Stay Away

"Don't even bother."

That's the message I feel I was given while I was working in the public school system.  I entered the public school arena as an Alternate Route candidate.  This essentially means that while teaching, I was to be mentored and/or advised by a colleague as well as monitored by the school Principal.  The time that I put in teaching, writing lesson plans and - well - being a teacher would all go towards me earning a teacher's certificate.

The school I went to work in in Newark was on the brink when I arrived.  The community around the school is completely dysfunctional (plagued with violence, drugs, and poverty) and most of my students were coming into the building in the same resultant condition.  The Principal was losing his grip on the school and by the time December rolled around, he had lost complete control.  By January, teachers were leaving and substitutes refused assignment at the school.  By March and April, the school resembled more of a battlefield than a place of learning.

Despite these difficulties, I stayed.  Like I said, many teachers left - or were forced to leave due to stress induced medical reasons - but I remained.  I wrote and submitted lesson plans; gave individual music lessons before school; collaborated on concerts; staged concerts; created a school drum line; formed great relationships with some of the toughest students; and filled in when substitutes left in the middle of the day.  I was choked by a student during a fight.  I helped council young boys through the violent death of uncles and brothers.  Finally, my 3rd grade strings class was chosen to go play at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center ("NJPAC") with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

I did all of this and at the end of the year was told I would not be returning.  Newark closed six public schools and while mine wasn't one of them, they took a tenured teacher and moved him to my spot (he quit at the end of last year).  Oh, and I never received any professional credit towards a teacher's certification.  The Principal was dismissed at the end of that year (thank god), and I found out that all of the work I did was essentially branded as meaningless.

Last year I spent the entire year as a substitute in my own hometown suburban district.  One day I worked as a sub at the High School in a special program for diverse learners - not an easy class to walk into.  After just one day, and the teaching of one class, I received a note from the head of that program saying he'd never heard anything about a sub like that before in his entire career.  I was called to work all the time.  I made an impression on the kids as well as teachers, administrators and Principals.  I was encouraged to apply for openings in the district and did so with recommendations from teachers and Principals.  I was never hired.

The overwhelming message for me - as a public school teacher - has been "Stay away."  They don't want people like me.  It's funny because while subbing I had (too many) students tell me You're better than our real teacher or PLEASE be our teacher for the rest of the year...please! 

Despite the kids begging me to stay, and making an impact in the classroom, the "powers that be" didn't care about classroom effectiveness and, instead, told me to go.

That's a problem.