers and Leaders in Every School, " and the focus is always on recruitment. How about retention? How about all the talented people I have met out in private schools like mine who were treated like "Dreck" by their principals in Philadelphia, and not given the support they need? I get a little tired of hearing all the violins every time some rich kid from an Ivy puts a little time in an inner city school through Teach for America, while there are kids out there who went to the state schools with a dream of changing lives and get stabbed, kicked down the stairs, or choose to substitute in the safer 'burbs, for a couple years till they decide they're not pretty enough and get a job in real estate. They'll still be wondering where they went wrong when the Teach for America kids go off to Yale Law School with a wonderful "How I Made a Difference in the Inner City" essay in their application.
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So buck up, teach!! You are the one who makes the difference for kids like Precious! When another egghead shows up to tell you what you're doing wrong, stick to your guns. I hope you, like me, are in for the long haul.
