- Poverty is not just a lack of money.
- All cultures are not equally friendly toward formal education.
- The internet is trouble, especially for kids with phones and little adult guidance.
- “I don’t like to read!” is a phrase teachers hear often.
- Gangs are not going away.
- “Just say no!” frequently fails, although we have to try red ribbon weeks designed to discourage drugs.
- Because drugs are not going away.
The standards movement and other brainstorms by leaders in education, business and government tend to treat all students as factory inputs with equal potential and essentially similar characteristics. Accordingly, and increasingly over time, almost all students are kept in the mainstream, including those who struggle academically or emotionally. Environment is the invisible elephant in America’s room. While no one can solve the many kinks in learning introduced by environment — we can’t erase the bullet holes in Daisy’s garage and do much about the fact she got no sleep — we do no one any favors by refusing to allow that environment to influence our teaching and actions. Maybe Daisy frankly should be allowed to sleep for a period or two without her teacher worrying about admin entering and writing the teacher up for not forcing Daisy to stare blankly at the whiteboard.
This post was inspired by a number of teachers who are currently trying to make online learning work against the odds. Educators know that luck of the district and demographic matter enormously in making remote learning work. I admire the many fierce attempts out there to keep learning on track.
The current crisis favors districts with access to electronics and practice with electronics. It favors districts that have been passing out those iPads freely for years, sending the iPads home rather than corralling them at the end of the day. It favors kids who live with parents who have been videoconferencing and using group connection apps for years.
Poverty is not just a lack of money. Sometimes it’s the absence of wi-fi. Sometimes it’s a lack of experience with expensive tools. Or poverty may be a single parent who can’t answer questions because her position as a pharmacy tech depends on her driving into work.
Eduhonesty: Teachers are trying heroically to make learning work as classroom doors lock behind them. These home-bound people could be making banana bread instead of scouring the internet for student-friendly lessons. But many of them will do better than others for reasons having nothing to do with their motivation or effort. You can’t teach the kid who does not use the Google classroom.
In hopes that this post will help prevent more teachers from being blamed for events and forces beyond their control…
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Educational funding reform could help equalize the technology gap, but that’s another post for another time.