CHALK; the eyes of a failing public educational system in the US

EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY ACT states that "No State shall deny equal educational opportunity to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin." We are failing and this is a story that must be told.

CHALK; the eyes of a failing educational system in the US

This is an actual excerpt from my experience teaching in an inner-city school in Richmond, Va.

“Okay boys and girls,” I said slowly, scanning the rug for all eyes on me. “Today, we are going to read a new book called 10 Dogs in a Window. Let’s look at the cover and describe what we see.”
I smiled gently and pointed to the illustration on the big book. No matter what we were reading or how tired and grumpy they were, my class always loved reading all together. I lifted my brows and invited the children to reach their hands way up high and share with the class.
“I see dogs!,” James squealed excitedly.
“That’s right! How many dogs?”
Together the class began to count slowly, almost in unison, “One, twooooo, tree. . . f fo four, five, sicts, sevens, eewight, nine, TEN!”
“That was Great!” No matter how benign it seemed, I always made an effort to make everything fun and exciting. “So what do you think this story is about?”
I could see Edward squirming, “Ummmm ,it, it, it, it, it’s about dogs!”
“That’s right Edward. It is about dogs. Where do you think the dogs are?” I said intentionally pointing to the trim around the window in the drawing.
“In the wall,” cried Shantell with one hand raised and a finger from the other hand up her nose.
“Ummm, well. That was a good guess, but it looks like they are behind glass maybe. So let’s try again.
“I, ah, I think. Yes, em, I think that they, they, they are in a window,” Romello said scratching the scab on his cheek.
I bugged my eyes out as if to express amazement. “That’s right everyone. Romello, great job looking at the picture. Edward, “ I said taking his hand and putting it back in his lap, “we do not touch other boys and girls, we keep our hands to ourselves.”

“Okay boys and girls, now we are going to get out our special detective thinking caps on,” I said pinching my imaginary hat. “Where do you think you might see 10 dogs sitting in a window?”
There was nothing but silence. I looked at the children, eager for a response. A few of them sat there lost, a couple dreaming of lunchtime and recess and a couple also pinching their imaginary hats. I even saw Darius using his imaginary magnifying glass to make the dogs bigger on the cover. All of a sudden a light bulb hovered over James’ cornrows and illuminated the classroom.
“I know,” cried the first grader. “In a pawn shop!”

There were many times while teaching in the inner city where our vast cultural differences were painfully obvious. Although on the surface it’s a rather funny response, I also acknowledge the disturbing reality of a 6 year old’s , “In a pawn shop,” response to a place you might see things behind a window, Obviously it came from an experience they had with an adult, accompanying them to a pawn shop to sell something to put food on the table, clothes on their backs or even a roof over their heads.
I acknowledge the imbalance, socio-economically speaking, not only in the US but in communities around the globe. However, in our country the deplorable difference between public school systems is inexcusable. There is a painful difference in education between schools in lower income neighborhoods vs. more affluent communities and we all just seem to accept this or even worse fail to recognize this problem.
The Equal Opportunity Education Act states that ALL children living in the United States have the right to an equal education. The way that it was written includes ALL children, regardless of their nationality or citizenship, residential locality or family’s financial worth. It includes those whose parents are happily married and making over a million a year as well as those whose single Mom has resolved to prostituting in their 1 bedroom home with the children asleep in the living-room. It includes children who come from middleclass America whose parents have lived in the same town all their lives as well as children from impoverished Tijuana whose parents sacrificed their lives to cross the border.
So, is public education equal? Although I have a clear agenda, the purpose of my project is to make other’s aware of just how unequal our educational systems are. Schools that test well are normally rural schools in higher income areas. These schools are publicly praised and receive more funding from the government as a result of the higher test scores. Schools that test poorly are generally in urban schools in the lower income areas. These schools are publicly demeaned and receive less funding from the government as a result of their lower test scores. Wouldn’t you think that schools where there is less parental involvement, higher percentages of children on welfare and a significant number of children living in the system, need the extra funding? Isn’t this where the best social workers, tutors and teachers need to be allocated. Shouldn’t the government look at the schools with low test scores and question why? It seems as though the government has no intentions of going into these school systems and investigating what can be done to assist these children, guide these schools and begin to create balance. They are merely penalized and punished, humiliated and shamed. It causes nothing but discouragement throughout these communities and added pressures on the staff and students.
I believe that if all schools were given the same amount of funding across the board, the same technology and resources we would see a major change in our students, the staff and the communities in which these schools are built around. It is my belief that if all schools were completely equal in regards to infrastructure, resources and teacher credibility there would not be a need for families to move from one county to another when seeking a better education for their children. To take it one step further, it is possible that this could affect the socio-economic divides between those living in a community.
Working as a teacher in Richmond, VA opened my eyes to just how poorly the “poor” are treated. The purpose of this project is to visually expose the significant differences between public school systems by gaining support and permission from the individual schools to photograph the facilities, staff and children in several schools in all types of socio-economic communities. I will spend time in both elementary, middle and high schools across the United States from the east coast to the west coast and several states in-between. Accompanied by a documentary videographer I want to interview staff and students, parents and community advocates. I want to put cameras in the hands of several students as well to get a true sense of what they see, of how they feel. I understand that this project is a big undertaking however I think that it is relevant, necessary. This is a story that needs to be told and I am fully committed to telling it.

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