Last night I worked the 2007 “Baar Bazaar” as a vendor selling Quench Essentials @ the Magic Stick pool hall, midtown Detroit. This was my last vending event for this year & let me tell you, it was a great ending note. I was able to take in close to 4 bills in less than 4 hours, which translates to fewer ashy people on the streets of Detroit. I was busy as hell but had a great time & met many new crafty friends.
One thing that is a constant with most crafters is that they always have a full-time job & their craft is a side gig. It is such a shame that what you really have a passion for just does not pay the bills. I guess I should know, since I have like 4 side gigs & my full-time job.
Anyway, 2 of my new crafty friends are teachers at charter schools in Detroit & during our conversations; I asked them about their experiences. I knew I was opening up a can of worms but I was interested to know what classroom life was like for young teachers these days. They both taught at the elementary level, & both started out by saying that they had some bad ass kids in their classes.
Teacher 1 “Mr Hasselblad” (white male) told me about how wild his kids are & how a male 5th grader just Monday beat the shit of a girl in his class room on Monday & how he had a hard time pulling the boy off the girl. He also discussed how disgusted he was with the students cheering on the fight. He also told me how a 4th grade female student called him a faggot during a parent teacher conference. He said, the mother looked shocked but then moved on with the conference without reprimanding the girl. After the conference was over, he said he cried & now hates the girl & wants to slap the shit out of her every time he sees her in his class room.
I then asked him how he slept at night & managed to drive to work everyday, he told me that sleeping was a problem & that driving to work was even rougher. To this, I said, you need to quit before you totally damage yourself & or damage a child’s mind because he’s not fully vested. Mr Hasselblad, then said that he know that he should quit but there are some students who he finds special, & they help him to see the silver lining of the clouds but some days it was just not enough.
Teacher 2 “Ms Mamiya” (black female) told me that she was sick of “these” bad ass kids but had to deal with until her 64k in student loans was paid off, hence why she also crafts. She has a master degree from an ivy league but wants to help kids in the city she was born & raised in.
Ms Mamiya did not have as much drama as Mr Hasselblad but was frustrated by the obvious lack of motivation by her students.
I wonder if this is a charter school thing, or if this is also jumping off in public schools as well. It is too bad that teachers want to get out of the schools because of bad ass kids with parents who don’t give a fuck.
Do you or have you taught in a school system, if so what has your experience been like? Are the kids filing the seats in your class(es) off the hook???
Renea / December 19, 2007
Teacher burnout is a very serious problem. I chose college education because I knew I would be too immersed in the children I taught to not get caught up. There are so many more problems children face than can be addressed by one teacher in the course of a school day. Then there are too few counseling resources for students and teachers. That saying it takes a village to raise a child is so true. I think parents don’t know what to do–we’ve lost extended family so there’s no one older to help these parents–who are sometimes damn near children themselves if not in age, in maturity and life experience. Many of them have trauma in the home, depression, poverty. These kids arrive at school in the morning with empty stomachs, neglected spirits, and little perspective on life. It’s sad. The only thing harder than teaching int hat environment is learning in it. Which only ensures the problems will continue to perpetuate.
Liz / December 20, 2007
Well, having taught in the Bronx, Houston, and Compton…I can say that they’d come in the door trying to do all kinds of crazy and it’s exhausting to wear them down so that they’ll behave, but it’s possible to do it. They’ve been allowed to misbehave for years at school, they’ve been trained to think that they can act however in the neighborhood and I just never played that at all. My goal was to get ’em retrained by mid October so then the rest of the year usually went okay with only a few bumps.
I usually taught classes of boys that were known through the whole school…and they misbehaved because they were 11 or 12 and in the 3rd grade…and couldn’t read more than an early 1st grade level. If that was my circumstance, I’d act crazy at school too. But teach the kids to read, set the expectations…tell homeboy that he should not cry because a child called him that and the momma did nothing. Please, when a kid called me a bitch I asked him if he knew how to spell it. He didn’t so I told him that until he learned how to spell it he didn’t need to be calling anybody out their name. Whatever…kids misbehave so they can get sent to the principal’s office so then they aren’t in your room learning.
Oh, and it’s both charters and public schools, although because charters have contracts, they can give a child the boot if behavior doesn’t improve.
