Rachel Swarms: What Do I Tell My Son?

December 12, 2014 //

Rachel Swarms writes for The New York Times. This is a very personal column. When her 7-year-old asked her whether police officers are ever arrested, she began to wonder what he knew. She wanted to shield him. She knew she had to talk to him. This is a conversation that I, as a mother of white sons, never had with my children. I didn’t need to. She did. This is a heartbreaking column.

Categories Race

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Joanna Best says:

December 12, 2014 at 11:10 am

Posting this here too, because it has to do with societal structures that hurt minorities.

I still have a question that I’ve put in comments on this blog many times that nobody has ever answered, or speculated on with/for me. I wish someone would.

Here it is. OK. When we hear about the racial problems in the U.S., (and that conversation may be starting to actually gather momentum to create change), BUT reformers have declared that everyone is trapped in a broken system (public school. . .and its prison pipeline for black males etc). We recognize that we have systems in our country that do not allow for change, and or that need to be examined for latent racism and perpetuating the marginalizing of minorities who are poor. So some offer up charters (which leaves room for corruption at this point), and still others offer up that charters at the expense of public schools hurts minorities more.

(I’m going to ramble a bit to get to my point). In 1991 I saw BOYS IN THE HOOD and I sobbed for an hour at home at the kitchen table and my father asked me why I was sobbing and I said because I think that movie is depicting reality for a lot of people and there isn’t anything I can do about it.

So in 2001 I moved to Kansas City Missouri and when everyone told me to stay away from the KCMO schools, I called right away for an interview. I requested their lowest and “worst” school, and they gave it to me. And we achieved great things in music (I am a music teacher), and then I went there again to work in 2005 (after having gone back to school and being a gifted teacher for a year) and we did great things. . .kids on the radio with our “Black Cowboy” program, etc. But I ended up getting married and moving away and becoming a mother and teaching right back in NC, where I grew up.

OK. . .so on the one hand our society is talking about questioning systems that might be perpetuating racial inequity. I know that in the public schools in KCMO, I saw white teachers and black teachers working very hard alongside one another to help kids within a system that is not meant to be a nunnery, but rather a profession that uplifts both the worker and those served. It has been attacked (public school). Things are a mess with both the choice movement and the standardization and data movements all at play together.

So my question remains: what if there had not been No Child Left Behind? What would have been enabled that we are not seeing right now? Because most folks didn’t like NCLB even at first, what would they have offered instead and how would that encompass some of the “public schools perpetuate racial inequity” mindset?

Right now there are so many issues at play. And we can feel them all. We know the original source of at least the darkest of the storm clouds. . .so, because we created that dark storm cloud with NCLB, what is behind that cloud? What could have been? What should have been? What might have been? Oh how I wish someone would talk about that. . .because I think that’s where the answers are.

In NC right now I see and feel the pressures of testing mandates AND the cutbacks (fewer teaching assistants means music teachers and art teachers and PE teachers are constantly getting called onto other duties like “tutoring” (read: test prep), riding the bus with unruly kids, doing extra duties very early in the morning outside in the cold; having lost many middle class families to the two new charters up the road, we no longer have the same supports from PTO that we had. I feel it. I just wish I knew what it is that I should imagine would be better. But there are so many different forces going on at the same time, that I just honestly don’t. Thinking and questioning seems to be frowned upon in the average public elementary school right now in NC. Follow orders. Test prep. Ignore race. Ignore poverty, except maybe where behavior issues are concerned. So what is the answer, really, and how would it be easier to attain right now if there had never been No Child Left Behind? If we start imagining that. . .maybe it can come into play. A recreation of a new day. I have to be able to picture it to work towards it. But the vision is so muddied with choice talk and what really constitutes “student advancement” and does standardizing help poor people etc.

What would have constituted the blue sky that NCLB covered up ?

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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  December 12, 2014 at 12:46 pm
  
  “. . . . . .so, because we created that dark storm cloud with NCLB, what is behind that cloud? What could have been? What should have been? What might have been? Oh how I wish someone would talk about that. . .because I think that’s where the answers are.”
  
  Counterfactuals can make interesting conversation, but rarely hold “answers” to current questions. ” What could have been? What should have been? What might have been?” are interesting questions with many answers, none definitive. Most of the time there are no “true” answers. The constant “search for” “truths”, especially using counterfactuals/hypothetical questions will not yield those “truths” and leads to much frustration.
  
  “What would have constituted the blue sky that NCLB covered up ?”
  
  There are as many answers to that question as there are those willing to consider it. It is a counterfactual/hypothetical in which there is no “true” answer and therefore in one sense it is irrelevant to what is going on today.
  
