This post won't have my usual humorous commentary. Instead, it will focus mostly on education, what I've learned, what I've realized, what I've reflected on, and what I have to rant about.
Today I visited this program called Beacon Academy. It's an independent (private) school like no other; it serves just one grade for students between grades eight and nine. It's a fourteen month program that focuses on building both mental and physical stamina so that students are prepared for the rigors they will encounter when they are accepted into exam/independent/Catholic/top public high schools. The school day is 8:00-5:00 with a weekend component, meaning Sunday is really the only day kids have off from class. Close to two hours each day are spent on language arts and another two on mathematics. The rest of the day is broken up into physical activity, community service placement, and social studies/fine arts components. Beacon caters to just 20 underserved, high-potential students in the Boston area. The structure of the program means that kids will graduate from high school at 19 years old instead of 18, but are better prepared academically, socially, and are significantly more prepared than many of their peers. A huge part of Beacon, however, is providing students with "social currency;" a term I hadn't really heard of until today. Beacon graduates will work hard to gain placement into these selective high schools, but once they are a part of them, there will be a whole new component they have never really been exposed to. There will be an incredible income gap that will have serious effects on the social aspect of their high school experience; a very significant portion of their peers will come from affluent, upper-middle class or wealthy families who can give their children everything they need. Beacon, therefore, incorporates minute but still crucial pieces of "social currency" into their curriculum and program; next week, at summer program end, the students as well as program alumni will all be taken to Martha's Vineyard for an overnight trip, so that when they start to interact with peers from wealthy backgrounds, they can participate in conversations about summers on the Vineyard, and understand what such a life is like. Not only does the program prepare them for such encounters, it exposes them to an entirely new lifestyle they might not ever expect to be able to tangibly encounter. Such an aspect of the program can create a desire, a want to achieve something greater than the status quo they are used to. Not only does the program provide such benefits, but the founder previously worked in development for a very-well established national non-profit, and when she left, I get the sense she pulled a lot of those connections with her. Therefore, students who attend Beacon (a $25,000 program, by the way) will attend their independent school programs for almost free of charge; a cost anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000 over 4 years. Furthermore, all program grads leave with a MacBook laptop, courtesy of the program, and are outfitted with all the necessary school supplies they could ever envision needing. And when Beacon alumni feel stuck at their schools because they can't afford to gallivant off into town on the weekends with their peers simply because they don't have the money to do so, BA will send along a little bit of spending cash so they can participate in their schools' social scene.
I mean, Beacon Academy isn't the only program I've seen this summer that is as generous as I've described, but it's the most comprehensive one I've visited. As a result of seeing these programs, I realize that my education was so very limited because I attended a public high school. Granted, I did not have a choice about the course of my secondary education because of where I lived, but I want to do everything that I can so that my kids can attend a rigorous, academically challenging school. As I've sat in on classes all summer, I'm jealous of these inner-city kids who can diagram sentences 100 times better than I, who can identify the root language of just about any word, and can converse on a higher level about racism and identity. They actually understand their math lessons and can visually picture what is going on, and have opportunities to engage in field trips that will be socially and professionally relevant to their lives.
What I'm realizing as I go through all of this is that there is one huge segment of the American student population that isn't being catered to: rural students, I think, are often as disadvantaged as urban students, but no one is studying this group. I know I could create some flames by writing this, but how many teachers who teach in rural schools do it because they actually want to serve students and make a difference and not because there are so few other job opportunities? Rural schoolchildren need many of the same services that are being provided to urban ones; they need exposure to diversity, summer programs (do you realize that the almost all students lose 2 months of math skills during the summer? I've never seen the data specifically on rural students, but middle-class students typically make very slight language arts gains over the summer, while black students slide back during this time period. There is a huge relationship between racial and income achievement gaps, and to me, since so many rural students come from relatively low-income families (when looking at federally subsidized lunch programs) there has to be relationship there, too.), after school enrichment, and opportunity to experience what goes on outside of the rural 'hood. After sitting in these classrooms, I am absolutely positive that there are similarities among rural and urban school districts and that similar strategies could be used in both to achieve so much more. Granted, rural districts don't have the violence and social issues that plague urban ones, but rural school districts actually face obstacles urban ones don't.
In my opinion, one of the most crucial things that can be done to improve the quality of education in the United States is to raise both the status and pay of those in the teaching profession. I've come to realize in the past week or so that if you can teach, and teach successfully, you can do anything. And you know what? Some people say it's dirty, but I wholeheartedly support pay-for-performance teacher benefits. Every other sector receives bonuses based on success; why should education be any different at all? And in any other industry, inefficient employees are let go; there needs to be much more consistent, quality standards for teacher quality; evaluation needs to occur much more frequently on a much more magnified scale. Those who can't meet the standards shouldn't be rehired. That's it. When I started to think about it, I realized that there is no profession that has more responsibility than that of a teacher. Investment bankers face long hours and a lot of pressure, but over time, wealth can be restored. Those who serve our country have a duty to keep us safe, but without education and the values instilled by such a system, we would have no beliefs or morals or responsibilities to uphold.
So I think I'm going to design a major in social entrepreneurship. And I think someday I will teach. And I think someday I will start my own non-profit. I think.
I've got a lot more to say about education, let me tell you. I don't have the energy, patience, or desire to elaborate further on this in this exact moment, but we'll get there.
Stay epic.
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