Brubaker

Williams was a very good substitute teacher. He worked for the public school system. He made the daily call to the main offices for assignments so he had an opportunity to get a feel for a variety of schools in the district. He took assignments from art teacher to physical education teacher. He even used is military background to help out with security if it was necessary. Williams was assigned to us for the remainder of the year to cover a Spanish class for a teacher out on maternity leave. He was assigned to one of the worst freshman classes that the school has had for a while. I would talk to him from time to time and ask how he was holding up and if there was anything I could do. He mostly talked about how much he felt like an outsider and just considered “a sub.” So no one really had much time for him. Even a simple hello seemed to be too much for some members of the faculty. He said it was like being the new kid at school. “You know, it’s as if I have to prove myself first before I get to be “in”.” He had listened to people during the faculty meetings and in the faculty lounge talk about the decline of the school and what they believed to be the reasons but said that he didn’t really hear people talking about solutions. He wondered how it was possible or considered okay that he was using Spanish books from 1983/1984 that had references of Regan as president in the year 2008. After a parent/teacher conference night he asked me if it was normal to have such low turn out (he spoke to 4 parents…he has close to 100 students) and why this wasn’t spoken about at the faculty meeting instead of the thirty minute discussion about kids taking off their hats in the halls. He had good ideas about how to approach several issues but I told him that it would be considered a little strong for a substitute to suggest them at a meeting. I told him,
“You’re a sub. You won’t be here next year anyway. So, why are you so concerned?”
 He said, “ Because the kids will be here.”

We were all blown away when he was introduced as our new principal for the coming year at the final faculty meeting.  He spoke of all of his observations and touched on his experiences within the school over the past seven months. He talked about responsibility and accountability. I could see the jaws of members of the faculty hit the floor. I smiled and thought to myself, maybe a positive change has finally come.

If you have seen the movie Brubaker, this introduction hopefully reminds you of it. In the movie Brubaker (Robert Redford) infiltrates a corrupt southern jail facility as a prisoner and spends time experiencing and observing all that is wrong in the facility. It isn’t until after breaking up a confrontation involving an inmate (Morgan Freeman) that he tells the guard that he wants to see the warden. This is when it is revealed that he is the new warden of the prison. Because of his time experiencing the facilities from the inside Brubaker was able to institute real changes that would make real differences within the prison. He was able to get rid of the corruption because he knew exactly where it was. He had felt the atmosphere of the prison and knew how to implement the necessary changes from within while being on the outside.

