The Blue Monkey Review

The population of the high school where I teach is quite diverse, approximately 51% White, 47% Black, 2-3% Hispanic, and under 1% Asian students. This was quite a different setting for me seeing as the high school that I attended had 1 Black student and 1 Asian, the rest were White students, the average students was middle class regardless of ethnicity. I think that it would be a fair assessment to say that the average student in the high school where I teach is lower middle class.

According to the principal there is not a race problem in our school. I honestly believe that he thinks that, he is a good man that has seen a lot. Last year when I was teaching choir a small argument broke out between a white student and a black student. The white student said some hateful things but the black student was the bigger person and let it go when I told them to calm down. I approached the principal to ask him what I should do, and he said not to worry about it…racism isn’t a problem in our school. Again, he’s seen a lot so I’m sure that it’s not as bad today as it was even five years ago; however, I knew something bad was going to happen. Sure enough (how about that southern slang coming out in my writing?) the next day the white student called the black student the “N” word. Fortunately the black student didn’t let it go and ended up pounding the white kid, I think that he got 8 or 9 punches in before my husband pried him off. I was proud of the black student for standing up for himself, this kid deserved to get his butt kicked. Both students were suspended for 10 days, the white student moved to another county because he knew that returning to school would put him in grave danger.

It was at this point that I started thinking about racism…could it really be that people in this day and age are still judging people by the color of their skin? Disgustingly the answer is yes, so my thoughts drifted to affirmative action. When I lived in the north I didn’t believe in affirmative action, the minority students at my high school were treated equally, every one was given the same opportunity to succeed and they were expected to live up to the expectations (and they did). Not here…not with every teacher. Some teachers baby certain races, some teachers discipline certain races more than others, and it’s not just a black student issue. Some people discriminate against white people, Hispanics, Asians, every group has another that is prejudice against them.

Affirmative action, the word even sounds outdated and over used. Yet I think that it is still necessary, at least when looking at college admissions. It may need to be revised to assist ALL students from impoverished backgrounds that want a shot at learning, but we still need it to break the poverty cycle. Students that live in a low socio-economic environment need it more than anything; they cannot compete with students that come from well funded schools. Just because a student has not been given the best public education does not mean that he or she does not deserve an excellent shot at college. I could go on to prove my point, but I don’t feel that it is necessary. Most people know the difference between an excellent school and a failing school, and if you don’t then research it…the numbers will astound you.

Most politicians, regardless of party, don’t understand this great divide in our education system. Just because education is public does not mean that it is equal. I would be willing to say that the majority of politicians never had a hard time getting a good education, although there may be a few. When we consider what the Democrats must to do gain support I think that it is imperative that they begin to look at these people, the young and hopeless, and help them and their families by supporting an initiative to give these students a fair shot at becoming productive citizens and not criminals.

I don’t know why but it seems that no one wants to address the racism issue here. It’s like a bunch of dust bunnies, everyone wants to sweep it under the carpet and not talk about it. Maybe it is just that I am privileged, I was given the opportunity to be a first generation college student and that is where I learned that we should talk about such things and speak our mind because sometimes it just takes one voice to make a change.

Sexism is nonexistent. The comment that I wrote about earlier was just a student exercising his first amendment rights and he couldn’t be disciplined for it. I also was informed by an administrator today that as long as a student makes an offensive comment in the absence of people that he is making the offensive comment to then it is perfectly acceptable. I was livid because if it was a racist statement the student in question would be at least suspended for a few days, but I bit my tongue. I try to teach tolerance and manners in my classroom, a code of conduct if you will, and this was a slap in the face to everything that I stand for.

Another fine example of sexism that supposedly does not exist is that a student asked my husband why he allows me to drive his car. I have my license and contribute to paying the bills…so it’s my car too. But the student was confused “My daddy doesn’t let my mama drive when he’s in the car, that’s the man’s job. I wouldn’t let your wife drive that car, she’s probably a bad driver.” And then there was the time that a male student felt that it was his place to reprimand me for being late getting to my classroom in the morning (I had a perfectly good reason why I was three minutes late, but that’s not the point!). There have been very few times in my life that I have felt like I was being treated differently because I was a woman…this was one of them. The way he spoke to me was so demoralizing, but there is no such thing as sexism…it’s just people exercising their freedom of speech. I find it very interesting that when it’s sexist they are just exercising their first amendment right, but when Howard Stern wants to make a fart joke he’s being obscene and needs to be fined and censored. Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture?!?!?!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Democrats need to turn the tables on the morality issue. If they could just get across a message of tolerance I think that they can gain the support that they so desperately need and so painfully desire. I still believe that deep down inside most people are decent human beings, we just need to remind them that they are.

