Why I Care

I have been spending a lot of time (maybe 30 hours this week?) in conversations, email, and presentations to help save my kids school, which admittedly is very low performing.

We might not even be around in a year or two.  So you can see that Steve is not really interested in me spending all my time on this--his main concern is that I am never going to stop and then my heart will break if it doesn't work out.  I am already done with this kind of work, I simply considered it triage for now.  He also wondered if I am fighting for what the school is or fighting for what I want the school to be.  Maybe some of both?

So why do I care if it really does not impact our family for much longer?

1.  Two-way immersion schools are the main way to provide literacy for kids who speak Spanish at home.  Many of these children come from homes with little or no education and then are placed in schools where they are learning to read, write, and speak English.  Research is clear that you have to be first fluent in your own language before transferring those skills.  Many people argue that this is America, we should teach English.  Agreed.  So teachers can either bang their heads against a wall and try to teach children who are to a certain extent doomed to fail. OR they can provide students with literacy in a language they recognize while ALSO providing a second language to a bunch of kids who speak English at home.  Win-win.  These same people who argue the point about English, btw, seem resentful of the Latino population "draining resources" from the public school system.  Note many of these same people are not complaining about the uneducated language-learning population keeping our grapes and strawberries down to a nice, low price.  Or that they are padding the social security funds because they use fake SS#s on which they never collect. 

2.  See #1.  Many community members complain about the language gap but do nothing about it.  Does anyone know the correlation between Hispanic English language learners and high school dropout rates?  They performing at a much lower level nation-wide than our black impoverished students, btw.  They also are populating our prison system.  So why take a gamble on this one?  Also, clear correlation between education levels and decreasing violent crimes in case that surprises you.

3.  See #2.  I want my property, my children, and my produce to be safe.  Literacy is one of the most important factors in increasing quality of life for the poor and if the people who have resources to fight for these issues really ought to do so.

4.  My children speak Spanish.  They understand it.  Is it to the level I would like to see yet?  No.  But when we read the scriptures in English and they don't understand a word I can say it in Spanish and half the time, it gives them a whole new perspective.  Their standardized test scores are high in Spanish AND English and it gives our family a uniqueness that others don't experience--the ability to tell inappropriate jokes in TWO languages. 

5.  The school art program, the PE program, the gardens, teachers who believe in their ability to solve problems and train them to do so, and a family community at the school that embraces the weirdness in our family is unmistakeably irreplaceable. 

6.  Incredible teachers and a good principal who is supportive of innovation, change, and improvement.  People like her are hard to find and even harder to keep.  If this district lets her go, it will absolutely be their loss.

7.  I am not crafty or talented in homemaking--my dwelling has always been a source of embarrassment to me because it is constantly in disarray.  Landee can testify that this is not a new lifestyle for me as much as I would love to blame my four kids and husband. Even hiring a maid would be an embarrassment because you probably wouldn't be able to tell.  We have improved over the years but still it is a struggle for me.  I am not particularly spiritual, obedient, patient or loving--but I AM good at this stuff--school stuff.  And if there is one area I can use to wear out myself in the work, it is in education.  Is this not a worthy cause?