After watching this one Saturday afternoon, I thought why can’t the school boards do something like his to replace principals and or faculty that aren’t doing anywhere near their part for students in schools. I was quick to come to my senses and realize that unions would never allow this to happen. But I thought of it anyway. How can an administrator truly be effective without some experience within the job in which he or she is working? I worked in a school where the administrating experience that the principal had was within an elementary school the previous year. You can’t tell me that you expect someone to go from directing 5-12 year olds to 14-18, 19, 20 year olds effectively using the same methods they employed in the primary school. I had high school students tell me of a teacher putting someone in “time out”. He was trying to employ what he knew worked for him the previous year in elementary school. He quickly lost credibility and the students never took him seriously after that. I thought of how the example of the film Brubaker could be used to bring the new principal or educator into the school. He or she could not tell anyone that they were the next administrator or teacher or they would forfeit the job. This would give the incoming person an opportunity to create a plan of action based on experience within the school instead of on numbers, a budget and some of those ridiculous grad school education courses.  The administrator would also have a personal experience of how the school feels, sounds and moves. I believe that the experience of being in the thick of it is invaluable. Many of us have worked for that administrator who you never see during the school day. They never simply walk the halls during or between classes to have their presence recognized. I worked at one school where I saw the principal ask a girl to put away her cell phone and the girl turned around and asked, “ who is you?” and kept on walking! I’ve worked with very few high school administrators who can call more than five students (who aren’t athletes) by their names. But they’re administrators because “they love the kids”. I believe that future educators for a school could also benefit from spending time being a substitute in their new school or any school before taking over the following year. It would give them more insight on how to gear their lesson plans to the student’s ability so that they can more effectively teach and use their subject matter. It would also allow young teachers entering education an opportunity to develop themselves as an authority figure in different situations and different schools because they would more than likely be in more than one school, thus having a variety of experiences from which to draw. If I would have been able to come into the public school system as a substitute where I was teaching before I started after leaving a female private school, a lot of problems could have been avoided. I had to deal with a completely different set of conditions. It was a completely different economic and social culture. I couldn’t take for granted that my students knew basic information, that their parents would be involved enough to return a phone call, or that my administration was involved with making necessary changes within the school to improve it. I learned how to deal with all of this as I went along. So, when a new young teacher would come the following year (or in the middle of the year) I would take it upon myself to go and introduce myself, ask some questions and then sit and listen. And they’re all young because they’re hungry and need a job. Older educators, having heard the name of the school where they were being placed would respond, “Are you crazy? Teach where?” Let’s face it many of the bright-eyed in-coming educators are not prepared for some of the schools in which they accept positions.  I know plenty of educators who struggle (unnecessarily) because they clash hard and often with their students due to a lack of information on the culture of their students, culture of the school, and the student’s ability. Especially when the situation is that of the teacher being from one cultural background and the students from the other. Unprepared by anyone for what he or she is about to face sometimes becomes a career-ending year. According to a post that I read on the Internet titled Pay Teachers More, October 21, 2008, 50% of new teachers leave the profession within five years. The more common factors are poor working conditions and low pay. I’ve heard far too many people say they’re leaving because they just didn’t realize what they were getting into and that the kids are just too much.

Not one single graduate school course (that I’ve taken) presents the realization that teaching in inner-city public schools differs from suburban public schools. They don’t prepare these young energetic people for the pitfalls that they may encounter. I was having a discussion with a friend that said that he didn’t believe that many of the education professors had ever taught in a high school let alone an inner-city high school. After a while in class, I stopped raising my hand to point out differences of scenarios because people would look at me like, can this brother give it a break? So, I would just look back at them like, yeah…okay, talk to me in three years after you’ve been run out. I’m not trying to discourage anyone from the profession. I’m only asking that you give them both sides of the educational reality. I feel that being placed in an inner-city school for at least part of your internship would benefit young educators greatly. They would learn how to diffuse issues, talk with confrontational students (and at times parents) and create order without an eruption. They would also be able to compare their experience within the suburban vs. inner-city public school and use both to become an educator who can balance teaching a class with controlling a class.

One day during one of my planning bells, Mr. Williams stopped by to talk.

“ Hi, Mr. Williams, how’s it goin’?” (We both chuckle because I call him Mr. now)
“Do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
He closes the door and sits down.
“Stevens, why do you teach?”
“For me it truly was bestowed upon me at an early age. I’m the oldest of seven kids. I’ve been teaching and learning how to teach my whole life. I learned from my mother and was pretty much an extension of her with my siblings. I don’t like seeing people not be their best. I guess that’s also why I like coaching.”
“ It’s the same for me, I want to help people try to get the most out of their lives. And I have ways that I believe would work in helping that be. My time here as a long-term substitute helped me understand what needed to be done. But a lot of the time I don’t think that that’s what they want me to do. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get rid of a problem child who has exhibited that he/she does not want to be here or to get funding for something that would benefit those students who are achieving. If I mention getting rid of students, they hit with a speech about numbers. If I want to highlight those outstanding points of the school and use that to raise the bar of achievement, they talk to me about alienation, numbers and test scores. I’m beginning to believe that my appointment wasn’t ever about achievement but maintenance. Do a good enough job to improve our scores and status and then just maintain that.”

