teach. pray. - Fractured Bridges: Part 1

Dear South Carolina Representatives,

            We’d like to start by expressing our gratitude. Thank you for taking the time to read our thoughts and to consider our concerns as South Carolina educators, professionals, and residents. We would also like to start by admitting our shortcomings. We are classroom teachers not politicians, therefore, our understanding of the inner workings of legislation is limited. That being said, we can assume your understanding of the inner workings of an elementary and middle school classroom are also limited. The bridge connecting education legislation to the actual classroom is a fractured one and fractured bridges are less than effective. We write in hope that our concerns and daily experiences as educators will be the first step in repairing the fractured bridge.

What do you remember about a typical school day as a student? What is your vision, as a parent, of a typical school day for your child? Is your vision as a parent similar to that of your memories as a student? Chances are the two are closely related. However, as educators, our memory of a typical school day is far different from our daily experiences teaching in a classroom.

As a kindergarten student, we remember the classroom being filled with toy kitchenettes, dress up chests, sand and water tables, easels with paints, Lincoln Logs, and building blocks. We remember thematic units. If the thematic unit was fall, every activity we completed and every book that was read related to fall. We went on imaginary hunts through the forest. We observed colorful leaves, and it didn’t stop there. We went outside and collected leaves of as many different colors as we could find, and then, we brought them inside and created an art project. Then, the teacher would even have us write about the leaves. Sometimes we wrote poems or told stories about leaves while other times we wrote facts and observations. Our memories of kindergarten were full of fun adventures and hands on play which provided us with experiences to grow upon.

Have you visited a kindergarten classroom lately? If not, you should.

Kindergarten classrooms have been stripped of kitchenettes, dress up chests, Lincoln Logs, sand and water tables, easels with paint. The thematic units have been replaced with curriculums like Lucy Caulkins and Fountas & Pinnell. Basic, yet necessary, fine motor practice, like cutting and pasting, and gross motor practice, like skipping and reaching across the body’s midline, have been nearly banned. You won’t see play or adventures or thematic units. You won’t see joy on student faces as they revel in new experiences.

We are the first to preach rigor and real world application. However, what use is rigor when the current standards are not developmentally appropriate? What use is real world application when the real world is being erased from the classroom?

When you look up the word literate in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the definition is: (of a person) able to read and write. However, as a fifth grade ELA teacher, I am being told that a text dependent analysis is more focused on a child’s thinking and understanding of a text and grammar and conventions aren’t that important. And, what happened when standardized testing threw away writing as an assessment? Writing got pushed to the back burner because it’s all about a TDA these days. Don’t spend too much time on grammar and punctuation. Make sure the thoughts are there. Correct me if I’m wrong but clearly expressing our thoughts in writing relies heavily on grammar and conventions. One could argue grammar and conventions are tested through the multiple choice questions, but then, what happens to rigorous real world application of those skills? I’m not answering multiple choice questions about grammar and conventions as I write you this letter. I’m applying those skills. Ever wonder why today’s college students don’t know how to write reports or resumes?

This leads me to the proposal of removing social studies and science testing in specific grade levels. I sat in a meeting last year and a district personnel told our social studies/science teacher she needed to shorten her social studies and science lessons in such a way that she could teach thirty minutes a day of reading and math. This school year, our third grade social studies/science teacher was told her curriculum really doesn’t matter because it isn’t tested. Why? Because reading and math test scores matter more than social studies and science. Then, we wonder why young people don’t value education or why they don’t vote, or why an 18 year old recently looked at a waterfall and asked me where the water was coming from. Public schools are teaching young people that social studies and science don’t matter because social studies, civics, and science aren’t priorities in public schools. As a state, we are not only penalizing the future of South Carolina, but we are holding the progress of our country hostage by providing a lopsided education focused primarily on reading and math.

