Archives for January 2008

Whenever the everyday burdens of the job get you down; whenever you get depressed; whenever a student, parent or supervisor picks on you; whenever you forget why you became an educator; I need your to read this poem and remember.

The Bridge Builder
By Will Allen Dromgoogle
(1860 – 1934)

An old man, going a lone highway
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim
The sullen stream had no fears for him.
But it turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting strength with building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day
You will never cross the chasm, deep and wide –
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head,
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said
“There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way
This chasm that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pit-fall be,
He too, must cross in the twilight dim
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

We know that there is a correlation between poverty and students dropping out. Students may have to work or take care of younger siblings as parents need two or more jobs to support a family. The Census Bureau released a list on Wednesday of the 70 largest school districts of students who lived with a family in poverty in 2005. The top 10 appear below. If you wish to know your city’s percentage send me an email to [email protected]

#1 Cleveland 39%

#2 New Orleans 38%

#3 Detroit 38%

#4 Fresno 35%

#5 St. Louis 35%

#6 Milwaukee 33%

#7 Philadelphia 32%

#8 San Antonio 31%

#9 Atlanta 31%

#10 Houston 31%

There are four major causes of students dropping out of school:
a.    The child him/herself
b.    The family situation
c.    The community they live in
d.    The school environment

In order to prevent students from dropping out of school, we must attack the causes listed above.  Some of them are out of our control.  For example, we cannot address the community they live in or in most cases, their family situation.  But we can address the choices they make and the school environment. One of the ways of doing so is for educators to ask a serious of tough questions. (More)

How inviting a classroom environment is there for the student?  Are the walls painted in “happy colors” or are they drab institutional gray or green?  Are your bulletin boards filled with student work, left blank or with commercial advertisements?

Are all students encouraged to learn? Has the school created different classes for students – those designed to pass and those designed to fail?  Those who will go on to college and those who will drop out.  What role can you, as a classroom instructor, play in overcoming this paradigm?

How many students start in your school or system, graduate?  Does the school track their progress through the system?  Are “safety nets” built in for those who are identified as at-risk?  What “pillars” support these safety nets?  Are you one of these safety nets?  Do you know how to get additional assistance in helping students graduate? (Is there additional counseling, mentoring, after school learning activities, service-learning projects designed to connect school to the world of work? As you track, is the largest reason for kids leaving school, “miscellaneous”?

How many students who dropouts are actually pushed out?  (Students who are told, by word or action, “I do not want you in my class” or “I don’t need you in my school.”)  How close to graduation are students who dropout?  Do they need one credit or ten?  What has the school done to help them make up the credit? What role can you, as a classroom instructor, play in overcoming this paradigm?  What is done to support the “psychological” dropout – the child who is physically in the school but mentally is miles away. What role can you, as a classroom instructor, play in overcoming this paradigm?