When I was a high school teacher in the mid-80s, each of the teachers was allowed to make x number of copies per semester. I had 5 classes of about 28 kids each. Want to know how many copies I was allowed to make for the whole semester? 150. That's right. 150 impressions on the xerox machine. So I figured out how to run the ancient blue-chemical mimeograph machine in the corner of the Social Studies Resource Room.
Another vignette: One day during a summer school session, I broke up a fight in the hall. My shirt was torn, and frankly I couldn't afford to buy too many shirts in those days. I went to the principal and reported the incident, and asked naively, "How do I get reimbursed for my shirt which was torn in the line of duty?" Instead of laughing out loud, the patient man said, "There is no budget for that, but tell you what: I'll open up the supply closet and you can take a box full of stuff." Yes, that was the compensation for my torn shirt: the principal unlocked the supply closet, which was normally shut tight.
That's the kind of poverty mentality that pervades the public schools. And if you think it's gotten better since the 1980s, you haven't been reading the newspapers.
So I'm a little ambivalent about the Donors Choose thing. On the one hand, it allows you to give direct help for specific purposes to classrooms in your town. And they are super good, almost too good, about accountability. Not only do you get an acknowledgement of your donation, you get pictures of the happy, happy kids using the art supplies or whatever you have donated.
On the other hand, there's a certain pathetic quality about the requests. $200 for 70 copies of a book for kids to read. $250 for a set of math resource materials. $700 for a classroom set of dictionaries.
Dictionaries, people. There are elementary school classrooms in this country without enough dictionaries. How many millions of dollars did that Michael Jackson memorial cost? What the fuck are we doing as a country?
If you can see the website through your tears of rage, I suggest using it to find a worthy project, something you can make a difference on, and giving them money. And then, when you get back the thank-yous and the pictures and all, consider forming a permanent relationship with the school or the teacher you helped.
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Martha Nichols
mypsyche
DktrShe
ambiacademic
Ersatz Reader
O'Really?
Salon.com
Comments
I've served on the PTO board at my daughters' elementary school for 4 years. We spend every dollar we earn through fundraising on things for the students & teachers because our school board says there is no funding for such things. Things such as:
* $5k a year on the lease for a 2nd copier. The school system only supplies one very ancient, slow copier. One copier for over 700
kids.
*A playset for the physically handicapped kids. Until 3 years ago,
their entertainment was being wheeled outside to watch other kids
running, swinging, sliding, climbing the monkey bars.
*Computers. There were only 20 in the computer lab and only half
of them worked half the time. The school board did give us some
ancient monitors to use.
*Basic supplies for the teachers. Teachers are expected to buy ink
cartridges for the printers the students use in the classrooms. It
makes me sad & angry to see our wonderful teachers so happy to
receive a box of paper,pens, pencils,post-its, ink cartridges, tissues, hand sanitizer & soap, paper towels, etc. Our school's restrooms are usually out of toilet paper, soap, and paper towels for the last month of the school year.
I'm especially angry because the major reason for our school system's lack of funds is because they have spent millions over the last 25+ years in a court battle with the NAACP over racial balances in the schools. Like many parents, I chose to send my older daughter to private school for 5th grade this past year & will do the same for my younger daughter. Our public schools are around 65% "minority" and the number is expected to grow every year, so it will probably be impossible to achieve racial balance.
Our PTO is seriously scrambling to find enough new members to fill the open positions on our skeleton crew of a PTO board. If we can't there will be no PTO board, no fundraisers. This will result in our teachers (some veteran teachers earn up to $40K a year) reaching deeper into their own pockets for basic supplies or doing without.
Actually, I hear we might be going back to the 70s pretty soon; can't wait!
People should be reminded of the consequences when they are voting for politicians who run on anti-intellectual platforms. Remember the proud remark in 2000: "That's fuzzy math!"
Aren't teachers considered nobility in other countries? What happened to the strength of the LABOR unions in this country? They have been very busy cooperating with the government on things like NCLB (which began as an appalling and illogical policy, and turned out to be an underfunded and even insolvent one- despite REPEATED warnings from the states and from independent professional organizations that it would not work).
It is SO difficult to be a teacher. I have spent so much money out of my own pocket over the years on my students. It has gone largely unseen.
WHERE IS THE CONCERN FOR OUR OWN KIDS??
Tissues. Pencils. Paper. These are basics. And there is NOOOOO EXCUSE for a teacher having to buy these things for the school. A teacher's paycheck is not a "reward," or a wad of petty cash given for the operation of the classroom. I always ask, "What is YOUR paycheck worth to you?" "Would you like to spend nearly $3,000 per year out of YOUR salary (unreimbursed) on TEENS who are not related to you?"
Fellow teachers have talked repeatedly about how they'd welcome corporate sponsorship. Bring the ads to the classroom walls! Why not--it's everywhere else. God, that's the reason I stopped watching TV decades ago. I'd REALLY hate to see public schools commercialized.
This website seems a better idea, though only a bandaid.
In the 70s, California schools were pretty good. Today, we're ranked 49th nationally. What happened between now and then? Prop 13. And the schools have been gutted. We need to fix this people.
http://www.closetheloophole.com/
So when a Humvee gets a flat tire, they torch it. Not the tire, the whole Humvee. The taxpayers pay for a new one. A new, whole Humvee. Airlifted in.
They don't repair anything, ever.
A four-pack of locally produced Coke, with Arabic writing on the cans, is billed to the taxpayers for $45.
Tears. Of. Rage.