Substitute Teachers, White Saviors, and Neoliberal Charter Schools
My little story about what happened when I worked in that charter school one time
In this post: I write about toughening the f up, for the sake of my students (and why I was never going to be able to help them).
Last week: A phone transcript between a fairly angry lesbian (me) and J da Slumlord (JDS), a reflection on Rage Becomes Her
Next week: Where my frustration with the education started, the importance of listening to BIPOC students, and the concequences of minors targeted by micro and macroagressions from the adults around them.
oh hey, y'all,
On this week, exactly two years ago, I sat in an overly-hot and crowded classroom at a small, and failing, charter school, facing a room full of tenth graders who had not had a teacher for nearly an entire semester. The students had been ‘babysat’ by a revolving door of substitute teachers who assigned… more than they ever taught. By that I mean, the kids had done jack shit for an entire semester, and now I was tasked with bringing them up to speed, getting them back in the routine of learning again, and somehow earning their trust despite the fact that every single other white adult at that school had betrayed them time and time again.
what's that? poverty-level pay isn't enough to keep substitutes? quelle surprise!
I didn’t realize that this was par for the course, even though I myself had just been a substitute teacher (with a Ph.D., 6 years of college teaching experience, and 2 as a high school teacher).
Receipt 1: “Some schools rely heavily on substitute teachers. Why?” by Emma Brown, WaPo Dec 7, 2015.
Receipt 2: High-Poverty Schools often staffed by rotating cast of substitutes by Emma Brown, WaPo Dec 04, 2015
And boy oh boy how true does this remain with substitute teaching shortages dotting our headlines of late?
There’s been much hullabaloo of substitute teachers, with the NM governor doing the ultimate act of white saviorism and pledging to become one herself (eye roll): but have we taken a moment to think about WHY we need more?
this article, by Theresa Vargas, explains why substitute teacher programs in DC are such a mess, but the same problem is everywhere.
It’s because substitute teachers, like adjunct professors, are cheap, expendable labor, and thus the backbone of public and charter education staffing. I know, because I was one myself. I was a full-time substitute teacher for New York City Public Schools, believing that one day, I too would make it into that teacher's union. Instead, I was whispered sweet nothings that “as soon as” I paid thousands of dollars in bullshit courses and teacher ‘training’ (read more about it here). All the while, I lived on substitute teacher pay, a total of $1200 a month. In New York City.
I had already gone bankrupt for one lost cause in education, I wasn’t going to do it for another (see my post, 'mo money, mo problems: an American reality' from 2018)((plus thousands of dollars in therapy taught me better about valuing myself)).
So I jumped from the fire into the flames, mistaking it for safety.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I knew the research of what I was getting into, which is precisely why I was going in. As an escape from academia. A former adjunct professor, and officially exiled art historian, I found meaning and love in the high school classroom. A white savior dressed up with a Ph.D. How naive of me that I thought I would have ever lasted in that desolate land full of individual white saviors and lost potential.
All of this has just been made worse by the pandemic. It was already this bad, just nobody was paying this much attention. But since the general public is finally hearing more about the collapse of education, this newsletter is dedicated to informing us more about why we should all be medusa-level-rage at the travesty of charter schools (subscribe!)
Oh for fuck's sake, yes, send in GUARDS to replace teachers. I cannot. School to prison pipeline as per usual. smh.
White savior of the week:
“The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.” -Teju Cole
Why she ain’t who she said she is: she's sending soldiers into classrooms instead of trained teachers (of which, she also ain't).
Also doesn’t she already have a job to do??
What I’m reading:
Teju Cole “The White Savior Industrial Complex; if we are going to interfere in the lives of others, a little due diligence is a minimum requirement,” March 21, 2012. The Atlantic.
High-Poverty Schools often staffed by a rotating cast of substitutes by Emma Brown, WaPo Dec 04, 2015
Every U.S. classroom needs a sub from time to time. But in the troubled schools that serve some of the nation’s neediest children, it is not uncommon for classrooms to churn with substitutes as teachers leave in large numbers each June, or quit midyear, and principals struggle to fill the positions.
“Some schools rely heavily on substitute teachers. Why?” by Emma Brown, WaPo Dec 7 2015.
Many readers who have shared and commented on the story have pointed out that the real issue is not too many substitutes, but underlying problems — such as unsupportive administrators and student mishbehavior — that can make high-poverty schools difficult places to work.
Sara Duckett, who left a high-poverty D.C. high school in December 2014, said that she spent too much time in meetings she believed had nothing to do with addressing the needs of her students. She said her instructional coach was spread too thin to help her effectively. The school was too chaotic for teaching and learning, she said, and administrators didn’t listen to teachers’ pleas for change.
“We often felt like we were in the trenches alone,” she said.
Soraya Chemaly’s Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger. Simon and Schuster, 2017.
Quote to take to the bank:
“When we are taught that our anger is undesirable, selfish, powerless, and ugly, we learn that we are undesirable, selfish, powerless, and ugly. When we forgo talking about anger, because it represents risk or challenge, or because it disrupts a comfortable status quo, we forgo valuable lessons about risk and challenge and the discomforts of the status quo. By naturalizing the idea that girls and women aren't angry but are sad, by insisting that they keep their anger to themselves, we render women's feelings and demands mute and with little social value. When we call our anger sadness instead of anger, we often fail to acknowledge what is wrong, specifically in a way that discourages us from imagining and pursuing change. Sadness, as an emotion, is paired with acceptance. Anger, on the other hand, invokes the possibility of change and of fighting back.
What I wish I had taught my daughter in that moment was that she had every right to be angry, and subsequently demand that the adults around her pay attention to that anger. Only then can she feel she has the right to make demands on the world.”
NSFS: Not Safe for School, your snark-filled antidote to racism and corruption in education. Follow @postphdtheblog on Twitter and @allisonharbin_postphd on Instagram
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