Teachers Preparing Your First-Graders for Jail??

"While O'brien's frustration is certainly understandable, it's not difficult to see that her comments are rooted in the same racial bias that destroys so many black and brown children in America's broken school system.  Although Ms. O'brien would like to believe that these six-year-old children have already routed themselves to prison, the truth is that she herself has incarcerated her kids in the prison of low expectations."  

Dr. Boyce Watkins

The above text in an excerpt from a Huffington Post blog by Dr. Boyce Watkins in response to teacher Jennifer O'brien's frustrated Facebook rant about her students. And although her public rant about her six-year-olds students was insensitive, I damn sure understand where it came from and, moreover, that many teachers of many different races have had similar perspectives, which they simply chose/choose not to share publicly.

According to Dr. Watkins, O'brien referred to herself as a "warden" and her first-graders as "future criminals".  O'brien went on to imply that her students needed a "Scared Straight" program.

I attended Baltimore City Public Schools, where my classmates, beat, spat upon, robbed, harassed and threatened our teachers, as well as fellow students. And dare they (the teachers) consider defending themselves; it wasn't uncommon at all for an angry mother and her sisters with hair tied in tethered scarves and sneakers tied tight around bare, brown feet, to meet that teacher after school for a nice, west side beat down. Of course, even in those days where social media was a mere dream in some one's head, teaching was frustrating. But today, teachers fight against Youtube videos exploiting teacher-student fights, television shows and music that encourage irresponsible rebellion, violent video games and hardworking, unavailable parents.

It burdens me that we, the most educated and enlightened of our people; the upper echelon; the cream of the crop; "choose" not to see O'brien's inappropriate rant as a cry for help, but rather as a catty, calculated scheme to prepare first-graders for a trajectory straight to jail.

I taught school in elementary classrooms and managed/directed extended learning programs in marginalized neighborhoods in NY, LA and MD. Nobody and I mean NO-DAMN-BODY, prepared me for the students in my class who were being molested daily by babysitters. Nobody told me that when Jeffery's dad stood him up the night before, that he would call me a "nigga" and threaten to shoot me. Nobody taught me to recognize that Simone's grades were dropping because she needed glasses. Finally, not one person informed me that if Zee missed his medicine, that my little pal who was normally the most consistently high-achieving kid in class, would threaten to kill himself and leave the school hours early through the back door, which should have been locked any damn way.

I wonder how many college professors and researchers have spent significant time teaching in classrooms like O'brien's. I wonder if our personal rants of frustration were brandished on Facebook, how we would be perceived. I wonder how the world's greatest researches would manage classrooms where students full of potential were seated next to students with mental illness, who were seated next to hungry kids, seated next to illiterate students...next to abused children...next to high-achieving students, next to students with dyslexia, etc.

Although O'Brien is not a black or brown person, her frustration resonates among urban schools throughout the country. But what help is in place for teachers who leap into urban schools unprepared, naive and plain old ignorant?

As the "presumed" most invested stake-holders in the development of brown and black children and youth, isn't it our responsibility to demand that universities, alternative certification programs and all urban schools include intensive professional development intended to support new and frustrated teachers as they immerse themselves in their crafts? Isn't it our responsibility to push through those hard conversations with hopes of developing teams of effective educators willing to work on themselves as much as they work on their students? It is up to schools to find a balance among standards-driven teaching and inspired teaching, first presenting school leaders themselves as accessible, encouraging and inspired!

In my opinion, O'Brien made an immature decision to vent on her Facebook page. She also used offensive analogies that would raise the eyebrows of most who are committed to child and youth development. What she said was absolutely inappropriate, but hers were likely cries for help. Remember, today teachers are expected to align lessons standards, make daily team meetings, enter grades, complete lesson plans, meet with coaches, undergo observations, enter grades daily, update wiki-pages daily, stand in for mommy and daddy daily, and the list goes on.

Respectfully, I disagree with Dr. Boyce Watkins. Rather than simply pointing out mistakes individual teachers in obvious need help make, might it be better to point out the historical problems in a social system which was built already broken and the educational system that grew out of it? IJS!