Blind and Naked...Part II

Today I watched and listened. Here is what I saw and heard. Early in the morning, I observed the boy who never wants to go home. He does not want to go home because he has been molested by a neighbor and now the neighbor and the Mom are friends and all is well, or so we are told. He ran down the hallway with a look of fierce determination on his face. He ran away from a para-professional who chased him with an equally determined look on her face. I watched as he turned the corner and exited the building. It was 9:45 a.m. He was on the lam earlier than normal today because it is Friday and the prospect of spending an entire weekend away from the security of the school is too much for his little heart and mind to handle.

I observed three new students in a dual language classroom. They are sweet children, but with cognitive issues and possible learning disabilities, they should not be part of a program which requires them to do everything in two languages. These three students were tested last year and it was determined that they needed to be held back or kept out of the dual language program. They may have even required special services. Why then would they be placed into a challenging program which requires students to perform in two languages? One might be surprised to discover that numbers of bodies in a classroom are often more important than what is best for the students. Apparently the numbers in that classroom were too low. That is the teacher's conclusion. It is my conclusion as well. Those three students are boosting numbers. Whether or not they thrive academically or socially remains to be seen.

I observed the sixth grade bathrooms today. Although it is only the fourth week of school, both of the urinals are broken. This appears to be deliberate. It takes strength and determination to wreck a brand new urinal in a brand new building. In the other bathroom, someone took multiple paper towels, soaked them, dripped and flung water everywhere and then plastered many of these paper towels all over the brand new walls. This means extra work for the custodian and some minor destruction of brand new property.

Today I read a memo from our union president. We are working without a new contract. Some of the issues are school safety, student discipline, classroom sizes and teacher lay-offs. It is hard to maintain school safety when a small child can quickly exit the building onto the street in order to escape going home. It is hard to maintain student discipline when some students feel free to wreck urinals and throw paper towels everywhere. It is difficult to teach well with "maxed out" class sizes. Research, after all, shows that students perform better in smaller classrooms. Laid off teachers mean that fewer adults are available to run a building successfully. These are just observations, of course.