Teaching in a Barrio

MISSION: To improve the graduation rate of less fortunate students in the state of Texas.

This choice is ours, what do we want Texas to look like?

 What kind of future do we want our children to have?

The answer is in our hands.

When you look at the education statistics  for the State Texas you will notice that there is a big disparity between the less fortunate and the most fortunate children. 

This is more about the less fortunate. But we don't have to look at the numbers all we have to do is look around the neighborhood. If our children do not make it through high school the school to prison pipeline will be a one-way highway and the prisons are going to be overcrowded.   

I would like to tell you a personal story.  I left Edgewood HS in 1962. When I left in all the historical West Side there was not a single sign anywhere with the word Mexican. There were no Mexican BBQ, no Mexican restaurants, no Mexican anything.  In high school we played traditional American marches, the a Capella choir, which I thought was the best in the state sang the most beautiful hymns.

I visited the West Side recently, what I saw was kind of like a little Central America or little Latin America.  There were Latin American signs everywhere. I visited Edgewood HS and I was surprised to see pictures of a mariachi band and other paraphernalia that had a lot to do with mariachis.  I wondered. This was not the West Side that I left behind. Those people came to America because they wanted to be Americans. They wanted to adopt the American way of life.  Here we are trying to teach them to be Mexican.

The most important class that I took in my lifetime was typing. Typing was my savior. The second most important class that I took was English grammar and composition. I have used English all my life. I have had very little use for all the other classes that I took. It was the degrees that I had that mattered, the bachelor’s degree got me into teaching and the master’s degree into administration.

One thing that I learned was the power that I had as the teacher. Grades were my domain completely. Some children could be influenced by the impact of a bad grade. Some students learned the hard way that a bad grade could stop them from graduating. You could always dangle that carrot to the children. Most would respond. Most parents took an interest in their children, however there was this language cultural barrier, and some parents used the child as an interpreter. That was not always a good idea because most of the times the children would not tell the truth to the parents.

I thought that given my barrio background I would have no problem at all connecting with children, I was wrong. There was a generation gap. These children had experiences that I never had. We did not have the proliferation of gangs that these kids have. Parents had some influence on these children at home, but the neighborhood had a much more powerful influence. The children brought the influence to the classroom.

In the classroom students sorted themselves according to gang. Which made the classroom very volatile if you let the children take control of the class.

In the neighborhood to be safe children had to wear the color of the gang that controlled the territory.

Taking points off for late work is a tactic that did not work. It may be great to teach a  social value, but it has very academic value.

Advice to teachers:

Be creative beyond your wildest imagination.

Be careful of what you say in the classroom.

Build teams.

Don’t give homework. Learn to teach your subject in allotted time.

If you give homework don't  penalize a student  for turning in  homework late.

Write the days lesson plan on the board. Stick to it.

Teach what is relevant.

Use a projector.

Do not write on the board. To do so is an invitation to have objects thrown your way.

Compliment - don't criticize.

Learn to call students by their preferred name.

Do not think that substitute teachers are going to teach your class.

At end of semester ask students for feedback.

School Districts

Pay teachers what they are  worth.

Teachers must spend five years in a school district before they can retire.

Five-year training program for new teachers.

Month summer review. What did we do? What can we do better?