All kids left behind if we don't get behind them and push harder!

I spent the best days of my summer teaching young people in a federal TRIO program this year. The daily burden was mine to impress upon these children the importance of accountability and personal responsibility. I've learned many lessons from them. I've come to the realization that our school system, in this democratic capitalist country, continues to fail some children miserably. See, if you're poor, you tend to get sub-standard treatment. If you're black, you tend to get sub-sub-standard treatment and forget about it if you're black AND poor! I've witnessed children asking questions that I thought were elementary, at the 10th and 11th grade level and these are children who attend school every day (ok so some of them cut a class or two but they still enter the buildings).

Let's take for example, the young man who was proud to tell me, when asked, that Haiti is in Asia. He followed up some weeks later with a question about Nigeria being a continent. Now, this is the same child who proudly announced to me that he doesn't read and his mother assured him that this problem was "normal" because she had the same issue in school, she never remembered much of what she read. He also informed me that "If this WAS regular school, you'd hate me, Miss because I'd never come to class" as if he were doing me a favor by showing up everyday without a pen, without his homework, and with his "clever" questions. He constantly reminded me that he can't spell, and he said this repeatedly without regret and announced it as a medal even. He wanted to be "excused" for everything. He blamed the system for all of his shortcomings: "I can't read my own handwriting. It's not my fault! That's the fault of the people who taught me how to write! Why didn't they make sure that I knew how to write?" or how about "I didn't bring a pencil, Miss. It's not my fault, that's my TC's fault for waking me up so early for class and rushing me out of my room for breakfast." When told that this program was preparation for college he retorted "this program don't prepare us for college! They make us go to bed by 10 and we can't even use our cell phones." What is wrong with this picture? This is the same kid who informed me on the first day of classes that he is NOT Black (despite his shoulder length dreadlocks and his dark skin complexion and very ethnic name--with even an apostrophe in it). He is not interested in associating with Black people because as far as he knows, they are ignorant and embarrassing (it could very well be that this is his experience. He has, after all, lived most of his life watching both his father and step-father go in and out of prison). Well, that was my life in my first period class every day for the last six weeks. And it made me pause to reflect on what is happening in our schools to our children and what the possibilities are for my own children and yours.

In the age of 'accountability' and laws about leaving children behind, it is surprising to see how many of our children have begun to rise to low expectations. As contradicting as my last statement are the results of NCLB. If we are fighting to close the achievement gap, then who explains why in the age of technology, so many black, brown, and poor white children are losing their motivation to rise above the fray and accomplish more than their families have accomplished? Why is it that children's writing skills and computation skills are far below grade level and why has it become increasingly difficult to convince them to work harder? I can't recall how many times I had to hear the words "This is too much work!" from my 9th and 10th grade students this summer. It would appear as if I were administering some poisonous potion to their bodies every day by insisting that they read or THINK a little deeper into the texts they examined.

Is it not criminal to fail our children as educators, when all society asks of us is to inspire, motivate, and encourage them to be at their very best? Is it not criminal of our system to allow such inequities in educational achievement between rich, poor, black, and white on a daily basis, while pretending that the USA is a beacon of hope for all? Why isn't the achievement gap a national crisis, just as an act of terrorism would be? Are we not terrorising an entire group of future tax-paying Americans when we fail to give them their fair shot at the pursuit of happiness? Why isn't there a war on unequal education, just as there is a war on drugs and a war on terror? If we don't put our collective strength behind these children, who sit in front of us everyday, we will fail our own selves and our own children for these are the very people who represent the future of our nation.

Presently, our future cannot identify their history, their current surroundings, or what the difference is between a continent and a country... If this is what we have to look forward to for years to come, then God save us all. .02