I looked at him while he spoke and noticed how defeated he looked. He has put himself into this job and this school has improved because of it. If you were here to learn and to teach, Williams had your back at any conference, any hearing or board meeting. We just received our state report card and we jumped to very good standing in the every subject. Williams’ no nonsense but fair approach was something that everyone was either waiting for or grew to appreciate because the atmosphere and culture of the school improved. When he finished speaking I responded,
“ I don’t understand why there is a problem. You’ve done so much for this place. Isn’t that why they hired you? I mean, why are they complaining?
“I don’t know. But I don’t know what’s going to happen. Whatever happens I want you know it was great working with you.”

The following year we had a new principal. No one knows why Williams didn’t return. Rumors are that he told the school board and the union about themselves and quit. Others say he was fired but they don’t know why. Either way, he’s doing well now. I recently read that he was making waves in the business world. Too bad he wasn’t allowed to create those waves within the lives of our students.

Where I've been...

Hi folks,

Sorry, I haven't been around for about a month. I've been work on some work for a show that I hope to have in the Summer or Spring. So, painting pushed out the writing for a little while. I do have two topics that I plan on on drafting over the weekend. In the meantime, here are some of the pieces that I've completed over the past six weeks.

Enjoy,

Marcus

Now Is The Time...

In April or May of 2003, I received a newsletter/magazine in the mail that had the headline….Now Is The Time To Tell Students: If They Don’t Do Well In High School, They Won’t Do Well In College (or on the job). When hasn’t it been time to tell students this? Or is it that now is the time to tell this to inner city school students? This is ridiculous! I mean, what were you telling them before? And I cringe to think of educators who may see this as this great message whose time has finally come. This is a message that should have been going out to every parent (at least junior high and high school) at the beginning of the school year beginning in the ninth grade. How much money did they waste to send this newsletter to teachers nationwide? This should be common sense for educators. And if it isn’t, I don’t believe you should be teaching. If now is the time to tell students this, here are few other issues I believe whose time has come (or should have come years ago)



Now is the time for school boards to stop allowing the disruptive students to stay in school and take over classes and schools due to their population! Simply because of their numbers these students represent a lot of money within a school’s budget. But should the children who are good students not have the opportunity to become great students because a teacher has to repeatedly waste ten, fifteen or twenty minutes of instruction time in a class that lasts fifty minutes to deal with these problems that in my experience are constant from the same students. Can principals of public schools not form a coalition in order to strengthen their voice collectively and deliver their message to the state and federal agencies? Many of the children that they worry about leaving behind, don’t want to go where you want to take them. The administrations of schools have to have the power to send these kids home without fear of losing huge amounts of money. The new federal administration’s policy makers have to be informed of this problem. Parents need to be able to be held accountable for their children’s actions. Whatever happened to being able to call a parent at work and telling them that they had to come and get their child? Why are we constantly inconveniencing the educator or students who are in school doing the right thing and trying to succeed? Parents should have to call off of work and come get their child. Maybe with the loss of revenue or threat of losing their job after having to leave work repeatedly for their misbehaving child, many of these “parents” would do what they are supposed to do… parent. I have a student who has recently returned to school after being removed from school, and placed in an alternative school because she brought a knife to school with intent to do harm. Folks, its February 25 as I write this. This young lady is angry/frustrated because she doesn’t understand. Of course, you don’t, you haven’t been here for close to four months. We (my co-teacher and I) explained to her that she has to take notes and then come in after school in order to catch herself up. This isn’t the answer that she wanted to hear so she becomes a problem. And I put her out. She’s upset because we’re able to help other students and not her. As I tried to explain to her and the security guard, the other students have been here and most of them are working hard to continue to grasp and succeed at what’s going on. I can’t teach this concept to you in the time it takes for me to assist someone.
 “So, you need to come in after school in order to really be able to learn the concepts in order to understand the steps.”
“I ain’t got time to be coming in after school!”
“So, what you’re saying is that you don’t have time to learn?”
I have two male students that I have to constantly put out.  They do very, very little work if any at all. I’ve called home talked with parents and guardian, only to be told that actions and attitudes will change and it doesn’t. And I’m not the only person that has to put these two out. I’ve spoken with their other teachers and they tell me that they have experienced the same things, followed the same actions of referrals and calling home without any change. Why are they still in school?

