Recently, it was reported on DCist that DC Teacher Chic, an area teacher and edu-blogger finally had enough bureaucracy/disorganization/absurdity from DCPS and quit her full time teaching position at a southeast DC middle school. It is unknown how frequently this situation occurs, and to what extent it goes unnoticed and how much it may contribute to the dearth of experienced teachers in the city. These questions and uncertainties got me thinking about DC Teacher Chic’s situation.
Although I did not frequently (i.e., never) read DC Teacher Chic’s blog prior to her resignation from DCPS, is nevertheless illuminating for the rest of the public that does not have have an idea of how absurdly disruptive a public school classroom can get. I won’t lie; my initial reaction to her resigning from her position was somewhere between distaste and resentment, mostly because I am not a regular reader of her blog, and when confronted with situations like this, it is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction of what one is supposed to think. Also, I had only read the first paragraph of the post. After reading further, I realized that she was not dealing with routine classroom management issues with which every teacher is confronted, but rather, she was facing a coordinated and systematic insurgency that routine classroom management techniques are ill-equipped to overcome. Honestly, I feel like the only solution for such an unique group of disruptors would be an equally unique disciplinary procedure – like a troop surge. Unfortunately, since the Department of Defense took all of the Department of Education’s money, that seemed like a highly unlikely scenario.
The fact of the matter is that many DCPS teachers do not have the support of the administrators because the administrators’ heads are ever-presently on the chopping block. Initiatives of the sort that DC Teacher Chic tried, require the coordinated efforts of the administration, teachers, parents, and community. If 10% of parents attend a meeting to address widespread behavior disruptions, a principal governs the school in an absentee manner, and the students have banded together to “Bust the Teachers,” there are serious problems that teachers’ hands are tied to address.
I know that I will receive critique for not mentioning creative strategies to solve these disruptions, so I will include them here. But, if I were in her shoes, I honestly don’t know what I would do. As a Black male, I feel that I would have more success in a sit-down, one-on-one conversation with these students (assuming that they are minority males of some sort). I have had such encounters work in the past. Another potential solution would be an individualized behavior plan for each student, where each student is “graded” on his performance by each teacher on a daily basis. If the scores are to everyone’s satisfaction at the end of a week, the student would be rewarded with something desirable, like lunch from outside school, extra computer time, or some other exclusive benefit. But I think that it is naive to think that I, a first year teacher, would have any more expertise or success in solving the problems experienced by a six-year veteran teacher.
I think this would be my teacher-clique's tag.
So, my final solution (too soon?) would be to start a rival mara (gang) to the BTT, the DCTC. And we’d flash signs, tag binders, take lunch money, and force the kids into behaving through violence and intimidation. Either that, or, I’d quit.
But seriously, teachers have a remarkably difficult job that is disanalogous to any other profession. When a teacher quits, he or she is not just leaving an organization, but rather, branded as one who has given up on the children. At the same time, one makes a tacit agreement to this situation when one takes a job in a difficult school with difficult children, and it is up to that teacher to make the effort to change things. After reading the Washington Post’s exposé on DC Teacher Chic, I found out that Ms. Midgon taught at JC Nalle Elementary, a difficult school in a difficult community, but it’s not a surprise. It’s not like this school was located in Glover Park next to Barneys. It’s in Southeast, and a teacher should expect a similar element when entering that school. As a teacher, the job is to educate the students, and sometimes it’s up to the teacher to do whatever it takes to energize, motivate, and support the students to the point where they can be educated. If a veteran teacher can be bullied out of a commitment (and contract) by a band of kids under five feet tall, then maybe that teacher was in the wrong business in the first place.