Posted by at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If you are a Blue Monkey reader than I am going to assume that you intelligent enough to know your issues, and when it comes to education there is no hotter issue that “No Child Left Behind.” If you know nothing about this please stop now, consult any major news source, and come back once you have learned the key points.

Virginia, I am pleased to say, seems to be ahead of most other states in meeting federal mandates. We currently test K-12 in the four core areas: Math, English, Science, and History. This creates a plethora of problems that I’d like to address, including how school teachers and administrators are dealing with the new law, how the law is affecting our students and our budget, and my proposal for leaving no child behind.

Instead of being politically active and learning as much as possible about the law it seems to me that most administrators and teachers are more focused on achieving these lofty goals than getting to the crux of the problem: This law is a one size fits all education package and simply will not work because our children are not all one size. Keep in mind that in just a few years Mr. Bush and his goons think that 100% of students can pass any standardized test that is placed in front of them. Many Bush supporters within the school system sing his praises for “raising the standards” and “helping our schools achieve” but he’s doing just the opposite...and they are running away from raising the standards, as I will illustrate later. From what I can remember of high school our teachers were interested in teaching us critical thinking, writing, problem solving, etc. With the Standards of Learning (ironically dubbed the “SOLs”) that is no longer possible. Teachers are required to teach facts that will show up on the standardized test, and there are few ways around just teaching facts. Students are graduating from high school not knowing how to fill out a job application, write a resume, solve a dilemma, etc. How does that help our youth?

This brings me to the next point, if this legislation is designed to help our students learn then why has our drop out rates increased? In our school if a students does not pass a certain number of SOL tests then they are denied their diploma…the get frustrated and drop out…wait…didn’t we just leave that student behind? Not to mention that this has become some sort of sick numbers game within many school districts. Fortunately my high school hasn’t sunk this low yet, but in other VA schools there are reports of administrators blocking under achievers from taking the test for the purpose of raising the test scores…oh my…it looks like we just left yet another group of students behind! To support a standard that you know is unachievable and then to play with lives of children just to eek out the numbers for the politicians is more immoral, in my opinion, than allowing homosexuals to have a legal union!

I’ve already mentioned how the administrators are becoming masters of number twisting, but how are the students reacting? Our county has a policy for athletes that are as follows: any athlete must have both 5 classes and passing grades in at least 3 of them, which would mean something if the policy was enforced. Instead some administrators ask teachers for passing grades so that the star can play in the game. Sometimes no one checks athlete’s grades, which sends the message to the students that “Academics aren’t really important as long as you can throw a ball.” The students, as slow as some of them are, know this fact very well and extort anyone they can because of it. These students thusly fail the SOL tests. What angers me the most is what I am about to say, keeping in mind that athletics are such a large part of just about any public high school that no one would ever think to cut the sports programs.

Because of “No Child Left Behind” our school is losing funding. The budget cuts happen because of multiple things, but the reason that we lost a majority of our funding this year is that enrollment dropped…a lot…the schools did not have “highly qualified teachers” in accordance to “NCLB” (which is absurd, one of my good friends and probably one of the best math teachers at our school is not “highly qualified” yet does a fine job) and did not meet the pass rate set for the year. Due to this fact parents moved or sent their children to other schools.

Due to the budget crunch, this year my allowance for classroom materials breaks down to about $5 per student. Now it wouldn’t be a big deal for maybe a history or math teacher who can require that all students bring just the basic school supplies to class…but I teach music! Instrument repairs, sheet music, music stands, uniforms, media (no text books for me so I have to buy CDs and DVDs and photo copy anything else), etc. The art teacher was given the same amount. Now I know that some of you out there don’t understand the importance of arts education, and I will spare my soap box speech for now, I’m just trying to make the point that our schools are so under funded that we can’t buy construction paper and paint for the art classes without fundraising. I just want to make two points about why it is brainless to cut arts education programs just because students can’t pass a science test: 1. Research suggests a high correlation between arts education and achievement on standardized tests, and 2. Anyone that has studied multiple intelligence theory knows that some students just are not good at anything but music (or art). I peg this budget crisis directly on the federal government, schools that don’t achieve LOSE funding, it’s like swimming up to someone who is drowning and pushing their head under, and that’s just sick man. Enough of my arts education lobbying, lets get back to the matter at hand.

