Stereotypically, kids are innocent, energetic, children with missing teeth, and according to Bill Cosby (and earlier Art Linkletter), say the “darndest things.” Yet, inner-city teachers are seeking asylum from these urbanized kids and also becoming conscientious objectors to the public school agenda.
Even when teachers endure the spirit-breaking elements found in many urban schools, their departure is sometimes unforeseen and even involuntary.
For instance, in Paterson, NJ, a first-grade teacher became the focus of a witch hunt for using a social network as a coping mechanism.
While decompressing, she vented on her Facebook page, “I’m not a teacher — I’m a warden for future criminals!”
Despite her anguished post being statistically credible, the blatant disrespect to the PC gods resulted in her termination. Political correctness is another untaught skill that must be mastered by teachers who want to survive inner-city schools.
In addition to being proficient in political correctness, urban teachers must wear other hats while performing their thankless job. Along with teaching, they have to juggle the tasks of parenting, disciplining, counseling, and become familiar with behavior modification/de-escalation techniques.
Furthermore, teachers have to remain conscious about their individual safety, which is not limited to student-on-teacher violence. Oftentimes, parents physically and verbally assault teachers.
The lopsided amount of discipline action against Black students has now become a nationally politicized issue. The Washington Post reported:
Across the Washington area, black students are suspended and expelled two to five times as often as white students, creating disparities in discipline that experts say reflect a growing national problem.
Coincidentally, these numbers are comparable to the incarceration rates between Blacks and Whites, but I digress.
The Obama administration created the African-American Education Initiative, which illogically wants public schools to reduce disciplinary actions against Black students. Overall, disciplining Black students is really a slippery slope, especially if the teacher is White. Whenever a White teacher disciplines a black student, the unspoken burden of proof is always on the White teacher to prove that he/she isn’t racist.
Enter Dennis, a math teacher at an inner-city Philadelphia school. The controversial Being White in Philly article explained:
Dennis, 26, teaches math in a Kensington school. His first year there, fresh out of college, one of his students, an unruly eighth grader, got into a fight with a girl. Dennis told him to stop, he got into Dennis’s face, and in the heat of the moment Dennis called the student, an African-American, “boy.”
The student went home and told his stepfather. The stepfather demanded a meeting with the principal and Dennis, and accused Dennis of being racist; the principal defended his teacher. Dennis apologized, knowing how loaded the term “boy” was and regretting that he’d used it, though he was thinking, Why would I be teaching in an inner-city school if I’m a racist?
The stepfather calmed down, and that would have been the end of it, except for one thing: The student’s behavior got worse. Because now he knew that no one at the school could do anything, no matter how badly he behaved.
Here’s another untaught lesson that must be understood in urban schools: the race card is always available.
If the race card isn’t used, then the pervasive parental disconnect will have teachers demonized for “Ray-Ray’s” issues.
Chicago’s Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, proposed stimulating parental involvement by bribery; or as he termed it in Liberal language, “incentivizing responsible parenting.” Hand-outs, instead of hand-ups are the most reliable play in the Democrats’ playbook, and this particular hand-out was twenty–five dollar gift cards to baby mamas who picked up report cards and attended parent-teacher conferences.
Meanwhile, “Violent crimes are daily occurrence in many Chicago Public Schools,” says the Chicago Tribune. Moreover, “Police log dozens of calls a week from CPS schools, investigating complaints of battery, drug use, armed robberies, sexual assault, bomb threats and arson.”
Regardless, the apologists want teachers to persevere and blame the delinquent behavior on poverty and single parent homes. Early in life, my poor and single mother instilled that being poor was no excuse for poor behavior.
Here is a primary reason for the offending behavior.
These students prefer embracing the anti-social mentality that’s prevalent in the “hood.” The hood is a place where dysfunction litters the landscape and criminality is allowed to flourish because of the no-snitch code. It’s a place where Ebonics is the official language, and low cultural standards are maintained through the “keepin’ it real” mantra.
The hood is a place where State Pen is preferred over Penn State. It’s a place where a Dr. Kermit Gosnell is embraced over a Dr. Ben Carson. It’s a place where grievance gurus such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are household names, while race-realists such as Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams remain anonymous.
In summary, the hood is a place ripe for continued Democrat exploitation and the results are manifested in urban schools.
The combination of continued criminal behavior, academic apathy, lack of parental involvement/support, safety, and political correctness, leads to the conclusion that inner-city teachers deserve combat pay. After all, most are probably suffering from undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder already.
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