Mckee High School on Staten

¶ … McKee High School on Staten Island, I had the opportunity to work with disadvantaged youth who exhibited little to no motivation, little to no respect for education, and little to know respect for the teacher. It was one of the more difficult teaching experiences I have encountered, and because of that, the experience has helped me understand the complexities of education and the challenges I will encounter during my career.

The student teaching experience lasted for seven weeks between April 4 and May 16, during which time I was placed with Mr. Cohen in 9th, 10th, and 12th grades. The classes were mainly social studies units. Classroom management and behavioral management were the topmost challenges in these classrooms, with the exception of the honors classes. However, even in the honors classes I witnessed problems related to student motivation. It was a sad reflection on the state of society, which engenders no enthusiasm for learning and education in young people. In all the classrooms, I tried to bridge the lessons with issues, concepts, and symbols from contemporary popular culture. Occasionally I noticed a breakthrough in understanding, but that was quickly followed by a return to detachment, uncaring, and outright disdain for the educational experience the students had created a subculture in opposition to the teacher, and it was like a collective rebellion. It made me think about the structural problems related to education, starting with the economic disenfranchisement of communities and the inability of families to create positive learning environments in the home. Peer support encouraged an antagonistic attitude towards learning, too. These were all students who had the potential to learn, but were patterned and programmed to resist any signs of establishment or authority. If the educational system itself had been de-legitimated, then what hope does a teacher have to reach out to the students? The only hope is in the possibility of reaching out to individual students, or to develop some kind of systematic intervention like that depicted in films like Stand and Deliver.

Because I had worked in an entirely different environment at I.S. 24, also on Staten Island, I was shocked at the contrast between these two schools. Two schools in the same district were run differently, populated by different students, and obviously had different student outcomes. Was the educational system so flawed that it produced such radical inconsistencies? At the previous student teaching experience I had, from January to March, I was inspired to see the students responding to the material and to the teachers. The overall educational environment was stimulating and positive. It was not like that at McKee High School, which had a depressing learning environment. The contrast made me think about what specific issues were different at McKee, and how those differences might be changed so that all students can achieve their highest potential. Contemplating the differences helped me also comprehend the role that school administrators and policy makers play in the delivery of services to students. Education is not about standardized tests or even about curricula; it is about the educational climate. The educational climate is not a product of town-down programs that emanate from a well-meaning school authority but it comes from the bottom-up: from the culture itself.