The Other Half Continues

When I update my blog, it automatically posts to Google Reader and Google Buzz. So I end up with more comments through Buzz than I do on Blogger. My post about my experience at Romeo Elementary generated an interesting conversation, and I want to post some of it here.


In Response to "The Other Half"

DD: I had this very realization senior year of college. My goal as an educator is to teach giving back. Should I get hired by an affluent school, I feel obliged to show my students how they can share their resources with other, less affluent students. (For example, students may tutor or donate year old school supplies, etc.)

For now, that is the only solution I can figure. Fixing the problem itself remains a daunting thought.

AP: I agree. PS 50, where I volunteered in Jamaica, Queens, is far different from Ellis Elementary, where I volunteered in Manassas, Virginia. The trick, I've found, is not to resent those children who are fortunate enough to go to a school with smart boards and shiny playground equipment -- after all, I believe that every child deserves those things. I agree with you that I have no idea how to solve the disparity in education in this country, but begrudging children fortunate enough to live in high-property-tax areas doesn't solve that (not that I'm accusing you of that, of course. I know that you distinguish between the children themselves and the situation in which they live).

From what I have personally observed and read, it is as much the teacher as it is the microphones and document viewers that make education a success. Perhaps one of your Romeo 4th graders will be able to come up with the answers that we cannot.

On a related note, have you seen the movie "Waiting for Superman?" Honestly, it's horribly depressing, but I definitely recommend it.

Beth: Fixing the problem does remain a very daunting thought. And it's hard to tell when my job is to fix the problem and when my job is to treat the symptoms. I have a tendency to want to fix everything, which I cannot possibly do. Coming to terms with that takes a great deal of humility.

Part of the problem is that I'm not sure this tutoring even treats the symptoms. If these kids have enough and more, should I seek other places to serve? It's hard to find poverty in the 'burg, and I'm not sure I have enough guts to go where I need to in order to find it (because it is here). Then again, just because these kids are at an affluent school does not mean that they have everything they need.


The discussion continues for several more posts, and Julia joins in as well. She pointed out (and rightly so) that children who have everything materially may still lack relationally. Just because these students have the appearance of "having it all" doesn't mean that they have no need for another person to be a positive presence in their lives. Indeed, the affluent can sometimes be the most relationship starved of all. I am making judgments about the lives of these 4th graders without really knowing anything.

As for AP's comments about the teacher mattering as much as the physical resources, also so true. In some ways my kids from last year suffered (and suffer more this year, since we lost some good teachers) in that regard, and in some ways they are blessed. I witnessed last year both how much a good teacher can do with a lack of resources and how little a poor teacher can do with the resources he or she is given. The disparity in the education, commitment, skill, and ability of teachers is yet another tragedy that frustrates me.