While the challenges of a classroom, a school or even the district seem to be overwhelming as it is, the even greater context in which public education exists can’t be ignored. Scott Simon, host of PBS’s “Need to Know,” spent some time in Baltimore interviewing young men who are among, what he refers to as, the chronically unemployed. (See video here:http://video.pbs.org/video/
The interviews and segments briefly address the issue of education and its role in the cycle of unemployment directly, but the implications are obvious throughout the entire 7 min. clip. When factories and large industry left Baltimore, they left a huge employment void that has yet to be filled. Children are raised in communities that have no jobs and no prospects. They attend schools that have been chronically failing for decades.
The video begged the question – even if we fix education, even if each child graduates high school and goes on to college, is there a community that can sustain them? Provide them with job opportunities? Housing? The answer, currently, seemed to be a resounding no.
While the outlook may seem grim, the segment also made it clear that there are community members with drive and community members who are ready to welcome change. Re-contextualizing the information into a conversation about education, I challenge us to remember that it is not only our job to teach students so they may leave their communities, but teach students so they can help transform their opportunities for the next generation.
4 comments:
I agree that this is quite a challenge in the Baltimore area and appreciate that the video segment brought light to that. I also like that you made the point that it is our job as teachers to not only prepare students for jobs outside the community, but equip them with the tools to be a part of revitalizing industry in Baltimore for the next generations.
I have been thinking about this, since last Spring, when we were in our first year of teaching, that, part of the development issue in Baltimore is the lack of jobs that exist currently, due to the decrease in jobs once the factory jobs were gone.
Sometimes, especially in the midst of test preparation, I become quite frustrated because I cannot see how getting my students to be successful on a test is going to set them up with the skills they need to find a job after high school or maintain a job.
I become especially frustrated, when I feel as though we have to focus so much on academic gains, that character development and the explicit teaching of self-control and other executive function skills becomes lost. Explicitly teaching executive function skills is something I hope to incorporate into my third year of teaching more, however, I know it will be difficult if I am the only one at my school really trying, but I want to try because I feel as though these are skills my students need to succeed at their jobs and maintain jobs.
I also think the fact that many of our schools do not have computer labs or that type of technology will hurt our students in the job market. Yes, they are proficient with the phone technology, but they need to know how to type and surf the web on the computer, as this is a skill they will use in almost any job.
So, how can we change the curriculum so we better prepare students for the jobs that currently exist in the computer science age, the 21st century?
The issue brought to light by the video clip, and your post, is very interesting. Many of us get so caught up in educating our students that we forget what the education is for. In the end, most people would say that getting an education is to help you get a job.
I think getting an education is a reward in and of itself, but only if the education is designed to help someone problem solve. Because of high stakes testing, so many teachers feel pressure to pump facts into their students brains. They want their students to memorize every possible question, and the correct answer, that could show up on the state test. While this strateggy may help them pass the tests, it will certainly not turn them into problem solvers. If an education is going to hold value by itself, regardless of where it takes you, it must prepare you to solve problems in a logical and consistent way.
I believe that if we educate the youth in Baltimore to be problem solvers, they will be the ones to help solve the problems that the city faces. Imagine how powerful it would be if jobs started being created by the people who need the jobs. With the right approach to problem solving, there is no doubt in my mind this could become a reality.
I appreciate how the video shed light onto the complexity of Baltimore's problems. It reminds me of a professional development session with Teach for America I had my first year, in which the achievement gap was defined through a metaphor with a birdcage. The presenter claimed that the potential of the city was locked inside a birdcage, and the problem was that each piece of the cage was cemented together in preventing the bird from breaking free.
The achievement, or rather opportunity, gap is not just an education issue. Educational outcomes are part of a more complex community landscape, one that includes economic development, the political climate, and societal norms. I don't necessarily agree that schools are training students to work on the corner, as one of the participants in the video suggested, but they are failing to function in the realities of the current landscape in Baltimore.
While lost industrial jobs need to be replaced in the city, we should be striving to make our students competitive for professional career pathways regardless. I agree that if more adult males in the innercity were employed, there would be a multitude of benefits for the city- reduction in crime, an increase in role models setting good examples for our youth, strengthening of families, etc. However, the structures of our economy generally do not allow job creation for job creation's sake.
I think that unless public school students are prepared to compete for jobs that currently exist, there is no hope in attracting more jobs. Schools need to alter their curriculum, infuse more technology, and remediate for failing students so that high school diplomas maintain their value and more students see graduating as a meaningful opportunity in the current economic climate.
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