Blog 2

My essay focuses on the role of the Board of Education in the current problems facing the DCPS. Since the Board is the primary policymaking and oversight body of the DCPS, the members should be held accountable for the current state of education. My main question is why schools that continually fall below guidelines remain opened and unchanged? Many schools in the DCPS need additionally assistance to be successful; instead they fall to the sidelines. Changes need to be made and the Board must ensure that their policy decisions reach the students. While my experience at the charter school has been enlightening to the problems facing many families, the charter schools are not the responsibility of the Board. While I fully believe that charter schools require additional oversight, the system that they currently function under is much more effective than the DCPS. Requiring the charter schools to be evaluated under the DCPS is ineffective until comprehensive reforms occur. Eventually, the entire school system should be overseen together to evaluate the best path for success. That looks like a glimpse in the far future.

While the evidence from charter schools does not directly assist the development of my paper, looking at the homes and attitudes of the students gives me insight into urban life. In my first and second visits to the school, I had the opportunity to evaluate the classroom environment and the administrative side. Stuffing letters in the office allowed me to overhear conversations between the secretaries and with parents. One that was especially upsetting involved a custody dispute. The father called into the school requesting pickup of his children. He claimed that at a trial earlier in the day, the judge granted him full custody. The office stated they required a letter from the judge to turn over his children. They were baffled as to why the judge would give permission to an unemployed and drug addicted parent when the mother was employed, involved, and would give her life for her children. Fortunately, the mother came to pickup her children and was told of the encounter with the father. Alarmed, the mother immediately wanted to know if her children were on campus. The mother had received custody of the children in court that morning. Fortunately, the children were still in school and the administration was careful who to release the children to. Stories of destructive parents were openly told in the office in addition to poverty and hunger issues. While I never saw office life from the perspective of a suburban, successful school district, I imagine the calls to be completely different. Only the precision of the office guarantees the safety of the students. If this was not the case, as I assume it is not at many schools, children could be kidnapped.

The attitude and personality of the students was very different from that of my kids at summer camp. They had a tendency to talk back not only to each other but also to the teacher. Being kind just didn’t fly. Students took advantage of positive reinforcement of behavior and only paid attention or aligned under strict rules. The strictness of the teachers alarmed me; I could not believe their harshness. Only later, did I realize that they only registered a response if teachers used a strict tone. They made fun of each other when answers were given incorrectly; the teachers enforced such peer pressure. I felt that this hindered the self-esteem and lead to less class participation. The most distressing part of the day revolved around the playground. Teachers sat back while students played a quasi-tag. This tag involved tackling each other onto the ground and hitting or punching. I had to break up too many fights without the assistance or response from faculty. How can a teacher stand back and nonchalantly watch this treatment? Where did these students learn to play violently? Was it the environment of southeast DC or the mass amounts of inappropriate TV? The students in elementary school watched MTV and a vast array of PG13 or R rated movies. They mimicked the actions of these actors. Watching their behavior was distressing, I tried to be positive and assist in mediations instead of violence. At the end of the day, I felt that my attempts were ineffective.