No matter how much people try to ignore poverty’s influence on the education of our nation’s most vulnerable children, as a teacher, I am hit head on with its power each day. Last night, a teacher told me that one of her students is now homeless because their family has been evicted from their home. Immediately, I thought about how this would affect his learning. Yes, we can provide a stable environment for him at school, but that does not change the fact that he is homeless. Also, one of my students has a skirt that is too small, but it is the only uniform skirt she has. She wears the skirt pulled up and unzipped on the side. I have to buy her a skirt. These are just two of the countless experiences of students growing up in impoverished urban communities. These are situations that they were born into and cannot control.
Being a teacher has created a heavy heart in me that impacts how I feel about solving our nation’s failing public schools. I feel compelled to purchase everything my scholars need. However, on my teachers salary, I am faced with the reality that I cannot but everything that my students need no matter how much I want to. I read this week that someone said that the problem is not just on failing public schools, but it is also on failing communities. As a nation, we must do everything possible to eradicate poverty. If we really want to reform public education, we must also charge our elected officials to create policies that create more sustainable communities. We also have to charge communities to unite and become a voice that takes back their futures. As teachers, administrators, central office personnel, and other staff, we must also speak out against this injustice. That’s how we truly level the playing field.
There is talk around some new school reformers that poverty isn’t a factor. Yes, in the “exceptions” poverty may not be a factor. However, success for all should be a rule. I am becoming more convinced that people who say that poverty is not a factor have the luxury of escaping poverty in their daily lives. They do not have to live in it. They do not have to frequent the social circles of those living in poverty. It is easy for someone who does not live or truly interact with people living in poverty to say to someone living in poverty that they can “just get over it.” People with this mentality encounter poverty on the surface level. As education reformers, we have to dig deeper.
Poverty is at the root of our nation’s public school monstrosity. Yes, we do need to transform how public schools operate, increase the rigor and academic performance of our nation’s schools, and attract and retain the best and brightest teachers in the classroom, among other internal school issues. Nevertheless, we must simultaneously address poverty. If we do not do this, we are doing our students and their families a disservice for we know that economic inequality is an injustice. And I refuse to be silent about it.
On Wednesday, August 24th, the District of Columbia Public Schools Central Office cancelled school cross the district due to the earthquake that had shaked the northeast on Tuesday. My mother was coming to visit later on Wednesday, but pushed up her train so we could have some extra time together. We decided to tour the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial. What a sight to see!
“Make a career of humanity… It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man… You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
That quote is my charge. It speaks to why I live. I will always remember viewing the memorial the week it was unveiled and this quote will carry me through my journey. I hope it inspires you as well.