in response to how our city schools are operating (offering people provisional certification to people with zero experience and not allowing teachers with lapsed certification the same courtesy), a friend wrote a comment in a current thread on my wall. the part about how people would react to this level of disregard in wealthier neighborhoods such as Roland Park or Mount Washington really resonates with me.
it needs to be posted again.
this is what he wrote:
"I have said a few more than a few times that there is profit being made from the failure of kids and adults in Baltimore. One would love to think that this is simply another example of an incompetent system but it is in fact another example of a way to ensure that the kids don't have qualified teachers in front of them, that schools are staffed not by those who have actual experience in urban classrooms but rather by people who have never set foot inside a classroom as an instructional leader, and that the failure of the kids and schools continues. I am sad for you Kathleen McCullough because I know first hand the passion you have for the work, but I am more sad for the kids in the classrooms where these folks are being placed. Let this happen at Mount Washington or Roland Park, let this happen at other schools where there are a majority of white middle class families and watch the outrage. No, these new totally un-experienced folks will end up in the rooms where more is needed, not less, but once again there will be those who wonder why we can't fix this. I am ashamed of how we treat kids in this city. I am ashamed of how we treat adults in this city. And your latest experience just highlights the depths to which those in power are willing to go to keep failure front and center. It is simply too easy to call it insane, or a mistake. This is intentional."
I can't even.