Why should a class of students suffer because of the negative actions of two or three? Let these kids hurt themselves and not others. I can’t/won’t go back three to four months during class for one student and hold the others back. My other productive, succeeding students, many who have worked very hard, deserve more than that during instruction time. They also deserve to have their right to an education defended with my action of removing external obstacles that may be in their way of getting that education, if I can.

Now is the time to give more time to the good kids. It’s time to allow them to excel and to allow their teachers to excel as educators because they can teach instead of police. Too often these good students are ignored because they can do the work, are not problems and can be trusted to act like they have some sense. But that’s not fair to their growth as a student and person. And they (as well as their parents) are the ones who are responsible enough to be active, involved, respectful and caring. As a parent you shouldn’t have to wonder if your child’s ability is dropping due to his or her lack of being taught. It’s not fair. And this year for me, it’s really not fair because my students are mostly international students who are working very hard in class to not only understand the course work but to improve their command of English.  They work hard but a student or students (usually American), whose sense of entitlement is an obstacle for any student tying to achieve on merit and hard work is constantly cutting short their instructional time by being disruptive. This cut in time can cause students who want to learn to fall behind in being prepared for quizzes, tests, or state and federal mandated tests. This in turn causes their school to receive a report that isn’t a fair indicator of its student’s abilities. The bulk of attention must be shifted back to the positive students. For this to happen, the negative aspects of the school must be dealt with or eliminated. Before you start, I’m not trying to deny anyone the opportunity to get an education. I am saying some students need to decide if they really want to get an education or learn how to get an education. Because I am not going to allow five students out of a class of thirty-two to deter, slow down or eliminate the opportunity of getting the best possible education for students that want it. Today, the young lady I was speaking of earlier was bragging (loudly) about how she used to get into trouble due to the regularity of her mother having to constantly come to her middle school and snatch her up. “Shit, everybody knew who my mama was at that school!” Unfortunately, they knew her for negative reasons and the other sad thing is that this may be the only way that she knows how to get attention.


Now is the time to stop allowing the negative behavior to become the norm by laughing at negative behavior as if it were cute when your toddler imitates negativity from either the television or you. It’s time for some to parent and stop waiting and or expecting someone else to do it for you. No school or program should have to raise your child. Young parents have to realize that programs like HeadStart, has to begin at home. School cannot and should not be the only place where your child learns. Education needs to be a constant message at home or your child may always be part of the StartOver group. It’s time for responsibility to stop being a bad word. It’s time for “you know, that’s just how we act” to mean achievement and describe positive actions and not be a cop out for your color or economic situation.


Now is the time for more male teachers. When last I checked, male teachers made up 2.4% of the teaching population. Black male educators made up less than that. This profession has to be able to compete with the business sector for men coming out of college. In the book, Teachers Have It Easy by Moulthrop, Calegari and Eggers there are stories from teachers explaining why they left the profession. Almost every letter from men talked about the need to make more money (in order to raise a family) based on the amount of work that is required of this job. One gentleman left for the business sector and was very successful but spoke of how he really did love teaching and was sad that he felt like he had to leave. Don’t get me wrong we need folks in the business… but when you have a person, male or female who wants to teach and loves it, you need to hold on to these people. They say that fifty percent of teachers are quitting the profession within their first three years of teaching. Are we going to allow for the burnt out teachers who are not energetic, enthusiastic or current to continue to teach? Will we continue to allow noncompetitive wages, bad administrations, bad schools and parents to run young, energetic, good educators out?



