A Classroom Library

I saw the movie Waiting for "Superman" last night and wanted to share some of my thoughts.

My wife and I have three children that all attend separate school districts. Our oldest is a senior getting ready to complete her high school career at a classical liberal arts charter high school in downtown Indianapolis. Our middle daughter attends one of the most successful (per test scores) suburban high schools one the north side as a sophomore. Finally our son attends a progressive k-8 charter as a seventh grader, that is also located downtown. We are fortunate as a family that we have options for our children's education. Our parenting style has always been dominated by the fact that each of our children are unique and have different needs. Our oldest would have floundered in the conservative-evangelical culture of our local affluent suburban school. The second daughter could wind up playing lacrosse at a D-1 or D-2 college and needs the resources to do so that the suburban school provides. Our youngest, although just as intelligent as his sister needs more individual attention than the traditional "track" system of suburban schools does not allow for. We have options when it comes to education, but there are many in our society that do not.

There are good charter schools and their are bad charter schools. There are good public schools and there are bad public schools. This movie breaks down the problem of all our schools to the issue of how good or bad are the teachers in the school. I'm a believer in unions. The worker needs someone or something to make sure they are protected. I believe everyone, no matter where they work, should have a contract. But when that contract becomes a barrier to accomplishing the job they are hired to do the contract should be considered null and void. The teachers unions should insure that every teacher has the right and ability to enter into a personal contract with their school system where they can be employed. But when that teacher fails to live up to the conditions of that contract the system should have the right to protect students from that teacher. There should not be one over arching contract that shelters poor teacher performance and holds back great teachers from being financially rewarded for their contributions. If I must join a union to teach in the school that I feel I can do my best work, I will get involved with the union to reform that system.

In business, most companies strive to, at some level, be "customer" focused. In the case of our educational systems the schools boards, administrators and teachers all need to become more "customer" focused. They need to become more "student" centered. Where the needs of the individual student are paramount to the process of their education. I promise myself and the students I will teach that I will only take a job at a school that holds this philosophy.

While at the theater I ran into one of the Principals of an IPS magnet school that I have had the pleasure of meeting before (he also sends his son to the charter school that my son goes too). He told me that he just got done writing a study for a foundation that indicates a massive "epidemic" of vacant teacher positions in IPS over the next four to five years. His study shows that within the next five years there is the potential of hundreds of unfilled jobs in their system, because of the exodus of the baby boomer generation from the teacher workforce and the projected loss of Teach for America and another teaching program in IPS.

If you are an education student and don't see teaching in an urban setting in your future you may want to rethink that option. But don't work in an urban setting just because there is a J.O.B. available for you. The system already has enough of those kind of teachers. Go see this movie and visit an inner city school. Open your heart to the possibility that you may have a unique opportunity to be a part of real reform in the educational system.

I'm no Superman. But if I'm honest with myself and those around me, I have to admit that in my heart I want to be "Teacher of the Year." Not just at my school, but in the state and in the country. I want to win the Milken Fellowship. I don't see this as narcissistic or over confident. Who would go to the Yale school of Law wanting to be in politics and run for dog catcher? Who would go to the Kelly School of Business at IU and take a job as a newspaper delivery person? Maybe I'm more driven than others, but if you call something your passion, don't you want to be the best at it? And if you don't, is it really your passion to begin with? In the movie I saw way to many teachers that just didn't care. For whatever reason they had given up.

During the movie the phrase that kept coming to my mind was something I heard my father say many times as a child. My dad would say, "At some point you either need to shit or get off the pot." Which to me means you have to either do something or move on and get out of the way of others. I hope people see this move and choose to do something about the educational crisis in our Country. And if they don't, I hope they get out of the way!