Question

How can I teach kids to appreciate literature and to want to write creatively when they cannot read or write a simple sentence?

How can I teach kids to solve algebra and geometry problems when they cannot understand simple arithmetic?

How can I be expected to do what eight years of education before me could not do? I am no better at teaching than the teachers that came before me. No one will ever convince me that these kids never had a good teacher. Not every teacher that came before me was bad.

I know it is politically incorrect to write what I am about to write.

THERE ARE STUDENTS INCAPABLE OF LEARNING SOME ACADEMICS.

I don't know how it can be determined who is capable and who is not. I just know that this disparity exists. While we are all born equal, we are not all born with equal abilities.

EVERYONE HAS LIMITATIONS IN ONE FIELD OR ANOTHER.

While I would agree that an elementary school student has not had sufficient time to reach their ceilings, many (of course not all) high school students have. It is time to face educational realistically. Giving a realistic education should be part of the NCLB law.

Undeserving

A person who comments on this blog keeps saying that NYC schools deserve to be in the shape they are in because New York City residents don't pay the same taxes as Long Island residents. This person seems to think our kids should be packed into rooms with upwards of 40 kids. So what if their are no chairs? What is wrong with sitting on the floor? It doesn't matter if the roof leaks on them either. The money their parents are saving on taxes could be used to buy waterproof clothing. They don't deserve classes that are on the right level for them. Big deal, so they get a program change three weeks into the term. They don't pay taxes, it doesn't matter if they missed all that work. They can take math B without passing Math A if Math B is the only class with an available seat.They should never get new books. I bet this commenter wouldn't mind if there was no heat in the winter either (unless, of course it was a room that person was teaching in.)

The things I want for my students are not frivolous, they are basic rights. A quality education is something that everyone should be entitled to, no matter what their economic status is. I'm tired of people thinking our kids deserve less than their suburban counterparts.

Not For Me

I think it is a good thing I'm not rich. I was walking on Park Ave admiring the beautiful buildings and the fancy doormen when it occurred to me that the guy working on the building in picture one would have to enter the building through the gate in picture number two. He would never get to experience the grandeur pf the lobby, with its interior garden in the last picture. Treating people so differently is definitely not me. I could not live with someone working for me having to enter my building this way.