Now is the time to realize that we are sending inferior students to universities.  My friends who teach at this level constantly ask, “What’s going on in schools today, Fletch?” Their biggest complaint is that the kids don’t know how to think, not to mention don’t think that they should have to do so. They tell me of the low ability in expression, technique, as well as work ethic of in-coming freshmen. And this is coming from professors at well-known schools and smaller universities also. We have to realize that social promotion to the next grade at any level of education is not preparing children for the future and that it not only hurts them in the future but society to have so many poorly educated people that we expect to be leaders.

Now is the time to stop believing that money without a cultural change towards education will ”fix” the problems in schools nationwide. With the building of new schools, programs or services, there must also be a building of a work ethic and a desire to be educated. Unfortunately, while we are teaching this to our students we at times must also teach this to parents. This need for work ethic isn’t just in need within what we call bad schools either. Many children from the good schools feel a sense of entitlement also. And they too, are lazy and expect things to be made easier for them. Oh, and simply putting the word Academy at the end of your school name will not be enough to change the atmosphere of education without work.

Now is the time to end the delusional sense of entitlement within society. I am so tired of people believing that they deserve something for nothing. And many of you have had to deal with this too. As far as my students are concerned it comes in the form of expecting or demanding a higher grade than they deserve. I constantly hear:
“Why isn’t my grade higher, I came to class everyday!” So what…where is the work?
And I love,  -“Why am I only getting half credit? I did some of the work.”
    -“ I know… and that D represents some of the work”

You think that he would have realized that he just answered his own question. I’ve spoken about this in other sections of work so I won’t spend too much time on it. But parents, from where are your children learning this? And why is it allowed to continue? It doesn’t help them when they come across people in their lives who won’t allow them to coast through. And you will not always be able to shield him or her or fight their battles. My same friends who are university professors tell me stories of parents trying to contact them to talk about what can be done to change their child’s grade. That may work in high school folks but not college. Friends who work with teens in the food industry tell me the same type of stories. You can’t call a manager and demand that your child gets his/her job back! Now your child has to be responsible for his or her actions (or lack of). And this is where for some, the realization begins. Work, discipline and accountability along with the ability and desire to think are the things that your child needs. Let’s hope he or she has these qualities.

Now has always been the time why we can’t wait.

The Break

Well, here we are... the second week of Christmas Break (the week that you said you'd use to get organized and get ahead of yourself for the upcoming term). Yeah Right.

Now, there are many who are productively using the break and crossing t's and dotting i's early. The rest of us are as bad as our students when they're given an assignment that's due in two weeks. We wait until the last minute and hope we get it all done. So, what have you been doing? Drinking, shopping, lunch with friends (more drinking), dinner with friends...drinking, sleeping in (due to drinking), more drinking, parties (eating and drinking), folks in from out of town (drinking and stories from back in the day). And what did you tell yourself you would do over the break? Rest, read a good book (menus don't count), here's a good one... work out more, HA! When do you have the time? The only things being worked out are you wrists and biceps from fork lifting and 12 oz. curls. From waking up and feeling like dirt from the night before, the phone rings with a friend on the other end inviting you to lunch or to watch some sporting event on the local pub's t.v.. However, you are doing a lot of sit-ups... sitting up to take some aspirin, sitting up to try to feel human again, sitting up to push yourself away from the table or bar, sitting up to get up from the couch and grab the remote control.

Then you see something out of the corner of your eye. It's your stack of papers and school materials over in the corner. You get up, pick the up and move them somewhere where you can't see them (preferable the closet). You sit back down and you think of your students, even though you you told them that you wouldn't be thinking of them over the break:
    -" Mr. Fletch... you gonna miss us over the break?"
    - " If I start missing you all over the break, it just means I'm not drinking enough."
But you do think of them. You hope they're enjoying themselves and that they're safe. And you thank God that you haven't seen any of them on the news due to anything painful. I then hope that the majority of them spend some Christmas money on some damn school supplies! I can already hear it:
    - " I ain't nobody spendin' Christmas money on school supplies... that's lame!"

But enough of that... Get back to your break and enjoy yourselves. The reality of school will be upon us soon enough.