Are Faleing Educashion

I'm well aware that the title of this post is grammatically incorrect, as well as flooded with misspellings. However, there's purpose to this madness. This is the first in what I'm assuming will be a perpetual series of issues we face in our schools, and on the home front.

In our school system, we accept misspelled, grammatically inaccurate work on basis of "not to offend anyone." Yes, instead of offending you, we'll limit your potential, we'll tell you mediocracy is the best you can achieve, and we'll perpetuate a cycle of unsuccessfulness. Also, we'll promote you even though you're not ready for the next grade because we want you to stay with your friends who may or may not be equally as unprepared. Then, when it time for you to apply for a job, or apply for college, we will make excuses as to why you didn't get the position. Then, we will tell you "you've been dealt a bad hand," and we'll shrug our shoulders.

Really, we are all capable of achieving, we are all capable, period. We are not all born into a great family unit, we are not given parents who are passionate about literacy, we are not all able to go to ivy league schools, and we are not all given the resources we need to prove our capability. This, is what must change. Kids in lower income schools are frequently looked at as "dumb" because they score less than their higher income peers on government-sanctioned test. However, the quality of education in the two groups is terribly different. Low-income schools are, at times, rat infested, home to cockroaches, poorly insulated, poorly funded, and poorly staffed. More must be done to ensure that children, whose reality is a day in these schools, are given an equal education.
In the school I work at, I've daily been appalled by what I hear...

Yesterday, a girl told me she wasn't at school the previous day because she had to watch her baby brother and nephew...the girl is in second grade.

A teacher told another teacher, "I've been told to just have fun this week...play games." (This teacher was here at the beginning of the year, left her class (for "medical" reasons) at the hands of multiple substitute teachers (one who told the class, "I'm leaving, you have made me not want to be a teacher, and I need to go back to college). Then, the school brought in a godsend who provided quality teaching and structure to the students. After two months of stability, the initial teacher came back to spend her first week "playing games." God, help those kids.

A "literacy coach" spelt the word "lost" l-o-s-e.

When inquiring about why native Spanish speakers aren't instructed in English until third grade (a pivotal year considering they need to take government mandated (nationally ranking) tests, given only in English), I've been told "that's just the way it is."

I've wathced a "higher" in the school walk past a group of wrestling kids only saying, "settle down" while laughing, and then continuing on her way.

When substitutes can't be found, classes are spilt into other teacher's classrooms. This means, someone in an upper elementary grade may be placed in a kindergarten classroom for an entire day. One day in a child's education is huge, every single day is important. Or a student who has no knowledge of Spanish is placed in a Spanish classrorom; not to be immersed in the language, but instead, to be an outsider in an unusal class, but "it's only for a day, so it won't matter." Please, people, these days, these hours, these minutes, these seconds matter.

I've seen teachers stock-pile leftover food from a family night instead of offering it to the students' families...in a school of families who, for the most part, are considered below the poverty level.

I've watched a new student wandering helplessly, outside a school assembly, trying to find his class to eat breakfast, and teacher's walking by in ignorance. Then, when I offered to sit with him in the hall while he ate, other's walked by as if neither of us existed. The principal turned her nose up; no one inquired instead they ignored. Is no one alarmed that this student is teacherless...lost? Finally, I aligned him with his class, his teacher waved her arms violently in the air as if to say, "what did you do with my student, why did you take him away from me?" Well, lady, you forgot him and this little man is worthy of remembering. Why have we lost vision of the students?

I once heard a teacher spilt her class up by "girls who wore hijabs and girls who didn't." Sick.

I've also heard my coworker (a fully-veiled Muslim) be called, "hey you, with that thing on your face." Yes, you mean so little to us that we don't even care to know your name. Disgusting.

I see appalling things daily in this school, it's sickening, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and change-needing. I'm certain I'm not the only one that sees these things, and I'm certain that I'm not in the only school that allows this to happen unnoticed. I believe above all else, this is our nation's greatest tragedy.

In a country where houses sell for millions of dollars, families own multiple cars and take many exotic vacations, and people are wearing underwear that cost more than I'm worth, I have to wonder why aren't we "sharing the wealth." How can we allow the education of our youth, the education of our peers, and the betterment of our society to fall at the cost of luxury. You fear your house will be robbed one day? Sponsor a child, mentor him/her, ensure a positive environment, give your time; by doing this, you'll lessen the chance of your house getting robbed by one. Spread the news, encourage your friends and family to do the same, and you lessen it even more. We are not here to collect things; if we were, we'd be able to take them with us to the afterlife. We are here to invest in each other, we are here to give our time, we are here to learn the stories of those who will guide us, and we are here to build a community of support and a union of peace. Do we see in all our youth what we desire for our community? If not, we must be the change.

My elementary school's motto was "knowledge is power." Knowledge is so much more than power, knowledge is peace, understanding, love, tolerance...