Finally I would like to challenge Mr. Bush and his cabinet (whoever is left anyway) to take the VA SOL tests. I think that they should make his score the minimum passing score for each test. Lowering the standards is the only answer, baring major reform to the law, to having 100% pass rate (statistically a monkey could at least get a 2%, right?). That might just be the only way to get all of the kids to pass it and TRULY leave no child behind.

*Just one side note: funding for arts education has been cut for years now, this is not a new problem, yet it is getting worse due to the NCLB Act and budget cuts. One bit of bitter sweet news, I read an article in my professional journal just the other day that said the Bush administration is looking to officially add music as a core class (sweet...more funding)........they will also be working to create a standardized test for it (bitter).

Posted by at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I teach the future, and quite frankly I'm terrified. The following is just one example of how enforcing morality can be lethal to this great nation. Born and raised in PA I had to move to a red state when I graduated from Seton Hill, there just weren’t any jobs in the north for my husband and I (history teachers are a dime a dozen these days). I enjoy my job and life in a small impoverished rural county of Virginia. I have the most glamorous job in the school, I am the band director. As I continue to post I will fill you in on pertinent information about my perspective. The objective of this posting is to fill you in on what our children are saying when their parents aren’t around to correct them. Edwin Gordon, a prominent music educator and researcher, discovered that children develop their attitudes from imitating their parents starting at birth. My major concern is that many of the children that I teach are getting mixed signals from their parents. The mixed message that concerns me the most is this: The bible tells us to love everyone, but that doesn’t include gays and non-Christians.

The day before the election I overheard students in my guitar class talking about some of the issues. I sat down beside a few of them to hear where they stood. One group of students had adamantly and openly supported John Kerry by speaking about the atrocities that Bush had committed and by wearing campaign buttons. They also own T-Shirts (that they still wear) that have a picture of Bush and the words “Not My President” on them. The other group of students are the typical church goers of the south, three out of the four of them still think that the Civil War never ended and the “south will rise again”, whatever that means.

Both groups were bantering back and forth about various issues such as the war in Iraq, the economy, education, etc… until one Kerry supporter (one of my favorite students) said “Well what about gay people, you know, if they take away the rights of gay people then who’s to say that they won’t start to take our rights away too.” One of the Bush supporters replied “It doesn’t matter because gays aren’t human so they don’t deserve rights.”

Two days later a Bush supporting student called another student (the second student being Hindu) a “stupid A-RAB.” He said this in a derogatory tone, which I can not even begin to mimic in speech let alone express in written text. He said that those type of people shouldn’t be allowed in the county because they are a threat. I was angry and sick on so many levels. First of all the student that he was referring to was indeed Hindu, not Muslim. He didn’t even know what nationality he was making a derogatory slur toward! Second of all, my college education helped me to understand that the terrorists are a select group of people and that not all Muslims are anti-American, nor are all Muslims terrorists, let alone this intelligent Hindu boy that the Bush supporter was referring to.

It hit me then and there that although the conservatives in the country feel strongly about morality they are indirectly brewing hatred, and I don’t know of one Christian that would argue that hatred is moral.

With this being said I think that the Democrats (especially the Christian Democrats that are tired of being called immoral) need to get to the root of Christianity, Jesus taught us to love one another, and that God is the one and only judge. And for the other citizens in American that are not Christian (yeah, they exist, non-Christians in our country, imagine that) the Dems have to put across a message of tolerance. It is sad that a country that was founded on tolerance of differences now considers a tolerant person immoral. I believe that there are more people in this county that love one another and accept others than there are people who hate and want to persecute, but I’m still young and could be having a naïve moment…let’s hope not.

Posted by at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Since November 3, we have heard more and more about the divide in the United States between Red and Blue. In the interest of making Red America more comprehensible to Blue America, I have asked for contributions on life in the Red. The authors who I have contacted are all people who have lived in (sometimes were born and grew up in) Blue America and know it well. But all of them either currently live, or have lived for long periods, in the Red states.
Their insights and observations should help all of us recognize difference and commonality among Americans.

Posted by at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)