Poverty + Natural Disaster = Man-Made Disaster

A friend of mine who has been working around the world in poverty-stricken areas with the International Committee for the Red Cross recently sent me this New York Times editorial. I do not agree with everything in this article, but the author makes some interesting points. My friend, who has worked for years in Africa, Palestine, and is now being sent to Afghanistan for a year, is frustrated with how NGOs (organizations that try to help developing countries deal with poverty) treat the problems that they face. His view is that providing charity and money is not the solution but rather part of the problem. His experiences working in villages in Chad and Senegal in Africa have shown him that in order to help people in very poor areas, you need to change poor economic and social habits that have developed over time. Basically, my friend argues that many people in poor countries where he works need help with basic life skills.

In Haiti, for example, part of the reason that the earthquake caused so much damage is because so many buildings in the city were poorly-constructed and did not follow important safety rules. This is because building developers are often corrupt and want to build quickly to make more money, sacrificing safety and security. My friend would argue that this is one of the major problems of Haitian society - too many people are corrupt and too many people accept corruption as just the way things are.

I do not know how I feel about this because it seems to blame Haitians for what happened. However, I do think that the way American organizations try to help poorer countries has to change. What do you think? What is the best way to offer help to struggling nations? And do you agree with the editorial above?

Grammar!?#%*)#$%#

I'm trying to remember how I learned grammar. It's difficult because I feel like it was so long ago. Not because I'm old, just because my memory is failing me. I can't remember what it was like not to know grammar because now writing in standard English is so natural to me. It just happens. Though I know it wasn't easy for me at first because English was my second language. I remember having teachers asking me if I spoke English at home and it always embarrassed me. At home, both my parents spoke to me in our native language and when I spoke English, I had an accent for my first few years at school. I didn't always use the right form of the verb, and sometimes kids made fun of my accent. So I know that my grammar wasn't always standard and that I had to learn standard English in order to compete in the "real world." But how did I do it? What strategies did my teachers use? Is it just a matter of practice?

Chalk

I just saw this "mockumentary" (is that really a genre?) and was touched by it. I am also certain that a teacher wrote it. There's no way that regular people know what a "do now" or "aim" is. Nor do regular people understand "teacher talk" and the various teacher personalities that bubble to the surface among otherwise normal human beings. Chalk does a good job of portraying some of the absurdity, difficulty, and, dare I say it, joy that goes along with working in a school. It's not a perfect film but it makes me want to get up and go to work in the morning, which I always want to do, of course :).

Good Days and Bad Days

It is amazing to me, even though it is my sixth year of teaching, how one day in the classroom can be so positive and inspiring, and the very next day it can feel so stuck and frustrating. I think that experience has not necessarily given me the ability to avoid "bad days", but rather the ability to deal with them :) I remember being a first, second, even third year teacher and feeling like it was the end of the world after a really bad day. Now, I suppose my days are never actually as bad as they once were, but I have come to accept them as a natural part of the job.

I was watching a special on PBS last night about the "pursuit of happiness" and one of the points made was that good relationships must be able to survive conflict, that conflict is a necessary part of any romantic, friendly, or family relationship. It is how we deal with conflict, they were arguing, that impacts whether our relationships are strong and lasting, or superficial and short-term. People need to know that they are being heard, that what they say matters. I think this holds true for the teacher-class relationship. The students need to know that the teacher is responsive to their needs and that the teacher really cares. Similarly, for teachers to feel good about their job and come to class with energy, they need to know that their students value them, or at least that they are being successful, at some level, in actually teaching!

This is all very interesting... I'm wondering how successful teachers and students have learned to develop this relationship over time and what ingredients make it work. Perhaps unsuccessful teachers and students are not willing to let the other into their lives and this is what prohibits strong learning. There is more to good teaching and learning than a good lesson plan or a high score on an assignment. The emotional component to the whole dance perhaps deserves more attention.

Everything That is Hard about Teaching Writing

1. There is no "right" answer in writing.
2. Writing is complicated!
3. Writing is about personal voice. How do you teach someone to develop his or her personal voice?
4. I don't know everything about writing.
5. Sometimes, writing makes my head spin.
6. There are so many different kinds of writing.
7. Writing requires creativity - something that cannot be taught, just encouraged.
8. Writing is never perfect.
9. The world is full of bad writing!

The Statistics

"By 4th grade, Black and Latino students are on average nearly 3 years behind their White and Asian students."

This statistic leaves me mostly with questions. The first one is obvious - why? Why is this happening? When I start thinking about it, my mind gets all tangled and disorderly because the problem is so huge. What is happening in America that entire groups of people are not achieving on the same level as other groups of people? As a teacher on the Lower East Side, I wanted to presented these statistics to my students to get their minds turning and tangled into similar knots. However, I didn't fully anticipate the trouble some students might have with reading statistics or putting all of this information together. What might be a better way to make these statistics clearer and to help students feel their impact?

One thing that I realize is that when these statistics were presented to me, they were presented one at a time as a Powerpoint presentation. I had time to digest each one. Maybe presenting the list to students was too overwhelming? Or maybe not. Maybe I just need to give students time to write and process what they are thinking. We'll see once they start blogging tomorrow!