Poor kids get Pop-Tarts!!!

The lack of nutritional awareness in schools has always been bothersome, but I've noticed more and more that children living in poverty have less access and knowledge about healthy food choices. It's almost impossible to learn if you are hungry or worried about where your next meal will come from. (Meet basic needs is a human instinct!) We know this and fill the kids up with junk food that doesn't feed their brains - just fills their stomachs for a very short time. Most of what we feed our students has been processed, frozen, mass-produced, warmed-up, and looked at with disgust by most children, yet they know they have to EAT!

And then the families living in poverty also have less access to high-quality food outside of school too. There are no grocery stores where I teach!?!

Data Walls?!?

So in every school in my district has these "data walls" up when you enter! I have a huge ideological issue with this! Think of the message it is sending to our kids, their families, the teachers, and the whole community. It is the data we care about more than the actual "reading" or "math" instruction. Why isn't there a wall of everyone's favorite book? Or just the students' work? Or any fucking thing besides data? I just don't get it! This is a lasting message we are sending to the families...we value test scores more than skills! And many people who are not educators do not know any different or would never question the teacher/principal. I know this is happening all over the country, but it is going to bring our overall love of literacy down extensively! What is going on? When did we stop valuing real "learning" and "inquiry" and "questioning" and started valuing the short term data? We need to make a change and I will be a part of it:)!

School Lunch

Why are children expected to be quiet during lunch at school?!? Lunch (well, all meal times) are inherently social activities! Why not use this time to teach our students social skills and table manners? We could sit family-style and provide an experience the average American is often nostalgic for - "a family dinner" - to children all over this country. Instead, I listen to a teacher on a microphone, day-after-day, yell at the kids to be quiet in a very social situation then publicly humiliate them when they get in "trouble"...it just doesn't make sense to me at all!

Observations can be powerful...

I have had the idea for this blog in my head for a long time. I often just jot my educational observations in my journal and do not revisit them often enough. I think the state of education in the country is worrisome and needs reform in almost every aspect. Although, I do see great teaching and caring happening on a daily basis in all the schools I am working in, there is entirely too much shitty teaching, too many shitty, mean people, too many people just going through the motions, too much yelling, and not enough joy in learning. We have an archaic system that allows the children from affluent homes to prosper and "other" children to slide down the slippery slope of education their entire lives.

This is the beginning of my education soap-box...