Leaderboard

I'm not in any way knocking the difficult life experiences of students. I'm just saying that we spend a lot of timing analyzing the system as opposed to looking at what we can control and that is ourselves. I'm not naive to the life that students lead. I had to move two of my students in with me because they were homeless when I taught in San Diego. I won't get into the reasons they were homeless, but they both ended up graduating and that's because they had the desire to be better their circumstances. I can tell you multiple horror stories similar to your family situation and I can also show you countless kids who wanted to do something who succeeded. I find it is better to talk about those students just as much as we talk about the ones who fail. Your story is basically what I'm saying is the problem with the educational system. It's not books or schools or teachers... it's the family and the home. It doesn't matter what the situation is if the family is jacked up, the kids will follow suit.

CDBurns, please know that this isn't about me per se, I am using myself as an example. This is by far by not an attack on teachers-- at least not good teachers. I agree with you that youths, at some point, must take responsibility for their actions and educational choices. Thank God, as one of these students, I made it too. But, let me tell you, I don't know how. When my 16 year old brother did unspeakable things to me as a 7 year old child, I don't know how I went to school and listened to a teacher. When my own daddy tried to make me his woman at age 15, I don't know how I went to school to listen to anything or anyone with that sort of garbage on my mind. When our mother walked through the neighborhood with not one black eye, but both, I don't know how I resisted the temptation to kick the person's behind that teased me. My brothers could not resist fighting and were often kicked out of school as a result of their inappropriate behavior. But through God's grace and a system that promoted Black children upward because they'd aged out, I did make it. Please know that when I got to high school, I wasn't nearly equipped to compete with those students whose lives weren't mind. I struggled every single day! I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated I was. My Caucasian teachers, along with some of the Black ones, allowed me to keep my head down and sleep because they did not know what to say or do with me. They probably wanted me to disappear. I had no interaction with most of the smarter students simply because I was ashamed to speak up for fear of uttering an incorrect response. I stayed in school because everybody in my entire family said that I would not and also because I wanted to prove that I was not my momma. They knew the odds were heavily stacked against me. Had I gotten pregnant like I tried to do, I too would have dropped out and became a statistic. As you see, I had no real guidance at home. However, I did have three great teachers that had a lasting impact on me when I was in Jr. High School. But, please know that I did not live with these teachers. I did have to go back to my insane home environment after school each day and that is where all the good stuff in school was torn apart. It takes a very strong person to continually flip that switch from home to school, school to home. You see as great as my teachers were, even they did not stop me from trying to find love in all the wrong places. I attribute this saving of my soul to the grace of God the Father. Many of our babies don't even know God. Momma is too drunk or drugged to get up from her Saturday night activities to attend a church. Oh, believe me, it takes a strong young person to overcome all of this, Thank God, some of them do. I wish I could clone them. That's why it is so important that teachers give all that they can when the children are in their care. This is the armor that these children need to shield their hearts and minds when they are at home--enduring pure hell. We need more mentors who are in it to win it. We need more advocates for these challenged youths. We need an understanding of the reality they are going through. We need to teach them how to clear the destructive garbage from their minds when they are in the classroom. There is no room to put in knowledge if one's head is overflowing with trash. Indeed, this is a tall task for all the stakeholders. My brothers--all 8 of them went through the exact same thing and they all dropped out of school, mostly because their heads and hearts were filled with trash--trash that they could not empty on a daily basis so that they could participate in school. They lacked the mental stamina to endure. Yes, some children do overcome--but far too many others do not, otherwise the deplorable state of education for these children would not be where it is today. Home conditions, socio-economic conditions, poverty, society at large, and yes, to some extent the children themselves, bear responsibility. Lastly, I respect that you worked in some of the roughest/toughest schools in the country. I get it. However, please know this, whether she resides in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, NY, wherever, a drunken, whoring, mother is universal in my opinion. An absent or unknown father is universal in my opinion. It takes a unique and strong mind to overcome these negative influences. It takes wonderfully understanding, learned, teachers to have empathy for these children. It takes administrators who are willing to come up with a budget that accommodates the educational and social needs of these children, it takes awareness of the causes of this mess. With this being said, it takes a lot for me to blame a child when there are so many other responsible factors involves in the mental destruction of these children. Sorry, blaming the child is just too easy an out for me. Blaming the home solely simply isn't enough. Troy, thanks for responding. I am angry with what is happening to our challenged youths. In 2016, I am going to do all that I can to spread the word about this unnecessary mental destruction of our babies!!!!! I know that they all cannot be saved. Unfortunately, some may not be worthy of saving because they simply do not get it. But there are many good kids out there who can and want to be saved--they just don't know it. Thanks for having this platform where I can voice what is on my heart, soul, and mind. I cannot look at a troubled child who looks like me, my same skin color, my same used to be personality and desperation, and just look in the other direction. Even at the legal age of 21, the brain is still stupid and immature. It still makes mistakes that the 35 year old brain looks back on and laughs--asking "what the hell was I thinking?"

I guess after being involved in education in three distinctly different places, my opinions are skewed. I've worked in the toughest schools in San Diego, Memphis and Mississippi. When I say toughest I mean the poorest schools in the "worst" neighborhoods in 3 completely different places. I don't think any of these can be compared to NYC or Chicago or Louisiana since every place has its own challenges. My experience however is that the schools do the best that they can and if the students are willing to learn they will learn. Even if the parents are willing to support them, the students will learn if they want too. I've seen kids with nothing, with crappy parents overcome living in the poorest district in the state of Mississippi and I don't care where any of us are, if you can overcome poverty in Mississippi you can do it anywhere in my opinion. In regard to San Diego the school that I was at was also located in the poorest area in the city (outside of San Ysidro which was right next to Tijuana and had the language barrier to deal with among other issues) and the kids in those schools performed. I guess where I'm going with this is there is a lot of blame laid on programs being cut, and kids being funneled, but in my opinion if kids want out of the funnel they simply have to listen to the teachers. Granted some kids have home lives so bad that they can't overcome that, but on the whole in my opinion if they want to be greater than their circumstance there are teachers always willing to go way beyond the call of duty to help. The bottom line is there is a means for the kids who want the options. If we want to get to the core of every issue in the schools we don't need to look anywhere except the home. The systemic issues in the home, that affect the home is where every issue lies. A student can be taught with one book in one classroom and still be an incredible student who has the ability to analyze and problem solve.