My school is not perfect. Just like any school it has strengths and weaknesses. However, one of our strengths, I believe, is the relationship we have with our parents and community. My school is a neighborhood school that has been a stable and positive force in the community for many years. Many of the children in my classroom have parents and even grandparents that attended the school. People in the neighborhood feel comfortable here. They feel a sense of belonging when they enter the school doors. You can see it with the many warm greetings between parents, teachers, and students.
I am now approaching my fifth year teaching at this school, and each year I feel more like an integral part of the school and community. This year I especially feel a strong relationship with the parents in my classroom. They feel comfortable talking to me and discussing problems or concerns. Many of the parents in my school community are faced with very difficult issues to overcome. One parent in particular came to me and told me that her family of four was currently homeless. She needed help finding a place to live and clothes for her children. This was not easy for her to tell me. I was extremely relieved that she felt comfortable enough to discuss this with me and to trust that I would do everything I could to help. I had taught this parent’s older child my first year of teaching and now had another one of her children in my class. Our relationship was developed overtime and was enhanced by our ability to support and trust each other. Had I not worked to build this trusting relationship with her throughout these years I do not think she would have felt comfortable approaching me with her problem.
Thinking about this sense of community and strong relationships with parents got me wondering, what would a school feel like if this was lost?
In 2006 Chicago Public Schools adopted a turnaround approach. Schools that are chronically low performing are turned around by letting go of all or most of the staff in the school including teachers and administration, and then new staff is hired and trained. In the 2011/2012 school year CPS will receive $50 million in federal funding to go towards this turnaround project.
I believe that these struggling schools need help. They no doubt are in high poverty areas where children and parents are working to overcome a great deal of obstacles. They are most likely underfunded and lacking resources. However, I wonder does hiring all new staff members and changing the name of the school really produce a better educational environment for these children. When everyone they know and trusted is gone will they feel safe at their school? Will they want to attend this new school? How will all of this affect their ability to focus and learn in the classroom? What about the parents? Will they feel the same sense of belonging and pride in a school that they have no relationship with? In Diane Ravitch’s speech, Taking Back School Reform, she states, “Closing a school destroys its social network”. I can only imagine how much time it would take to rebuild this sense of community once it has been destroyed.
Yes, I feel that a change needs to be made in these schools, but what if the money was put toward providing necessary resources and training to the people who have made this school their home for many years. Ravich states, in her book Death and Life of the Great American School System, “The goal of accountability should be to support and improve schools, not the heedless destruction of careers, reputations, lives, communities, and institutions”. Turnaround schools seem to be a quick fix. Put a mask over the problem and maybe no one will realize it is there. In education there are no short cuts. Improvement takes time, effort, and resources.
Mrs. J
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