Preoccupied-The Gift of Deception
So many times we get preoccupied with the wrong things. I guess that is dictated by our morals, our goals, and our upbringing. Nevertheless, I can’t help but to wonder why we as a people sometimes choose to ignore the real issues and allow a smokescreen to cover up the very things that we need to deal with. Yeah, I know this may sound a little corky but I am deeply disturbed with the set up of my work situation. Now I must say that it is important that you watch what you ask for because you just may get it.
About two years ago I found myself constantly saying, Man, I wish I could work in a situation where parents participated in their children’s education, "What’s wrong with my people"? Why do they not care about their children’s education? Well this year I have it; parent participation and everything that comes along with it. In the environment in which I work the parents run the school. That is good when it is a healthy situation. However, through my observations, the parents in the community that my school services seems to run the school in an unhealthy way. They run the school through the use of force and intimidation….and what’s even worse, is that the students know that their parents run the school and try to use it to their advantage.
A classic example is the administration. My immediate administrator has no back bone and would rather the teacher to give the student the grade "A" that for the student to earn it. She is overly concerned about how things look. Hello!!!!! The test will catch them. If the students have to pass the state criterion referenced test in order to be promoted to 9th grade then why in the hell are we pacifying the parents? Shit. If little Johnny or Becky is dumb as a bag of rocks why not communicate that with the parents so that the parents can get some help for their darling little angels instead of having parents living in “delusions of grandeur” when it come to the actual knowledge that their children posses.
I guess what brought on this vent is on last Friday I called a parent to let them know of the progress of their child. First of all the whole situation was dysfunctional because the daddy’s girlfriend answered the phone and the little girl that we will call Deon does not like her at all. How do I know this? Well she verbalizes it every morning during homeroom. I spoke with the girlfriend and expressed to her my concerns and she assured me that she would give the dad the message.
Well on Friday I was called to my assistant principals office. I had no idea for what. No one told me why. It was just come. So I went. Deon’s dad was sitting in my AP’s office. I thought it was my daughter’s high school basketball coach. He looked just like him. As I got closer I saw that it wasn’t. I was introduced and it kind of went from there. He expressed his concerns about her having a 61 and I expressed mine about the quality of her work. Now mind you my AP was there in the meeting. I was hot because she could have given me a heads up so that I could have brought some samples of her work. Well the she didn’t and you know what happened next. We played the blame game until finally I took the blame and then asked my AP to send for Deon. Yes, I took the blame for Deon not doing quality work; I took the blame for Deon not hading in her assignments; and get this I haven’t known Deon but about three to four weeks at this time. Well in the mean time my AP opened her trap and started to discuss how things look. It doesn’t look good for this to happen. It doesn’t look good for that to happen and then when the Deon walked in she explained that it didn’t look good for her to have an F. Granite she is right. It doesn’t look good for her to have an F. But what about the knowledge? I finally interjected….. in fact it may have been borderline rude. I expressed to Deon that since we are focusing on how things look, over all it doesn’t look good for you not to have knowledge. That is the goal knowledge. Of course everyone in the meeting looked at me as if I was a fuckin’ idot. But hell….at that point I felt as the other two dumb asses were idiots. If a kid takes ownership of his/her education he will gain knowledge and the "A" will take care of itself. Finally Deon left and her father proceeded down to the classroom with me. I had to break this arrogant mutha fucker down. Thank God I have committed to keeping all graded assignments because when I started to hand those assignments over for the father to view, he began to look like a sick puppy. At the end of the conference the fucker had the nerve to ask me was I married. I must admit that he was fine as shit, but I did deem that statement as inappropriate. He gave me his business card and left and then it happened.
My AP said to me in the cafeteria "Why is that you were just letting him know that his child is failing"? He expressed to me that you had not given the students a test. You haven’t graded their homework, how does that look?…Blah, Blah, Blah…..and I am standing their look like WTF? You just gave me access to my grade book on Tuesday and I have stayed here at the school until seven o’clock every night since taking away from my own children. I guess that means nothing right? Although none of those allegations are true, I was out done at the fact that she did not inform me of his allegations before I walked into the meeting. It was a shytti situation.
At any rate the reason I titled this entry Preoccupied is that I have noticed throughout all of my years of teaching that the schools on the south side of most counties in Georgia are preoccupied with the wrong things. We spend much time on "Tuck your shirt in and pull your pants up", No talking in the halls, Take your earrings out, Make sure you cover up your tattoos. Well….. all of that is great but on the north end they are overly concerned with education and their children passing the state criterion referenced test. It’s sad but the reality is that no matter how hard we work as a teacher to prepare students and to help them to be productive members of society their is always a smokescreen that covers up the real issues….The issue of gaining knowledge and projecting good character. My school is wrapped in pretty paper. I mean if it were a gift under the Christmas tree I would pick it if I did not know what was in the box. Nevertheless, the reality is that the box is full, but is overly full of cheap gifts that are of little to no quality that can easily be broken if enough pressure is applied.
I have finally figured out who my students remind me of. The picture above should tell all. They remind me of Riley on the Boondocks (males and females alike). Today there were a series of incidents that occurred from the time I walked into the school building until it was time to go. I have to find humor it what they do. If I don’t find humor in what they do I won’t make it. I do find humor in the things that they do however, I also try to correct the behaviors. Sometimes that is like so real hard. 