On the last day of school I was talking to a colleague of mine. I was telling her how even now, at the end of the year, I’m really looking forward to next year. She was delighted. She thought we should all be looking at every year in that light. Then she said something that made me think.
She has taught high school for twenty years, and is now teaching at the University level. She teaches in a credential program, teaching the newest crop of teachers coming into the profession. My colleague said this to me. “They all think they are coming into teaching hoping to change something. But I tell them that’s not going to happen. These kids are always going to be poor, and in these high schools things are always going to be crazy. That is what they need to come to terms with.”
So as I watched our seniors graduate, and posed with them for pictures with their families, I kept thinking about what she had said – and I realized I couldn’t agree with her more.
I think a lot of the frustrations we have as teachers, especially first-year teachers, stem from the fact that we are frustrated that nothing is changing. We want scores to go up, we want policies that make sense to go into effect, and we want everyone’s life to improve. We want change. So as the weeks and months go by and we don’t see it, we get frustrated and down on ourselves, our students, and our profession.
Why?
My colleague is right, as pessimistic as it might sound. Things are never going to change, so we need to stop stressing ourselves out about it.
95% of the wealth in this country is controlled by 5% of the people. Those numbers aren’t going anywhere. If anything, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. There are always going to be poor people. I don’t know what some of us think about this – whether we think some day everyone will have the same amount of money or something – but at some point we need to be honest with ourselves. If you think that is ever going to happen, then you might be a bit delusional.
Our low-income schools will never have money. In case you haven’t noticed, Education is the first thing to get cut with every budget, and that will NEVER CHANGE. And in all REALNESS, the last thing any government wants to do is educate its populace – because then they start asking questions. Come to grips with this fact. Please.
The reason I bring all this up is this: It will make your job a hell of a lot easier.
Quit worrying about things that are out of control. Your school is never going to change. The only way it might is if the surrounding area becomes more affluent. Home prices start rising, maybe your city experiences some sort of boom. Then all the poor people can’t afford to live there and all of a sudden your students are rich and well-behaved. That’s the only way anything at your school is going to change (at which point I would switch schools back to a poor one, to tell you the truth). As long as you decide to teach in a low-income public school, you need to accept this fact.
Notice I said decide.
My colleague also talked about the importance of wanting to do it. You have to decide to do this work. It’s just what Professor Jeff Andrade says in his article here on Teach4Real.com. Remember, you signed up for this job. You went through a credential program and chose the school you work at. You chose to fight the good fight, even though you knew it was a fight. So don’t be frustrated when you aren’t seeing much headway. You won’t. Things there aren’t going to change. This year at my school things were worse. That happens a lot too. Things don’t get better, and sometimes they actually get worse.
So stop thinking you’re going to change the system. And please don’t come into the profession wanting to be a trailblazer in this respect. If you want to change things at that level, you need to go into administration or politics. You’re a teacher. On the first and last day of every school year, you are going to have students living below the poverty line. 1 in 5 kids live in poverty in this country. THAT IS NEVER GOING TO CHANGE.
I guess I’m really looking forward to next year because I’ve come to terms with this fact. I know I’m going to have a couple kids walk in on the first day and call me an asshole. One of them might try and fight me. I know I’m going to talk to some parents who can hardly take care of themselves, let alone a needy teenager. There are going to be gang fights. The riot police are going to come onto campus a few times. And every day things are going to be crazy, out of control, and a little bit dangerous. Hey, it’s what I signed up for.
Okay, Matt, then what is the good news?
The beauty in all of this, like always, has to do with the students. What I do is focus on the students. Teachers create change on the individual level. Teachers change people’s lives personally. I don’t mean to be pessimistic. I realize that accepting the fact that things will never change sounds pretty bad. But I’m not writing this out of bitterness. Quite the opposite. I’ve never been happier. I don’t look at this as a bad thing, because my job is the same as always. I get to see the change I create. At graduation last week, I got so many hugs my ribs started hurting. Just because I know next year at my school is going to be just as crazy as this year, and its never going to get much better, doesn’t change anything about the profession to me. It actually takes a load off my mind.
So here at the end of the year, I want you to think back to all the frustrations you had this year, and I want to be the first one to tell you they will be there again in September. Accept it, close your door, and teach. You can’t change society. You can’t change policy. If you’re anything like me, you can hardly get the maintenance crew to get rid of the Black Widow spider-webs in your doorway. Focus on the kids, that is where you’ve chosen to take your stand. Change their lives by looking them in the eye, and at the end of each year you’ll see exactly what you’ve accomplished.
