International Human Rights Day- What about Public School Education?

Okay today December 10^th is International Human Rights Day. In today’s social media I saw posts regarding Freedom of the Press for Journalists, dialogue about issues of public life and political decision making, freeing jailed activist, and few with a focus on education. I personally saw nothing regarding the rights of black children to live in a violent free society, and very few expressions concerning the rights of OUR urban inner city children to obtain a quality education, preparing them to compete in a global society. Has the 1954 case of Brown vs. the Board of Education that argued for school desegregation and the rights of black children to obtain a quality education, equal to those in more affluent areas been realized?  I say a definite NO. We are not seeing equal rights, opportunity, justice and dignity without discrimination manifested in Philadelphia’s Public School system when compared to Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks or Chester Counties. Whatever one may think about this statement, please do not blame the newest School Superintendent. (He just got here a few months ago).  Also don’t blame his predecessors. OUR education system problems didn’t dissolve overnight, it took years to get that way. Philadelphia children like other urban area children are regrettably victims of conditions beyond their control. The blame game cannot fix anything. Only we can. WE should include elected representatives, parents, advocates, college and private school educators and anyone else who cares about the future of all children. So what if you don’t have a child in the system, the children of OUR generation have few alternatives.  They depend on us as adults to create a desirable learning environment.

Inner city urban schools continue with often substandard facilities, dated textbooks (if any), little if any state of the art educational technology (white boards-lcd overhead projectors, etc),too many teachers who regrettably view their chosen vocation as merely a job that pays the bills, whereas the passion for educating children seems to be reminiscent of days long gone. All American children should have a right to access to a free, quality public education. Frankly, the educational environment leaves little to be desired. If I were a child attending these schools, I would be truant- I wouldn’t go. The myriad of social problems, bullying, and violence would not make today’s school environment desirable to me. I recall in elementary school, being many a teacher’s pet as I wore crindolens (poofy slips) under my dress, and ruffled anklets, smiled a lot, did ballet and was outgoing. Not sure how I would have progressed if I didn’t fit that profile. I say all this to say, I know teachers do have biases. When it comes to our children, their individual subjective opinions shouldn’t matter.

With the prison industry forecasting the number of jail cells to build, based on 2^nd grade reading levels, these stats are being used to develop an option that’s not an option for OUR children.

Almost thirty years ago as I was raising my own child (I truly valued education); I refused to educate Asia in the public education system particularly in the lower grades. Elementary school is a time critically important to children learning the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic. Moreover, it is a critical time to learn how to learn and develop a love (at least like) for learning. With few alternatives to obtain a class education, unless it was privately paid or I moved to the suburbs, getting a free quality public education in urban Philadelphia was and remains virtually impossible. As she reached middle school years, I also had few alternatives. I considered using where I worked as an address, but that school wasn’t good either. One time in desperation I presented to the School District, how my child was gifted. Then I learned a secret, it wasn’t how smart your child may be, it was who I knew.  Bull’s eye this formula worked. Her being gifted, my boldness to address the school board, while nice none of it worked, who I knew did. The private elementary school education, as I prioritized and sacrificed my own needs to insure my child had the best education possible. This action proved a benefit as she excelled in middle school, and was thus awarded a scholarship to attend high school at one of the best private schools in the nation. 

Today with the evolution of Charter Schools and Home Schooling at least this provides some alternative. I do distinctly recall political proponents of these educational alternatives, initially had a real fight on their hands with the unions. Gheez,-I personally witnessed the teachers union, throw all kinds of union money around trying to unseat incumbents voting for Charter Schools, unsuccessfully thank GOD and look now, at least there are alternatives, although the jury is still out on how well these alternatives are educating OUR children.One visible outcome is less overcrowding, and an ability to cherry pick the best potentially scholarly candidates. If the child has any major psycho social problem, Charters can leave them to be educated in the public school, and they do. This of course allows the child with resourceful parents and no psychological issues to have fair educational alternatives. 

But it leaves the child with multiple psycho social issues in public schools, unwanted because they are “problem children.” Having worked previously as a child behavior specialist and mobile therapist, I observed classrooms where teachers labeled children with psychiatric diagnosis of Attention Hyperactive Deficit Disorder (ADHD) or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Yes, the psychologist does the actual diagnosis, but the seed of this diagnosis is implanted by a teacher. Only if that teacher is a special education teacher, should this process carry weight, as these special education teachers have had some training in behavioral development. But a teacher not trained in psychology or assessment, making that assessment is not good clinical practice and shouldn’t be allowed. Also remember the Psychological Evaluator only has limited time to observe child behaviors, and in most cases relies on information from a teacher. This is why its good to have behaviorists and counselors working in schools to assess children over time, not a regular teacher. How objective the teacher is about feedback given to the evaluator must be  considered. Worse yet often these children don’t get added psychological supports after graduation. I know too many children medicated up through 12^th grade, with no follow-up supports. These children often upon graduation (approximate 50% graduation rate in Philadelphia) are not followed up with psychological supports. Without understanding how to handle the child, now young adult fails in society as they’re educationally inferior, there’s no continuum of psychological aftercare and they end up undesirably in prison, on drugs, self medicating, homeless and a burden on society.

Regrettably, in schools today, due to diversity in social and familial environments, we have many more children involved in child welfare systems due to parental absence, drug use, imprisonment etc. This leaves a lot of children with many issues. Regrettably, these circumstances impact too many children. It’s a Human Right for OUR children to get quality education. It’s up to us to attend school board meetings, attend town meetings, call elected officials with new ideas to fund public education, join existing movements, and ask your employer to adopt a nearby public school. Even adopt a young parent to help them understand how important it is to attend child progress report meetings. Let’s do whatever we can to support and Save OUR children in the public school system.

#VoiceCounts