This post makes my post from yesterday seem frivolous. In the grand scheme of things, I have nothing to complain about. Not when things like this keep happening.
A student was beaten to death outside Fenger High School last week. Apparently students were beating on the door of the high school, asking to be let in, and weren't allowed in the building. According to Chicago Public Radio, students still in class were able to watch the fight from their classroom windows.
I didn't think the story could get more horrifying until I heard that report on the radio this morning.
I bitch about my students and how ridiculous they can be sometimes, but when something like this happens, I'm reminded again of all the challenges they have to deal with on a daily basis. I guess I should be grateful my students bother coming to school at all. Coming to school or walking home from school should not be a life or death decision. But it is.
The question, as always, is what are we doing about it? Our mayor is in Denmark rallying for the 2016 Olympics. We don't have enough police officers, and the ones we do have are working without a contract. We are doing nothing to deal with poverty. We still think this is not our problem -- and I guess until middle class students are getting beaten to death outside of school, it won't be.
My students haven't talked about this much. My seniors read an excerpt from Primo Levi's memoir of Auschwitz yesterday, and we were discussing the horrors of the Holocaust. I mentioned that we don't seem to have learned much from that tragedy -- that we are still really good at killing each other. The beating was brought up then, but no one seemed to want to talk about it.
I want to have faith that things will get better, but I have absolutely no evidence that they will.
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-Nikki-
Instead of accusing her of whining or sending her blog posts that you think will make her a better teacher, go back in after school with a can of soda or a Snickers bar or something, empathize with her a little bit, ask if you can help. Then tell her that you don't want your son's difficulties in her class to add to her stress, so you would really like it if the two of you together could figure out how to help him do better.
You're so brave to teach on the southside. Good luck to you!
Annoir, I agree with you. I know people are being nice when they say that, but I'm just doing my job. I get to go home and not worry about the things my kids have to worry about. They are the ones who are brave -- whether they want to be or not. It breaks my heart every day.
Hold on and keep believing that things will get better. :)
right there, you've summed up what's wrong with CPS in two sentences. How the hell can grammar and literature compete with survival? It doesn't.
I can hardly imagine the Olympics in Chicago -- where are they considering having them? Is there enough vacant land anywhere but to the extreme south or western portion of the city? It would then not be in Chicago proper?
Thanks for writing this. This is a major story and I'm glad it was noted as such. A couple of points:
1. I long for a world where somebody can tell this story or comment on it---and NO ONE TAKES A SHOT AT YOU OR THE COMMENTATOR!!!! In the shots taken at you or the commentator---little bits of venom that are basically saying YOU ARE STUPID lie the roots of what happened at Fenger.
2. Another aspect of the story is that it was filmed---and while it was being filmed ---via several kids cell phones; the kids made the choice to film instead of calling the police..
I was going to write on this today---because the horror of this- really is that bad. But knowing that my stuff is banned from the front page, I knew it would only go to my limited readership --- So I held back hoping that someone else would write about it and it would then get on the front page. I am grateful that happened!
This is a complex, multi-layered horror story that involves ALL of us. Whether you live in Chicago or not.
I am grateful for the fact that you've surfaced this here.
Telling the story is the way to make things change. Now what we who listen must do is above all---NOT ATTACK THE STORY TELLER OR THE COMMENTATORS!
Roger
"when something like this happens, I'm reminded again of all the challenges they have to deal with on a daily basis. I guess I should be grateful my students bother coming to school at all. "
I don't understand why you are berating her. She appears to be a caring person.
But I also feel that this is Open Salon. What is interesting about being in these forums, is that an issue like this can take off in so many different directions and I think that is ok. I didn't feel like I was attacking the commentator. What I would like her to do is examine her own thoughts and comments. Why is she identifying with a teacher who self-admittedly doesn't live the life that these kids have to?
I do appreciate your comments, and will keep them in mind when I post.
I would like to mention that Ms Fuji could work at a school where there is not so much violence and trouble. She could even go to work in the private sector and make real money. These kids have no choice. She does and she stays.
As for the Olympics, it would put a lot of money and jobs into the works. That may help in the short term. Money for cops, repairs, and infrastructure. Pull in a few more tax dollars from newly employed and visitors. Not as much money as they are touting, but wouldn't every little bit help? I wouldn't mind some stimulus going to this cause. Heck, perhaps this is where the stimulus needs to be going.
Teachers in the first year of their career are still learning the job, and are rated as probationers in UK
They have old loans, the expense of relocation and are paid a month in arrears.
They have to prepare and deliver about 200 new lessons - which may be reused in years two onwards.
At least the girl was honest with you.
Bullying can be easily STOPPED at schools. The question is why do we like it so much that we let go on? Everyone must answer this question first: Why do we admire bullying so much and encourage it in schools? If we didn't we would have stopped it long time ago.
Many laws can be enacted to put an immediate stop to school bullying. Instead, the laws and the culture only discourage retaliation against bullying. Why is that? The answer to this question is the solution to the problem.
We, like civilized nations, should teach our children not to beat up on the weak. I know it is a foreign concept, but it is honorable.
Rated.
It is the grossest criminal offense to place your child in the care of our school system. The schools in this land are authoritarian trash heaps worshiping the USA's criminal government.
Think of the tip of an iceberg when you see a child beaten to death and everyone else just watching. How much more violence do we not get to see? What kind of secretive violence is practiced against your kids while they're in school?
School will not help your children succeed in life. School will make your child into another corporate slave in America. School is the place you send your child to lose it.
There are some individuals who are programmed towards violence, but usually, for the vast majority of us, violence does not materialize out of nothing. Anger has to be fed.