Trick or Treat in a Candy Jar

Just a humorous and slightly horrifying observation about something that happened recently. We often have rodent difficulties in our building and I remember one year when I caught no fewer than thirteen (yes, 13!) mice in my room over a two month period. They were located in various mouse traps strewn over the room, under desks....sometimes three to a trap...fascinating, yes... but enough about that incident.

Recently, a colleague experienced something slightly more gross. Hold on to your hats. She had an extremely large candy jar in her room. At one point, she left the jar open...apparently long enough for a stray rodent to wander into or fall into the jar. There must have been a lot of candy in the jar because apparently the creature expired in sugar ecstasy amidst the gum drops, candy corn and peppermints. To be very explicit, it died right smack in the middle of the jar and remained there for a substantial time. Of course, the teacher and others noticed the smell and the search was on over a couple of days to locate the offensive odor. Dead mice smell like dirty sneakers, in case anyone is interested but apparently this dirty sneaker odor was camouflaged by all the sugar. It was the custodian who finally discovered the dead mouse in the middle of the jar and I shudder to think how he figured it out. Individuals, including teachers and students regularly ate candy off the top part of the supply. One can only hope that candy was all they ingested.

Life is never boring in our building. I assure you that the lid of my candy jar is always screwed on tight! Perhaps this will be the year when I stop eating candy.

Bits and Pieces

"It's just bits and pieces of information and there is no synthesis for the students", complained a fifth grade teacher. I understood her frustration. Our students are getting ready to take the New York Social Studies exam in November and it is a painful process. I have fifth graders who cannot differentiate between state and city, country and waterway, continent and capital. Granted, I was once chided by an adult who complained that I did not know the exact shape of the African continent. I have since learned that shape and have done fairly well with my life all things considered. It is good to know what shape Africa is and it is even better to know where it is! When my students think that Florida is a country, that Canada is a state and that New Mexico is the country of Mexico, it is time for action. Part of the problem stems from the fact that none of this information seems relevant to their lives. I asked one of my fifth graders which street he lived on. He said, "Maria Street". I said, "Maria Street is an extremely small part of a very big world and this social studies information takes your mind and moves it beyond the confines of Maria Street". "Okay, Missy", he said simply. He was not convinced, and frankly neither was I. We have gotten "test heavy" and "life weak" and I feel it more this year for some reason.

I do think for some reason that this particular student began thinking about the world beyond Maria Street this week. Yesterday, he got excited about the book on Hawaii. He also got excited about the book on New Mexico. Who knows what made those two particular states click in his mind? Well, it turns out this student is really interested in drums. Somehow he associated Hawaii with drums. He joined a drums club this year and enjoys it a lot! It has profound meaning and value and relevance for him.

This past week, my cousin and her husband survived a terrible motorcycle accident. He will recover in about 6 months but is agonizing through it all with a broken back, broken ribs and general trauma. She is more severely injured with a severed spinal cord and multiple injuries. They live in Ohio. When I told my students about it, this student who lives on Maria Street said immediately, "I will pray for her. My Grandmother has a lot of people who pray and I will tell her too". The others chimed in quickly promising to pray and some were even slightly teary-eyed. Two of the boys then spent class time drawing pictures of elaborate crosses for me to send on to my cousin's family. My students thought this accident had occurred in the Rochester area. I told them it happened in Ohio. To give them a better idea, I said, "You know...Columbus, Ohio...the states and capitals we have been studying? "Oh right Missy". Exactly, I think...connection...meaning...value and relevance...all vital things. We all need those things as adults. Why wouldn't our students? We may yet survive the November season of social studies testing!

A Child Mourns

Today I grieve for a child in my second grade class. In this job there are certain times when I have to set sorrow or frustration aside and continue on with my day. This time, it is different. Last week, out of the blue, one of my little second grade girls piped up and said matter of factly, "My daddy was killed". I stopped the lesson and asked her what had happened. She said simply, "He was shot five times in the..." and here her words trailed off as she tried to come up with the word for chest. She finally waved her hands around the front of her upper body and continued on, "here Missy...". A few other students tried to chime in with tales of family members who had also been shot, but I quieted them. This was her time. I asked her what his name was and she responded quietly, "Angel Luis". She told me she had photographs. I said I was very sorry and asked that she bring them in. Yesterday afternoon, when I picked up her class, she stood at the front of the line, clutching a number of photos...no envelope, just grimy little fingers hanging on to them for dear life. She smiled at me and said, "I have the pictures, Missy".