  We know what constitutes that “blue sky” and it certainly is not the edudeformers’ agenda. The practitioner, i.e., the teachers should be the ones who “lead” any change for their classes. And that would begin the “bluing” of the sky.
  
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  - Joanna Best says:
    
    December 12, 2014 at 1:43 pm
    
    So you are saying quit asking and wondering and start acting?
    
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  - Joanna Best says:
    
    December 12, 2014 at 1:47 pm
    
    Btw, I have only ever taught Public school. since 2000. . . so always under NCLB. Perhaps this is why I spend quite a bit of time wondering what else there might have been.
    
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  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    December 12, 2014 at 1:51 pm
    
    This is not meant as a plug, but, if you want to see what teaching was like in 1994, you might want to read “Crazy is Normal”. This is my memoir. In 1949-95, I kept a very detailed daily journal and about 17 years later, dusted that journal off and converted it into a memoir.
    
    In fact, you probably don’t need to read the memoir. Just read the reviews.
    
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Trish B says:

December 12, 2014 at 11:25 am

There is another side. My eight year old wants to know why people hate her daddy the men and women he works with. Not everything is as simple as some would have us believe.

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- Joanna Best says:
  
  December 12, 2014 at 11:59 am
  
  A little Etta James would fit here. 🙂
  “There’s always two sides. . .to every story. And two wrongs, can’t make it right. . . and two mistakes will only bring you heartache. And you both will end up losing the fight.”
  
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Jim Realini says:

December 12, 2014 at 12:26 pm

Review this:
National Police Misconduct Report – Latest is 2010
http://www.policemisconduct.net/statistics/2010-annual-report/#_Excessive_Force
Surprising where the problem really might be.

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- Jim Realini says:
  
  December 12, 2014 at 12:31 pm
  
  Short version of conclusion by cited CATO Institute Report:
  
  General responses to police misconduct on a judicial/criminal justice level appear unchanged with no corresponding fluctuations in comparison to monthly changes in the number of officers reported. This, combined with a detailed analysis we performed on 2009 and 2010 data earlier this year, demonstrates a bias built into the justice system which continues to limit prosecutorial effectiveness against law enforcement officers charged with criminal wrongdoing.
  
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  - Jim Realini says:
    
    December 12, 2014 at 12:36 pm
    
    Who made these laws? Who selected these judges? Who hired the prosecutors?
    
    You get what you vote for!
    
    These old words……
    
    Teach your children well, their father’s hell did slowly go by,
    And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you’ll know by.
    Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
    So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
    
    And you, of the tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
    And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
    Teach your parents well, their children’s hell will slowly go by,
    And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you’ll know by.
    Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
    So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
    
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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

December 12, 2014 at 1:42 pm

Every parent should have this type of conversation with their children—and many other serious conversations that deal with reality instead of promoting fantasies—by at least 1st grade at the latest. Maybe what happened in Ferguson and New York happened because too many parents shield their children from everything about being human until the child discovers reality on their own the hard way with no help from parents and family.

I’ve read media studies that report that the average American parent talks to their child less than five minutes a week—-and look at what films earn. Fantasy cartoon length feature films out-earn reality based films by a MASSIVE margin.

Then a child turns 18 and is legally an adult. This is when most parents tell them to go to college or get a job, because its finally time to stop sheltering them. One day they are still treated as an innocent child and the day after their 18th birthday, they are treated as an adult. Basically, time to grow up kid but don’t expect us to play a roll in that, because our job was to shelter you from the harsh truth of reality.

For instance:

“Belle’s” total worldwide earnings are less than $11 million—a great film. My wife said she thought it was the best film she’d ever seen.

BELLE is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode). Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle’s lineage affords her certain privileges, yet her status prevents her from the traditions of noble social standing. While her cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) chases suitors for marriage, Belle is left on the sidelines wondering if she will ever find love. After meeting an idealistic young vicar’s son bent on changing society, he and Belle help shape Lord Mansfield’s role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England.

versus

FROZEN—a total fantasy that my wife and I saw at home after my wife bought the DVD because she was curious. Note, my wife fell asleep during the film. I watched in amazement as almost every crumb of reality was left behind in this cute fantasy that might one day get a child killed who thinks a moose is smarter, kinder and has more common sense than most people and cute to boot so why not run over and give a wild moose a hug.

This feature film cartoon grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide.

Just in case you haven’t seen “Belle”, here’s the Amazon link:

Note: We had hours of serious weekly conversations with our daughter as she grew up. We also turned off the TV six days a week. Her only way to entertain herself was to read books and she read a lot of books. In grade school, her mother or I drove her to the library weekly and she checked out the maximum number of books each visit.