Rita Pierson, an educator and TED Talk Education presenter, stated in her talk,

 “Over those 40 years, I’ve had a chance to look at education reform from a lot of perspectives. Some of those reforms have been good. Some of them have been not so good...But, one of the things we never discuss or we rarely discuss is the value and importance of human connection.”

To be an effective teacher, one must build a relationship of love, grace, and trust with each and every student that walks through the door of his/her classroom. Therefore, standards and accountability are important, but what happens when human connection is erased?

            In my fifth grade homeroom class of 23 students, approximately 50% of my students receive free or reduced lunch and approximately 57% of my students live in broken homes (single-parent homes or grandparents raise them). Two students receive food bags so they have something to eat over the weekend. One student takes a shower and washes his clothes at school, and the speech therapist has provided him with appropriate clothing and hygiene products. Another student of mine was removed from her father’s care, placed in foster care, kicked out of foster care, placed with her biological mother who she hadn’t seen since she was four or five, and comes to school with a fortress built around her because no one has ever taught her she’s worth loving. If I didn’t take the time to connect with these students and create a safe environment for them, my classroom would be full of broken kids who just come to school because they have to. If I didn’t invest time in valuing them and this human connection, they wouldn’t make one year growth in reading in half a school year. If I didn’t build relationships with these students and teach them how to build relationships with each other, they may never know what it feels like to be part of a family. We aren’t a class. We are a family, and because of this, my students know how be honest while disagreeing respectfully. They know how to shake someone’s hand and look that someone in the eye during conversation, They know kindness is just as important as intelligence. They know positive change comes with positive interactions and hard work. They know the challenges and value of being vulnerable and authentic. They know the difference between self-discipline and laziness. They know their worth. Teaching soft skills to the future generation of leaders is equally important as academic standards, and we are currently failing kids by not requiring these skills in public schools. As I work on mending these bridges for my students, I’m also mending the bridges of humanity. A true education improves humanity not just test scores.

            When human connection is erased, you construct a society of future leaders of emotional instability. You create a society of future leaders who do not know how to properly communicate with one another when there are disagreements. You create a society of future leaders who lack empathy, sympathy, and compassion for each other. You create a society of future leaders who can’t compromise because the opinions and feelings of others aren’t valued. When human connection is erased, you halt the growth of the community, the state, and the country. Communities, states, and countries are all connected by bridges that we continue to chip away at. We aren’t repairing bridges by pushing developmentally inappropriate standards, erasing social studies testing, and implementing fifteen other tests. We’re damaging them even more.

            Just like the relationships we strive to build with our students, in order to make them feel valued and respected as human beings, the government should try a little harder to build similar relationships with teachers, and the public school districts should try a little harder to build bridges between the schools and communities the schools reach. Turn on the news or look on social media and teachers are constantly being blamed for the failing public education of young people. We are professionals. We went to college, earned a degree or two or three, passed a board exam or two or three, and continue our professional development every year just like any other profession. We work 50-60 hour weeks from August to June. We attend workshops and classes over the summer. We are in the trenches every single day wearing hats as educators, therapists, care givers, and disciplinarians. Teaching, unlike most other careers, isn’t just a career. It’s a lifestyle.

            Society is currently standing at an intersection. The decisions we make right now will impact our local communities, our state, and our country for generations to come. Educators want to be respected and taken seriously. Educators want to help mend the system’s brokenness. As educators, we invite you to spend a day with us in the classroom. Come shadow us as we teach kids how to read, persevere in the midst of math problems, navigate our country’s history, analyze the science of life, and comfort the broken hearts of the kids in our classroom. Take the time to sit down with groups of educators from every district in the state, let them talk, and really listen to them. The root of the problem isn’t low salaries and high demands. If you really listen, I think you’ll be enlightened. It’s not only about low salaries, high demands, and kids. It’s about treating people humanely. It’s about humanity. It’s time we stop putting band-aids on the bridges and start rebuilding them.

Sincerely,

Nadia Granger and Wesley Carwile