Article: An Emergency Teacher

Article in "The Epoch Times".

The Emergency Teacher

One writer's journey into the world of inner-city schools can teach us all about the problems this country's educational system faces.

by Jared Pearman
(Epoch Times Washington DC Staff)

In August 1999, just before the start of the new school year, Philadelphia still had 1,500 teacher vacancies, meaning there were 1,500 classrooms soon to be filled with children that still had no teacher.

Christina Asquith, a young journalist from Philadelphia's Inquirer decided to fill one of the many positions.

"Just for a year," she says, but that was enough to change her life. Now she has published a book about that year which she hopes will help to change the lives of teachers and students neglected by struggling school systems.

The Emergency Teacher, published by West Parley Press, tells the story of how this ambitious young woman came to teach 6th grade at the poorest ranked middle school in Philadelphia, Julia de Burgos Middle School. It exposes corruption in the administration and inspires its readers to think about how to fix the problems.

Emergency Shortages.

"No Child Left Behind," reads the slogan on the door of the Dept. of Education in Washington, D.C., but Christina Asquith and most teachers who have taught in urban schools would say that many children are being left behind.

"It's crazy that someone can just walk in off the street with no training and be a teacher, but that's what I did," says Christina.

With so many empty slots in the late nineties, school districts all across the country instituted a policy of hiring "emergency certified" teachers. According to Christina, that translates into almost no certification at all.

"Many people opposed the idea of emergency certification, pointing out that the equivalent in medicine would be to solve a hospital's doctor shortage by doing away with medical school and board examinations, and simply telling anyone who wanted to be a doctor to 'train on the job,' " states Christina in her book.

Because of the emergency hiring of uncertified teachers, "Students in Philadelphia have not been able to count on getting a teacher who had mastered basic academic skills," states a report by the Learning from Philadelphia's School Reform Program entitled 'Once and for All.'

The report says that less than half of the emergency certified teachers passed the reading test, and only sixty percent passed the writing test.

"Their inexperience makes classroom management a problem," the report goes on to say.

Turnover is also a major problem with these teachers. Because they are not well prepared, well treated, or provided enough support, they are truly just a band-aid that won't stick over the scar of swelling schools.

Not only does Christina estimate that a mere twenty percent of her students probably would have stuck it out to graduate this year as scheduled, but also probably only twenty percent of the teachers are still around.

"So many teachers are just thrown in, so they fail and then they leave,' laments Christina at the loss of so many teachers with the heart to teach and the potential to do a good job.

"Most teachers at the school cried themselves to sleep at least once a week."

'Inspiring but Realistic'

"I really had to redefine what it means to 'make a difference. I thought I could change the lives of those students in that year," says Christina with the wisdom of honest reflection.

"When people read my book, many are humbled. People can be so idealistic, but 'making a difference' is a lifetime goal, it can't happen in just a year."

"You can make a difference," Christina states confidently, but she adds the old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child and you are only one person in that village."

Christina was a good teacher, made evident by the inscriptions her students wrote in her yearbook. However, one good teacher for one year can only have a limited effect on people's lives.

What Are the Problems?

"When I tried to help, I made enemies, and for that I was punished," Christina says about her attempts to expose administration loopholes that children slip through.

After writing an article for The Inquirer about how special-ed students were left without teachers to waste an entire year of their lives, the Principal took up a vendetta against her. "Of course she wasn't punishing me - she was punishing my students."

Often, the students pay the price for bureaucratic, administration, and teacher problems, and not only do they pay for the problems, they are often blamed as well.

One day, Christina read a newspaper article on the front page with the headline 'Why are Philadelphia Schools Stuck with So Many Bad Kids.' She looks frustrated just remembering that headline. "It should have read 'Why are Philadelphia Kids Stuck with So Many Bad Schools.'"

"People have a misperception of what is going on in schools."

Everyone is blaming the kids or blaming the parents," but Christina thinks that the school administrators and the government are avoiding responsibility, especially when school problems are blamed on a lack of parental involvement.

"Parents aren't supposed to be there from 8am-3pm. They pay thousands of dollars at year to have their children in schools for that time."

For the students who don't graduate, it has to be asked: did they give up on school or did school give up on them?

Many people think that the problem is financial, but Christina retorts "Our school had just gotten million dollar grant and we were flush with money, that money just never made it to my classroom."

Students did not have books and the building was falling apart. "It is not managed properly."

Lost Children

"Right now, there is no impetus for reform or improvement. No teacher enjoys working in these schools and yet they perpetuate the problems," Christina shakes her head slowly in contemplation of the mess of this problem.

There is no simple solution, but there are no many good suggestions for how to dig into and chip away at it. None of them are easy and all of them require everyone to own up their piece in both the problem and the solution.

'The Emergency Teacher' quotes Aristotle at the beginning of Chapter 18 and it is a fitting way to end this article and inspire people to contemplate the importance of education and the potential that society loses with every child disappointed and neglected by inadequate schools.

"All those who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of the youth."

 

Great story, and it reminded me of my days in high school, which weren't like the high schools of Philly, although we did have our occasional troublemakers every once in a while, who were (get this) mostly non-students/trespassers looking for something to get into when they had nothing else better to do, and after I had graduated from the high school, a year later after the school board of directors was newly staffed, I learned from a word or two on the street that the school had turn into a hell-hole also, similar to the one on that Boston Public show.

 

Great story! I have a lot of friends that graduated from Detroit public schools who talk about similar things happening in their schools. Shit, I know in Highland Park High they have police officers as instructors! Its amazing how some of these high schools will let anyone teach and give a lot a students diplomas who can barely read/write.