Luscious Librarian / December 20, 2007
I love those chairs. It makes me feel ‘crafty’. My husband is actually thinking of starting a charter school. He works in the public school system and the problems he deals with on a daily basis make you wonder if people even believe in ‘raising’ kids anymore.
Bygbaby / December 21, 2007
Thx ladies for the real hands on feedback!
Renea – “That saying it takes a village to raise a child is so true.” We no longer have villages. Everyone is on their own island doing their own thing saying fuck everyone else (of course I am over exaggerating). I mean if you try to talk to someones child or reprimand for observed poor behaviors, parents jump off the hook.
Liz – Damn you have been in some intense situations!!! You are a very strong willed person, especially for not slapping that one boy. Well actually putting him on the spot was much better than a slap because that shot got in his head.
Luscious Librarian – Thx!!! Seeing those chairs made my night.
Your husband is really ready to make it happen!!! Being a male teacher, he has so much power & can help so many young boys by being an example of what they can be!
Bygbaby
Torrance Stephens bka All-Mi-T / December 21, 2007
yea man, we have to be ingenious i use pimps and prostitutes in my statistics classes to tach regresion, to estimate if the havve 10 pimps and 25 pros, 6 pimps and 11 pros, hoe many pros can u predict if u got 24 pimps. and man, read my post about why the susspended me live free or die
Darius T. Williams / December 21, 2007
This is pretty bad. It’s the same here in Chicago. I seriously am thinking that I want to teach business/marketing in high schools when I finish my MBA, but…I’m still doing that – thinking.
Tamra / December 21, 2007
My Masters degree is in education, and I have absolutely no desire to teach. I’m good at it, and I know this for a fact, but I’ve been in situations where parental support (or the lack thereof) just makes you want to shake (or murder) the friggin’ parents. I can’t deal with that. And I’m JOK-ING about the murder part…
Anyway, with regard to the movie, The Great Debaters, they interviewed the last living survivor of the debate team, Henrietta Bell Wells–the woman whom Jurnee Smollett portrays. She said something that just made my husband and I stop eating, put our utensils down, look at each other, shake our heads and just say, “Damn. That is SO it.” What she said (roughly) is that, “back then,” because the stakes were so high with regard to achievement and crushing racism, if somebody told you to do something that was for your own *educational* benefit, and especially if there was an obvious opportunity–you didn’t ask questions, you just DID it. The teacher said “jump,” you asked “Well, Sir/Ma’am, how friggin’ high?” And you blazed a trail doing it too. (Sure, we want our kids to learn to think for themselves, but you know how this is meant.)
We have NO EXCUSE today with all of the resources and opportunities available to us. Absolutely NO excuse.
I’m not affiliated with any political party (they all suck), but I do really like Clarence Thomas, and I think a lot of people, especially us black folk, mis-interpret his statements of pulling himself up by his own boot-straps. Personally, I LOVE what he says about it, and more of us need to think about and really digest what he’s saying. So as not to take up more space here, google “cbs 60 minutes clarence thomas,” and you should find the link to the interview.
So, anyway, sorry for the long post, bb, but this topic just really pisses me off. We have NO excuse, and I get really angry when I think about how it seems that we are such slackers and just downright triflin’ when it comes to our kids, parental responsibility/accountability, and the lack of importance directed toward their education. I know that doesn’t apply to ALL of us by any means, but it just seems like there are soooo many to whom it does… Sigh!
I mean, when you have parents who know that Darnell goes in the cookie jar when he shouldn’t, but Darnell gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar by the authorities and is facing reprimand or arrest and the parents whine, “I know MY baby Darnell, he don’t do dat, he ain’t no drug dealer/gang banger/bully/fight-starter, etc.” THAT’s what we’re dealing with, and that is such a huge part of the problem… And on the other hand, there exists the problem of over-zealous encouragement, and coddling/detachment from reality for others of us with regards to disciplining our kids and the carryover of that into things like education, job expectations, etc. BB, they did a really interesting piece about this on NPR a while back–I can dig up the link if you’re interested. I forget which segment it was.
So, my 2 cents. I need to go and calm down…
GC / December 21, 2007
starts at home and ends at home
teachers are not babysitters and we have too long treated them that way.
we need to put our foot down on the government to beef up the board of ed and stop siphoning off our taxes for war.