When we settled in the classroom, I announced we had something special today and we all needed to be very quiet and respectful. All the students knew her father had been killed and they waited for her to start. She went around the room and placed the six photos before each child. There were three photos of graves in Puerto Rico, including her father's site. He was 35. He was murdered in 2008. One photo was of her smiling reflectively in front of the grave, her face surrounded by bright flowers. One photo was of the father alive, posing in their backyard with one of the roosters he raised. The final photo was him lying in the casket, well dressed with a baseball cap and a swollen face, which one of the children immediately pointed out. In this photo, the daughter stood quietly with a slight smile at the head of the casket, right next to her father's face with a look in her eyes as if she were waiting for directions.

I asked if she knew who killed him. She shrugged her shoulders. One of the other students piped up and said, "You said it was a big boy with a gun"...but the little girl shrugged again. I asked if it were gang related and she shrugged again. When she was finished, she gathered up the photos carefully and returned to her seat. We all clapped quietly for her and thanked her for her honesty and bravery. One little girl wiped away tears but when another pointed out that she was crying, she shook her head and said, "I have something in my eye". That was it. We then got down to the ridiculous task of working on Dolch sight words for second grade. I watched the little girl holding the photos with one hand and writing her words and working diligently on her packet with the other hand. Once, she stopped writing and looked at the photos for a long time. Then, she began her task again.

Yale or Jail...is there any other option?

One of my fifth graders asked me on Friday whether he could get a job if he did not go any further with his education after high school. I took a deep breath before I answered. As a teacher who feels slightly trapped as an educational cog in a "regents only" system, I understand what my kids are up against. The system races more and more swiftly towards a world of educational "haves" and "have nots". We promise educational opportunity for all but in many cases reward only those who exceed on standardized tests, learn in a certain way (so much for multiple intelligences and diversified learning) and most importantly those who can afford 4 year colleges and graduate schools. The race is on for competitive scholarships, financial aid and higher and higher grades. President Obama pushes for a longer school year and for a longer school day. While in and of itself longer school days are not necessarily bad, I suspect that in the case of my students, longer days and longer years will mean extra babysitting by teachers and not much more. I have participated in many after school programs. They included tutoring at the school, tutoring at a local community center, Saturday school and summer school. These programs were often well run and they hired good teachers and administrators. The intention was good. The books and materials were good. The pay was good. However, the children were more often than not, burned out and resentful about all the extra school time. The best thing for a lot of these children would have been a lot of glorious sunshine and fresh air, exercise and quality family time.

My students tend to be indoors when they are with family because they do not live in safe neighborhoods. All this extra academic time will be justified (not for academic reasons) but because the children will be babysat in a safe environment with reliable people. Let us be honest about this. Let us not pretend that all these thousands of students necessarily need extra academic input. They need safe neighborhoods, safe families and adults who make better choices about how their children spend their free time.

On Friday afternoons, I often ask my students what their weekend plans are. Over the years a number of them have said that they are visiting various family members in "Yale". I quickly learned that they meant jail. Spanish speaking English language learners sometimes struggle with the sounds of "y" and "j". "Jello" is "yellow" and "jump" is "yump" and "jail" is "yale". My 5th grader struggles with a lot more academically than "j" or "y". I would like to tell him that the economy will welcome him and his high school diploma with open arms. But I won't lie to him. I know that he will be frustrated with the answer. I am frustrated with the answer. Many of my students are gifted in drawing, building, speaking and acting. Their gifts often remain hidden because they are squelched and crushed under the weight of standardized tests and the "college or bust" mentality. Many of my students will not go to college. I know that. Many teachers know this as well. I want to see students have an option between the streets and college. They need internships and apprenticeships and businesses who will take them on while they develop and refine skills. Although it is considered heresy by some educators, perhaps even a return to the practice of tracking students could be beneficial. Tracking is not all bad. College is not all bad. Vocational training is not all bad. What is bad is a system which separates, discourages and eliminates. If I never help one student fill out an application for Yale, I will be fine. If I see more of them on the news or in the newspapers because of criminal activity or because of an early death due to violence, I will be angry.