She graduated from Stanford last June and has her first full time job in the medical industry with starting earnings that are almost as much as I was earning at the end of my 30 years in the classroom with much better benefits.

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Eric says:

December 12, 2014 at 2:36 pm

“Dwayne Collins, former Charlotte NAACP leader, said there’s a difference in this case: CMPD charged one of their own within hours.” See: http://www.wcnc.com/story/news/local/2014/12/11/protesters-expected-at-kerricks-hearing-in-uptown/20234607/
Do doctors get arrested when they kill patients? See:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/20/224507654/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-u-s-hospitals

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A says:

December 12, 2014 at 8:31 pm

Another heartbreaking article. If we, as educators, can’t treat children without racism, then how will parents ever choose public schools?

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m4potw says:

December 13, 2014 at 12:35 am

To Joanna Best:

If you could provide a solution to MY QUESTION below, then you will have the answer that you are searching for.

How does HIGHER EDUCATION provide society with all PROFESSIONS (such as politicians, lawyers, doctors, professors, teachers, accountants, researchers, public policy administrators…) that must IMMUNE from UNSCRUPULOUS, UNETHICAL characters?

Here is a copy from a comment of an attorney in the thread’s link,

“Think
Wisconsin 4 days ago

My husband and I are attorneys. He is of Irish and German ancestry. I am from 100% Asian ancestry. We have lived long enough to remember countless incidents in this country of ILLEGAL police VIOLENCE and BRUTALITY against individuals.

We taught our daughter to recognize the authority of law enforcement, but also to keep in mind that there are good cops and bad cops – the law enforcement profession is not immune from UNSCRUPULOUS, UNETHICAL characters.

We taught her what her Constitutionally PROTECTED RIGHTS were – should she be detained or questioned by police, she should advise law enforcement that she is a minor, that her parents are attorneys, and to request that she be allowed to call her parents to be present at any further questioning, and until at least one of her parents was present, she would not be able to speak any further, upon their instruction.”
Back2basic

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NJ Teacher says:

December 13, 2014 at 10:28 am

Joanna,

IMHO, American society is structured to perpetuate white privilege. NCLB is irrelevant to the discussion. There will be no return to the Golden Age of Education, when children read books, wrote compositions and learned Math facts and theories. We need not engage in wishful thinking.

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- titita2013 says:
  
  December 14, 2014 at 11:02 am
  
  NJTeacher, you just broke my heart:(
  
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  - Lloyd Lofthouse says:
    
    December 14, 2014 at 11:38 am
    
    NJTeacher said, “There will be no return to the Golden Age of Education, when children read books, wrote compositions and learned Math facts and theories.”
    
    Never say NEVER! In life, the only givens are birth, death and taxes and taxes are negotiable.
    
    In fact, I challenge NJTeachers’ assumption “when children read books” because if a child grows up in a home where the child’s parents read books—and there are 65 million avid reading adults in the U.S. according to studies by the publishing industry—-the child will probably read books outside of school. An avid readers reads 10+ books annually. Hyper avid readers read 50+ annually.
    
    For fact based evidence that all ages still read books—just not everyone—I offer this reading snapshot from Pew:
    
    http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/01/16/a-snapshot-of-reading-in-america-in-2013/
    
    In addition, as flawed as this will probably be considering who is proposing it, in 2015, Obama plans to ask Congress for $75 billion to fund a national early childhood education program, and if literacy is included in that program and the program is approved by Congress (the GOP will probably approve the proposal if the program allows the private sector to profit off of it), then the odds go up that even SOME children living in poverty will be introduced to books much earlier than age five or six, and that could increase the number of children who learn to enjoy reading outside of school on their own.
    
    Book reading isn’t going to die as long as their are books. The schools may not be reading and discussing books in class as much as before NCLB, RTTT and Bill Gates Common Core Crap arrived, but books will still be read for entertainment in millions of homes by millions of children who have parents who enjoy reading books.
    
    Dated May 15, 2013: Trade publishing (general-interest fiction and non-fiction for adults, children and young adults and religion) experienced significant growth since 2011.
    
    Consumers love to read and want books in all the formats available to them
    
    While eBooks keep growing, hardcover and trade paperback formats continued to hold steady in 2012. The audiobook format, which has shown momentum over the past few years with the rise of mobile devices and interest in purchasing quality downloadable content for them, also remains solid.
    
    http://www.publishers.org/press/103/
    
    They are talking about a $40 billion dollar annual industry.
    
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