And parents need to get real about their priorities and pay some damn attention to their kids.
Also, we need to get rid of 4-hr homework assignments and standardized testing.
Bygbaby / December 22, 2007
Wow!!! You guys are really lighting this one up!
Torrence – That is some bullshit & you seem to be better off, from at least what I read! Keep your head up Bruh!!!
Darius – I read your post on education & drop out rates in Chi-town & just shook my damn head. Where are the parents?!?!?!
Tamra – Shit you gone make me do a video post to respond to all that. You are right, we have no excuse in general to be destroying what was laid out for us. If you think about it, the civil rights/jim crow era is not that far behind us & here we are fucking up in record numbers. In the words of Alecia Keys, it’s enough to make a nigga go crazy!!! I am going to check the movie out next week & looking forward to it.
GC – “starts at home and ends at home” Nuff said!!! Sit most parents need to get out of the damn club trying to be or get with a jump off & help their kids jump off on lesson plans!
Bygbaby
Bygbaby
Tamra / December 22, 2007
It’s funny, because I was so fired up about your post that the camera references got by me and I wasn’t able to get a chuckle out of them… [If I ever end up with enough time to play around with medium format again, I’d kill to have a Mamiya. But I digress.]
One last thing on this post and I’ll leave it alone: Has anybody ever wondered why it seems like so many other ethnic groups come here from around the world (yes, EVEN Africa), go through our school systems (successfully), become entrepreneurs, etc., while so many of us are still struggling and wandering the friggin’ streets–and letting our kids run amuck??? I know–parents still are a huge part of this vicious cycle, sure, but like, “Wake up!?”
I’d like to see a program that takes large numbers of these (inner city) parents and kids who think THEY have it rough to other parts of the world to let them do a little bit of volunteer work–maybe their perspectives will change then, and they’ll realize all the opportunities just laying at their feet for them to keep kicking to the curb. Or, maybe not…
Just more food for thought.
jose / December 24, 2007
Can’t say much about this post since my whole blog is really the answer to the question. Besides, I need a break from alladat. Amen.
Bygbaby / December 24, 2007
Tamra – Ohhh, I would do anything to get my hands on a Mamiya with a digital back!!!!!!!!! That is some major damn money. I was looking at the Mamiya 645ZD which is going for 10K recently & this is how they describe it “At a retail price of $9,999, this digital system marks a new era in the high-end digital market. By offering this incredible system for under $10,000, a broad range of photographers who have been waiting for the right combination of quality and price, can finally step into the medium format digital world.” My question is , who the hell are these photographers buying this shit & what do I have to do to be down???
Your point on taking advantage of the opportunities is so on point, I just wish most of us realized it!
Jose – All man, you are the expert, how can you avoid this. I know you are tempted to break it down. LOL
Bygbaby
The Second Sixty-Eight / December 27, 2007
My kids just left charter school. One of the good ones too. Small class sizes, a caring staff, good curriculum. The problem is that it was hard to get parental participation. The sum total of participation for a lot of the parents was to work hard at getting them enrolled, drop them off and pick them up. They scheduled parent meetings once a month. Attendance at four of the eight was mandatory “to maintain the childs enrollment”. I actually began to wonder if some of these kids had parents since I never saw them.
We gotta do better as parents on the whole. How the heck to we expect the teachers to perform to a certain standard if we don’t do so first?
Bygbaby / December 27, 2007
The Second Sixty-Eight – If parents are not participating then all is lost! I wonder how our generation got to this point? Is it learned behavior, is it laziness, is it because we are to bust & drunk from being at the club???
Bygbaby
Lester Spence / January 3, 2008
happy new year! hanging out with you was one of the highlights of a dismal 07 and i’m looking forward to a better 08! was in the city briefly (went to a 246 reunion party that was fly)…but we’re getting too old to hang out in the city for weeks…
as far as your question i teach smart college kids so i can’t speak from the education standpoint. but i CAN speak from the parent standpoint. there is nothing worse than a teacher who doesn’t need to be in a classroom. a bad kid can be dealt with for better or for worse. a bad teacher is the classroom version of a bad police officer. i can understand not having another gig or not being vested enough to retire early. but here i stand parents and children. you made a CHOICE to be a teacher.
make a new choice.