Jon Schoening’s Educational Blog

Parental Involvement in a school is imperative and we have read that it is a huge influence on the effectiveness of a school, but involving the entire community, that is something that bridges gaps of misunderstanding and mistrust.

Why can a school not be the center of community, a conduit for promoting activism, understanding, and pride? It can, but it takes a serious commitment by all staff involved. That is not something that a handful of teachers can accomplish on their own. At my school, we have teachers volunteer to put on community events after school, tutor on Saturday’s, and go out into the community to put on different events with our students. It is an amazing thing to see. They do it without asking to be compensated in anyway. They just do it because they have the opportunity to do so, administration sets that expectation (not a requirement), and everyone goes along because that is the norm at our school. I have never seen anything like it until I became a part of this staff three years ago.

It is a double-edged blessing because the more parents and the community are involved in your school the more scrutiny a teacher is going to receive. You just have to be a professional and back up what you do with research and experience. Involve parents in the problem solving process makes them a partner in what goes on in your class. I have found that some criticism I have received has been constructive and sometimes the criticism is not so constructive. Sometimes a parent is blowing off steam and venting frustrations. That is okay. I don’t take it personally. I would rather have someone inside the tent peeing outside than someone outside the tent peeing in.

The idea of getting the community involved in your school in any way possible is to break down walls, open lines of communication, and ultimately build bridges. Your community is going to make investments of some type somewhere, why not make it your school.

A school’s culture is influenced by many factors, many of which, actually mostly of which you have zero control over. The truth be told you have little power to control anything other than your perception and interaction within your school. Negativity and low expectations are a cancer among a staff of teachers. If you teach in a community that is living in poverty, there is nothing you can do about the income level of your students, but you can set high standards and give the students a sense of pride in their accomplishments and accolades. You have no control over what happened to Little Suzy before she got on the bus that morning, but you can control what happens when she gets to school. If the staff is not collaborating, then you need to provide the opportunity and make the invitation. If the atmosphere is toxic and negative, then you have the power to ignore such attitudes and become that beacon of joy and positive light. Inspire not only your students, but your peers as well. Don’t let circumstances outside your control steal your joy. Change can begin with one person’s vision and example.

The reflections and things that have been marinating in my mind since Gorki’s presentation on poverty and inequality have really hit home today. I received an email from a friend giving the details of SB 458 which has recently been passed by the Senate and is in the process of going through the Georgia House. It stipulates that students from a school system that has lost accreditation have to right to go to any school they wish including across county lines and private schools. The state will provide vouchers for the private schools and state money for the students that cross county lines. The state money only accounts for 48% of our budget. They are requiring accredited school systems to take on a serious burden of providing the other 52%.

We all know what school system is in danger of losing its accreditation. But why?  Clayton County, from what I hear, use to be a pretty good school system. What happened? What changed? An unequal distribution of resources? Low expectations? Bad leadership? How does a school system get off track so fast?

If we do not understand the problem, we can never figure out a solution. And so far the best solution our legislators have created is to allow families to cart their kids everyday across county lines to better performing schools and give those schools half the resources to educate that child. I hope this is not their only solution. Clayton County needs serious help. What can we do to help? We have all this new information and research in our heads. Let’s put it to use. I have been racking my brain all day, and I got nothing.

One of the main reasons I wanted to get into this EdS. program was because we would learn how to critically evaluate programs of instruction and curriculum. In addition, I have learned a great deal about constructivist pedagogy, instructional evaluation, multiculturalism, research practices, and reflection. Using my newly polished educator lenses and my experience, I would have to say that Ruby is overgeneralizing a serious issue to quanitify something that can be packaged, easily understood, and sold. Her views on poverty are too simple. I have seen poverty with my own eyes that she describes in her vignettes, but I have seen some wealthy people act in the same manner that she describes as traits linked to poverty. There are deplorable character traits across all classes and all cultures. I have seen children abused by poor as well as wealthy parents. Drug abuse and sexual promiscuousness does not stop at 15K a year. Violence and a lack of respect of life does not start once you are put on welfare. Her views on poverty do not require any deep reflection or change in sociopolitical practice to correct the problem; all that is needed is teaching the poor to act middle-class, right.

Poverty is not a disease that needs a cure or a war that needs to be won; it is a group of people who have needs, not wants, that are not being met. They deserve respect and kindness, not generalizations and empty promises.

The reality is that some people find themselves living in poverty from their poor choices and others just from circumstances that are out of their control. That is the truth. You cannot lump them all together into one corner and fulfill all their needs in the same way. It is complicated and larger than Ruby Payne or Gorski. To make progress and a positive impact, we need serious people making serious policy changes on a national scale before things get better.

On the list of twenty steps to becoming a more equitable educator, I applaud the section on challenging one another as professionals to grow and mature. If we do not keep one another in check, we give away our power. We force ourselves to be regulated by textbook publishers, politicians, and others bent on keeping the status quo. I know educators do not like confrontation and typically want to keep the peace, but it is through conflict and struggle that we grow. All of us who have gone through this EdS program know what it means to grow from struggle. We need to create an atmosphere of professionalism that lends a forum for open discussion and challenge one another in all areas of our craft including multiculturism.

http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1110&spotlightid=1110