Hey Matt
Continue to enjoy your blogs. I know what you mean about the hugs at the end of the year. At first I thought you were going to say that students can’t be changed. Was delighted to read further and see that you know that the lives of students can be changed. I feel I was able to change many lives at the inner city school in Cleveland, Ohio where I started my career as well as at Mt. Eden. For most of my career at Mt. Eden I taught “core” classes, general math, and algebra and geometry. I only taught a few advanced classes until the last ten or twelve years of my 39 year career. Even though I taught at a German Gymnasium for girls, U.C. Berkeley in the summers, and at Chabot, some of my most satisfying experiences were with the students who lived in poverty. I loved almost every day of my teaching career (except for the first few weeks in Cleveland, Ohio–and there was only one student I was never able to really get to like. I hope you will continue to love teaching and to change lives. I was honored when Kelly Bellard’s classes invited me up for the last day of school and gave me presents. I am going with two different groups of them to Berkeley sometime this summer. Even as a geriatric geezer, I still love teaching and still love Mt. Eden students. However, this last year may have been my last year to sub. I don’t want to set a record as the oldest person to enter a classroom at Mt. Eden! Cheers!
Great article on the reality of our country’s disparity. It is unfortunate, but this is actually how it has always been, from the days of the ancient Greeks to now this inequity has existed and you are right to say that it will never go away. I like that your message is to do the best with what we are handed, that we decide how to handle this truth.
I couldn’t agree more. I teach at a Title 1 Elementary school. In fact, all the schools I have taught at are Title 1. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I always laugh when I hear politicians say that they want to fix schools (ala Meg Whitman). The schools, the teachers, they don’t need to be fixed. Society needs to be fixed before anything can happen at the schools!
I wanted to share a quote I discovered on ERIC years ago and have kept as a beacon during debates and movies about miracle-makers, which leave most of us as utter or gentil failures. The quote comes from James March, a former Stanford prof and he offered it during a Q&A when some folks were struggling w/his “non-heroic” image of leaders and life generally. It has always urged me to persist w/out anticipating transformative results:
I think that the fundamental problem of leadership, as of life, is the sustaining of intelligent optimism in the face of intelligent skepticism. The serious hero is one who continues to act while understanding the limited relevance of action. After a series of seemingly romantic actions, Don Quixote says, “No doubt you set me down in your mind as a fool and as a madman, and it would be no wonder if you did, for my deeds do not argue anything else. But for all that, I would have you take notice that I am neither so mad nor so foolish as I must have seemed to you … All Knights have their special part to play … I, then, as it has fallen to my lot to be a member of the Knight-errantry, cannot avoid attempting all that to me seems to come within the sphere of my duties.” In effect, Quixote says that, of course, the world is absurd — filled with windmills, donkeys and actions of no consequence. But it is precisely the absurdity of life that makes affirmation and action a declaration of humanity rather than merely an instrumental act. For Quixote, great actions do not depend on great expectations, but rather on a conception of how a good person lives. It is a noble and romantic sentiment, and one which we might commend to [school leaders] … within reason.
James March, 1980
Maybe too Carter-era for many, but works for me.
Hi Matt, this is my first time on your site. I met your brother in Avila beach as my 60th birthday celebration took a bad turn.I rode to the ER in his ride and we were chatting and I said I was a high school teacher in Fresno. He gave me your website on scrap paper. As you can see by my age I am not a new teacher but I am back in the classroom for year three after 14 in the district office.So many experienced teachers are discouraged by a lifetime of no systemic change and daily challenges. You speak the hard truth relating to what will not change. In addition, your speak the truth about what will remain constant, it’s about the kids, close your door and teach,be a person of character and compassion in their lives, and leave nothing on the table. It is very hot this time of year in Fresno and I decided to visit my classroom to begin re-entry. The air-conditioning was working and the carpet was clean. This little bit of cool and clean gave me great hope that this year will be better than ever! The computers will work, there will be enough books to go around, my area custodian will not be on disability again,none of my students will be shot, and all my seniors will graduate. Maybe, maybe not, but the big heart sculpture engraved with the sentiment “You will always be in our hearts” given to me by my 2010 seniors will be front and center on my desk to remind me that no matter what, “it’s about the kids”. T:D
Wow Terri, crazy story, and great post. I like keeping the sculpture engraved by your seniors where you can see it everyday. I have some letters and things like that I like to read after I have a tough day. During the day to day grind, sometimes it doesn’t seem like they appreciate you, then you talk to them a year later and they tell you that you were one of the biggest influences in their lives and love you. It’s like you say, it’s all about the students.
Matt
I live in the world of miracles myself. All the things you describe are my everyday reality in my classroom even the lack of a janitor! It can get very heavy some weeks; I’m not going to sugar coat it. All that neediness seems like a tsunami. But the way I get through it is exactly what you say; focus on the individuals. There is no other way. And I enjoy the hugs and notes myself; along with many former students on FB who have made something of themselves. I even had a former student serving time for a serious felony who told a buddy to say hi and thank me for caring. Yes caring for the individual is the ONLY way. May God bless you. I am empathize with you all the way.
Thanks for the kind words Mary. You sound like you’re doing a hell of a job. Keep it up, one thing I’ve realized over the summer this year is that every year does get easier.