Show Us the Money
On the same day that State Superintendent O’Connell announced in my classroom that I was a 2010 California Teacher of the Year, I received a text message from my brother, a public defender. It said simply: “In trial. Another meth addict.”
Since 2008, 3.5 million American students have dropped out of school, one every nine seconds. In 2007 alone, law enforcement agencies in the United States made an estimated 2.18 million arrests of youth under the age of 18. And the discussion continues about how much we spend on incarcerating Californians as compared to educating them.
We live in a society that is founded on the ideal of equal opportunity for all. Yet this principle is not a reality for far too many students. We have all seen the devastating examples in our teaching careers. The fifteen-year-old girl who knows that, in a few short months, she will most likely need to drop out of school to care for her newborn child. The battered boy who has stopped dreaming of success because he constantly hears “you’re no good.” The frustrated student who cannot see the benefit of the daily classroom challenges. There is a look in their eyes, a spark that is no longer there. The doors in our society often slam hardest in the faces of those who are not academically prepared for the complexities of our global community.
However, at my school, and many other schools throughout our great state, we can see the power of a functioning educational system; a system built around faculty, administration, parents, and community members who offer constant encouragement, belief in potential, and unfailing support. Such a system can transform a student from one who has all but given up to one whose passion to learn is ignited and whose future is reclaimed. We have the power as teachers, administrators, parents, and community members to make that difference in a child’s life and not let any student slip away.