Doing it for the Kids is a blog about education, primarily in an urban setting. To have conversations about urban education is to have conversations about race and class, about the haves versus the have-nots.
I believe strongly in constructionist learning theory, and so I welcome you to comment at length and often. Mine is but one perspective on issues that are often complex, and I don’t pretend to have all of the answers most of the time.
Finally, a quick look around here reveals that I spend a lot of time talking about Minneapolis, particularly the north side. It might not be where you live and work, but I think that a lot of the struggle and successes of this small corner of the world aren’t so different from the issues facing the nation as a whole. If there’s something happening where you live that has to do with education, please let me know so I can post it here. You’re my feet on the street.
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June 26, 2007 at 1:25 p
Fred
IMHO far too many people who comment on the education system have a black and white view of race and education. Typically it is “Black (or any other minority) people don’t do as well because they are not as smart as white people.”
I think it has much more to do with money and family participation.
There are more shades of gray in education that it becomes difficult to try to distinguish some of the subtle differences children need to excel in learning.
I will be looking at your blog and hopefully gaining more insight on your ideas for solutions. I also hope to comment on some of your ideas or thoughts.
good luck,
fred
June 27, 2007 at 1:25 p
doingitforthekids
Fred,
I’m not sure if you were including me in that number who have “a black and white view of race and education” or not.
I would never argue that minorities are less smart than white people, rather that they are often given less opportunity, which I agree does go back to money and family participation. I would also argue that urban learners in general, and students of color specifically, get less credit for the smarts that they do bring with them into the classroom, perhaps because those are not always school-sanctioned smarts. It is the job of the competent teacher to translate those existing intelligences and literacies into school success.
But I digress. You’re right about how much kids need, and how subtle so many of their needs are. It gets difficult, then, to have them for nine months a year, five days a week, and for six hours a day (although, really, most teachers spend only one hour a day with each class), holding your breath and crossing your fingers and hoping to hell that they make it.
Many student needs are not so subtle: the need for a safe home environment, a loving family, a living household wage, medication, proper nutrition, alternatives to violence. As much as we might prefer to believe otherwise, these are real that exist for many students, and each one has the potential to grossly inhibit classroom performance.
I, too, hope to gain insight on my ideas for solutions. Some days I feel the solution is just to roll up my sleeves, go back to work, and try my damnedest to do what I can for my students. This is hardly what you had in mind, I’m guessing.
I think many of the problems I’ve named above are big, much bigger than me. I don’t pretend, then, to have all of the answers, but even so I feel I have a responsibility to shine a light on these unmet needs, on what Jonathon Kozol has called “Savage Inequalities”, in an effort to thrust them into local and national discourse, where I believe they belong.
I might be shooting myself in the foot, making such a grandiose effort and at the same time compiling a list of educator drink specials, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.
Thanks for your interest, I’m off now to check out your blog.
p.s. – forgive my anonymity, I’m aware of bloggers who have been fired for blog content before (see http://www.dooce.com), and I want to be able to comment freely on things that I see, both negative and positive, in the classrooms I enter.
June 27, 2007 at 1:25 p
Fred
You anonymity is appreciated. In your position it is a necessity.
My comment on the views of others being “Black and White” is a direct result of dealing with a person last week who has a limited view of education. A smart person who was raised with privilege and even after trashing a portion of his life he still had a myopic view of the world.
I am not sure which blogs you are looking at, I have two. The first one that I did was of a family trip to Italy last year. The second is my attempt at detailing some of my views of bikes and bike riding.
Our trip to Italy has pictures of my daughter. She (if you cannot tell) is Hispanic (Guatemalan to be exact) and is the light of my life. It is hard to look through the prism of my life and hope that she can have the same opportunities. I realize that racism is still prevalent and we are going to have to work past those issues. So far the only thing that we have had to deal with is the fact that she considers herself brown. Not a bad thing mind you but it might become a difference if we are not careful about how we approach race.
I could go on forever about the issue of race and how my life has been affected by the issue.
I would love to continue but I have to get to job #2. I will read your latest blog entry when I get home.
Stay strong and be honest…
BTW, I love the MBL Avatar that you have. It makes me laugh.
fred