The Biggest Challenge I Face in my Classroom

In July, I spent a week at the University of Kansas studying the landmark Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education. At the end of our day at the Brown national park site, the lead professor of the seminar shared with us a quote from W.E.B DuBois on segregated education and opened the floor to the participants to share their thoughts and reactions.

What happened next was a teacher led discussion on educational inequality starting with the segregated schools of the American South in the 1960's and leading up to today.  It was a very interesting 90 minutes, with 25 teachers from around the country exploring many issues from race, teacher effectiveness, parental involvement and their influence on education. As a teacher from New York City, my contribution to the discussion focused on the crippling affect that poverty is having on many of the students in New York City and around the country.

Teaching in the Bronx for the past two years has brought the issue of poverty crashing into my world. I teach students who can rarely stay after school for extra help or extracurricular activities because they need to go home and watch their siblings while their parents (or in some cases, parent) work. Over 80% of the students at my school qualify for reduced or free lunches based on their family income. These are just two of many examples that I could use to show that learning is just one of my challenges my students face each day.When my students step into my classroom each morning, many of them have already had a pretty tough day; education is often the furthest thing from their minds.

If you listen to the media in our country, the performance of American students does not offer much promise for our future. A report released in 2004 shows that American students rank toward the middle or back of the statistical pack on math, science and reading standardized tests when compared with 34 countries globally. However, recent studies have shown that affluent students score up to 40% higher on standardized tests when compared with low income students, an increase that would have an impact on the statistics found in the 2004 report mentioned above. While there are many issues facing education in America, the one with the most profound impact on our educational system is the gap found between rich and poor students.

This week, NY1 reported that up to 70% of students in New York City live at or below the poverty line. On a personal level, this article comes at the right time, as I begin to shift out of "summer" mode and prepare for the upcoming school year (call it Spring Training for Teachers if you will). This study is a reminder of not only how important my job is, but how challenging it is as well. I agree that quality instruction and teaching can make a tremendous impact on students but I'm also aware that there are many forces out of my control that impact my work as well, with poverty being at the top of that list.

This isn't a teacher making excuses (as I'm sure many people outside of the world of education would believe) but rather an educator who lives and experiences these issues everyday. We live in a world of "quick fix" solutions (over testing students, charter schools, vouchers, "for profit" education, etc) but poverty is an issue that goes beyond the classroom and thus cannot be "easily" tackled. As with all education issues, it is vital that teachers share their voice on this issue and push for change. From there, it is left to our government and policy makers to do what we need them to do and take on the most difficult issues facing America today, starting with the disparity between rich and poor and the devastation that extreme poverty is having on both our country and classrooms.