Alien Children
One of my pet complaints has always been about the number of teachers I run into who choose to leave NYC because they do not want their children attending public school. I am not talking about those who leave because they can't afford to live in the city. I understand those people. I am talking about the teachers who feel that there is something inherently wrong with the NYC school system. Something that precludes them from sending their kids to a public school in NYC. I would include the people who send their kids to parochial schools or Hebrew schools or private schools to avoid city schools and not for deeply held beliefs. The only one of these three that is probably better educationally is the high end private schools. The rest are usually understaffed and the teachers are usually under paid.
The reason these people bother me so much, is that they often reject the hope that New York could ever create a good school or provide a good education for their kids. If they reject this than whatever they do in a school doesn't really matter. It becomes a job that only matters in how it affects their personal happiness, not in how it affects the students they are supposed to serve. They tend to see anyone who cares about public education as slightly crazy.
I've run into cops that feel that anyone living in the city must be crazy and probably criminal. The views of the alien teachers is that any child who goes to school in NYC is either crazy, a criminal or someone to be pitied for not having the economic clout to get out. What NYC students never are is similar to their children.
Of course the opposite is not necessarily true. Teachers who live in the city and have their kids in public schools are not necessarily good teachers. This is not the sole criteria for being a good teacher. I do think however that anyone doing hiring in the city should ask the person they are interviewing about how they view city schools in general. We have lots of problems in the DoE but we need people who believe in public education to work on solving these problems.
The picture above is of Death Valley in February. Death Valley gets almost no rain and is often above 110 degrees in the summer. In winter it may rain once and all these yellow flowers bloom. Amazing.
3 comments:
I don't know. I was sitting in my sixth period class today and two girls were describing the fights that used to take place at their grammar school. Completely disturbing....really. I have been a teacher for a while now and have always intended to send my kids to public school. I guess I still do, but I also realize that they are not going to go to the same school that these girls were describing. The number one reason, as an educated parent I will know how to navigate the system. This is not an advantage I imagine these girls had. Yesterday a relative went to a charity auction at his step-daughter's school. They seem to have these often and they raise a large sum of discretionary funds for the school. This probably also serves to provide things that the girls in my sixth period weren't provided with. It's silly to think that just because a NYC educator chooses to send their kids to a public school or private school that their children are having the same experience as say an Irving student. It's also silly to think that anyone is going to change those schools without this kind of parental involvement.
You are absolutely correct. Having had two kids who got through the NYC school system it starts with where you live and your ability to get into a good elementary school, but then it moves to an ability to do your homework and find a good school for your kids. My point is that there are a lot of spectacularly good schools in NYC staffed by incredible people. The suburbs rarely offer that kind of choice. The suburbs offer "safety" and the myth that you can avoid "urban problems". If you think that these problems are inherent in urban environments and unsolvable than you should not be teaching in NYC.
Good post. The real reason that middle class parents walk away from the public school is their fear that their child will not get a quality education.
While teacher quality may not be as good as in the NYC public school the student body takes education more seriously. Peer pressure is more important to teens than parental pressure. Therefore, if the students know that the parents sacrificed for them by paying tuition or moving to a suburban school district, these students will respond by improving their grades Consequently, the students compete to get good grades, hence the peer pressure to do well.
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