Who is Teaching Our Kids and Why Not?

Los Angeles' Unified School District is not Beverly Hills. In other words, it is barely Caucasian, and barely English as a first language. In fact, one particular school district near downtown Los Angeles has a population where nearly nine of out every ten families do not speak English at home. That means English is a second or maybe third language for kids in school, and they are all too often frustrated because teachers have specific lesson plans that the kids cannot always keep up with.

The answer, according to many educators, is bilingual education. Teach children to learn English before they learn math and history and composition. Good as that sounds, there are many problems: first, finding qualified personnel who are proficient in more than one language. In California, that does not mean only Spanish. One teacher sums up her experience this way: "I have had 32 different languages spoken in my classroom over a 25-year period. Eighty-four languages are spoken in our district" ("My Odyssey" 1998 1).

The second problem is opposition from those who believe English is the "national" language, and one should not cater to the whims of those who believe otherwise. One of the more sophisticated bilingual critics, William Safire, wrote in the New York TIMES:

Liberal supporters of 'bilingual education' mean well. . .It hasn't worked. The kids could have told them at the start that if you don't speak English in school, you speak the language you hear at home. And the longer it takes you to become fluent in the American tongue, the less likely the student will be to excel in academic studies (Safire 1998 p.1).

There is far more at strake in teaching than bilingual or multi-lingual education. There is the politics. Not Republican vs. Democrat, or even Conservative vs. Liberal, but administrators firmly entrenched for years in the system, and therefore protected by union and tenure versus younger educators who want to go beyond the basic text books. In minority school districts, students need to understand the real world and how it works as much as what the Pythagorean theory is all about. One sees this conflict in teaching attitudes in a current dispute: "Students and fellow educators are rallying behind a fired Jordan High School teacher they say was sacked for encouraging political activism among her students" (Blume 2008 p. B 3). The newspaper article claims that a colleague of the fired teacher said he and several other instructors would resign or transfer to other schools to protest the dismissal of Karen Salazar, a second-year English teacher.

One can easily see that teaching and teachers have changed since past generations brought apples to a gray-haired maiden lady. Today, at least in Los Angeles, teachers come in all ethnic diversities, genders, marital status and even in their devotion to their classes. The fact that a teaching degree is required before being accepted as an "educator" no longer means that there are strict rules about how and even what to teach. What concerns critics, however, is not necessarily the quality of teachers, but often their agendas. Far too many teachers are hamstrung by the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires tests at certain grade levels and schools' progress (or lack thereof) measured by test score improvements over previous years. To many dedicated teachers, this is not learning. It is rote memorization, often forgotten after the tests. Given the social problems with so many minority students (single, or no-parent families, poverty, minimum wage job opportunities) WHO can be a role model as a teacher is often more important than WHAT is being taught. For far too many students in this school district, their teachers are the only decent role models they have. And those teachers are frustrated with what they can or cannot teach and what budget cuts mean in having available supplies and even text books available for each students. The teachers' frustration is beginning to have a negative effect on far too many schools and students. There needs to be more parent involvement in charting the course of their children's school progress. There needs to be more means to adjust ESL students to mastering English. There needs to be a taste of the real world in the classroom that Rand McNally does not provide students. Teachers need some freedom to asses the capabilities of potential of their students that are not foretold on a generic lesson plan.

References:

Blume, H. (2008): "School rallies round dismissed teacher;

About 60 people protest the dismissal of Karen Salazar from

Jordan High. She was criticized for being too

'Afro-centric." Los Angeles Times, June 12, 3008

"My Odyssey through Bilingual Education" Hedgehog Review

Accessed May 31, 2009 on

www.hedgehog-review.com/about.html

Safire, W. (1998): "Big Changes in California may signal

shifts elsewhere" New York TIMES, May 16, 1998