Waiting For Superman

“A-B-C”

Maybe it was because I was the new kid on the block or it could’ve been my coke bottle glasses, but it probably was because my mother and I stuck out like sore thumbs in low income housing. When I attended the school in my district of Louisiana, the children were disobedient and acted out, teasing me mercilessly. I was the only white kid in an all African American school, which wouldn’t have been a problem, if I hadn’t been taunted for it. So, when I transferred to an ‘A’ school an hour and a half away that lay within an upper class neighborhood, I noticed the children stood taller, used manners and the teacher’s seemed to enjoy their jobs.  We caught two city buses just so I wouldn’t have to be a minority; I even learned how to tie my shoe laces on that bus. So I began to wonder, why was my poor yet beloved neighborhood home to a ‘D’ school, and the wealthier neighborhood an ‘A’? Could there have been any correlation; and was it a bad neighborhood that made a bad school, or a bad school that made a bad neighborhood?

At that age I didn’t notice a difference between skin tones; my collection of ethnically blended barbies all possessed a beauty of their own in my eyes. That was until the teachers and students of my ‘D’ school made it a point to shave back my eyelids, showing me the difference between black and white. Wodtke, a Ph.D. student states “Black children were about seven times more likely than white children to experience long-term residence in the most disadvantaged 20 percent of neighborhoods in the country ”(Swanbro). It’s upsetting to hear that African American’s are more inept to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and even more difficult knowing that these areas have poor schools, too. If anything, the ‘D’ school I had attended deserved better than the ‘A’ I transferred to, because the children worked harder for everything. Wodtke then states “Our results indicate that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods has a much greater negative impact on the chances a child will graduate from high school than earlier research has suggested”. The ‘A’ school I attended was predominately white, but was the letter grade influenced by race, or was it the neighborhood? Did tumultuous home lives reap bad grades, and why were so many schools around me closing down?

With the United States education system currently improving, but still at a letter grade of a ‘C’, there’s plenty of room for improvement. So, what about violence? Did violence in neighborhoods have an effect on its public schools? It’s widely known that low income families are more inept to practice maltreatment. In our neighborhood of Baton Rouge, there was a child who threw rocks at our windows, would graffiti our front door and stole our beloved bicycles. When my mother went to the boys house to explain to his parent’s what he had done, his mom started beating him with a long stick in front of her, leaving the boy with large bruises on his body. My mom started crying, screaming at her to stop. After that she was afraid to speak up. Just over 3 million children were reported to child welfare in 2005, and 54 percent of students who report seeing violence at home end up having a violent history at school before the 8^th grade (American Humane Association). This research implies that a poor neighborhood does make a bad school, because students bring their personal problems to their desk each time the bell rings. But isn’t a school supposed to have the tools in place to help students? A poor neighborhood doesn’t make a bad school; careless and unmotivated teachers are the root of the problem. With states like Idaho that lack any kind of incentive for teachers whom earn national certification, it’s not surprising when they rank bottom for teaching profession with a grade of a ‘D’ minus (Wiegley & Sauter). So what can a good school do for a bad neighborhood?

For me, school was a place where I could change cliques like I changed socks, make up a new accent and beg to be teacher’s pet. I wasn’t guaranteed attention at home, or a hot meal; but school made up for all the short comings that assisted me at my not so humble abode. Charter, public or private, school is supposed to give you the pedals to ride until you find a purpose, whether or not you walk the halls of an ‘A’ or a ‘C’ school. Just because a school is tucked within a poor neighborhood doesn’t mean it will fall prey to the looming statistics. When you peel back the layers and pry into a violent or low income neighborhood, you can still find those who stick out like gold stars; trying to make a difference. Maybe these schools have sports teams that offer a sense of community pride. Or maybe these schools serve as a community hub for social activities, or it could be a major employer for people in the area. But no matter where you go, and no matter how dysfunctional a school may be, in every city lays at least a few educated adults who want to mentor and make a difference.

Usually when bad schools are placed within bad cities, they shut the schools down and pluck the kids up, dropping them into unfamiliar classes that are jammed pack, with too few teachers. The perpetual cycle of tossing children around from low income housing or bad neighborhoods will continue until our desire to help is stronger than our silence. With so many different factors such as violence, teachers, home life and neighborhoods contributing to our schools letter grades, it’s impossible to pin point one thing and eliminate any one problem. Instead of focusing on an intangible letter we should start adapting our schools to the needs of all walks of life, and making sure that everyone gets the same opportunity and education as everyone else.

Works Cited

American Humane Association “Child Abuse & Neglect Statistics” Accessed 22 April 2013, Retrieved from                                                      <http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/child-abuse-and-neglect-statistics.html>

Renwick, Trudy. “Geographic Adjustments of Supplemental Poverty Measure Thresholds: Using the   American Community Survey Five-Year Data on Housing Costs”, July 2011. Accessed 22 April 2013.

Sauter, Micheal.  Weigley, Samuel. “The States with the Best and Worst Schools”, January 2013. Accessed 22 April 2013, Retrieved from < http://homes.yahoo.com/news/where-the-best-and-worst-schools-are-021737613.html>

Swanbro, Diane. “Growing up in bad neighborhoods has a ‘devastating’ impact: U-M Study”, October 2011. Accessed 22 April 2013, Retrieved from <http://www.sampler.isr.umich.edu/2011/research/growing-up-in-bad-neighborhoods-has-a-devastating-impact-u-m-study/>