Superman?

If it isn't Superman that can change things in the American educational system, who is going to save us? I saw Waiting For Superman over the weekend and it is still with me. My heart broke for those 5 kids and their families and I don't think I'll ever be the same again. I am a reader of almost anything about education so nothing in the movie was new or shocking to me. Perhaps it was just seeing it all laid out in one place that tore me apart. I have been embarrassed by my job on many instances but leaving that theater was a bit closer to humiliation than I have ever been before. Am I really a part of this system that knowingly chooses not to educate children, that protects the teachers while sacrificing the students and even the schools that work, stratifies them into those who will have college as an option and those who will not? Numbers don't lie. How do you deal with knowing the fact that there is only a 12% chance that a student who lives in a specific neighborhood will graduate high school and be equipped for college level courses? I don't work in a "bad" school but I am a part of a system that is broken. The problems appear too complex to fix from within but it seems that other people are able to do what we cannot. Charter schools are doing some incredible things with kids the public system has turned its back on. It is time to rephrase the statement that schools are bad because they are in bad neighborhoods. We have created bad neighborhoods out of bad schools. That is still a hard concept to wrap my head around. For 50 years I have believed what I have been told by the media, by police reports and by all sorts of books that have been written. I have worked in east San Jose and Tyler, Texas and seen it for myself. And I believed, truly believed that there was so little that could be done in the schools because of everything I saw in the neighborhood. Never did I think to tip that thought on its head and place the blame on the "man in the mirror." Now it is time to think about the possible. It is time to question my role as a teacher and who I serve. I have had 2 recurring thoughts over the past few days. One, that I am really good at teaching beginning readers. Perhaps I would be a stronger cog in the wheel back in primary. At least kids would have the first building block in place. And, second, I could easily see myself in a charter school. I am the teacher that is willing to teach longer and harder to be sure that kids succeed. Is this a fork in the road for me? Only time will tell. All I know is that every decision I make about teaching has now taken on greater importance. There is much to fix in this mess we have made of our school system. But I do believe that if everyone can simply put kids in the forefront, a huge improvement can be made. Yes, that means the removal of tenure and a serious re-evaluation of teacher evaluation. Let's get the bad ones out. Our kids and their future are too important to put in the hands of mediocrity or worse. It is time to stand up for kids.