HOw long has this been going on? Is there a happy ending?

I listened to the NPR podcast about Harper High.  I cried;  I'm a weeper; tears of sadness and tears of gratitude for the brave and skilled leaders at that High School.   I kept wanting to think that I was listening to  a book on tape, a novel , a story that wasn’t real, just in someone’s dark, but creative, mind.  But it was real and true and very telling about the state of education (actually the state of LIFE) in Chicago. Later in the podcast it was noted that similar schools and situation exists all across our nation in other cities.

This spring I read two books with some similarity to Harper High. Breaking Night; Homeless to Harvard and The Invisible Thread.  Both books are true stories and fairly recent accounts of children who had desperately difficult home and life situations, their journey through life’s garbage, and ultimately a successful , rise- above- it- all life.  The educational system with which they were in had both positive and negative effects in their lives.  Ultimately,  in both stories, it came down to  one person or a small group of people that took devoted and individual interest into each young life and made a difference.  In both stories the destruction of family life, the family unit, because of addiction, illness, and poverty was at the root of the problem.  In both books the drive to survive for Maurice (Thread) and Liz (Breaking Night) was incredibly courageous and raw.  In both books and at Harper High, the school steps in to meet basic needs of life. I find myself wanting the happy ending for Harper High’s Devante’, the student who accidently shot his brother, but the podcast ends with Devante’ on a downward path into deeper trouble and away from the staff that has and could help him so much.

How long has it been this way?  Living in Idaho basically my whole life,  I know I have been sheltered from much of what is talked about in this pod cast.  I cannot begin to understand what that life, life at Harper High and in that neighborhood, feels like. I cannot claim to understand it even to the smallest degree.  But over my life I have seen tragedy of my own students spanning the years I have been teaching.  Just a quick recount of the major things over many years and it doesn’t add up to probably one year of tragedy at Harper High. The amount of stress on the students and the staff at that school over a short period of time, let alone year after year after year, seems unbearable to me.

In the podcast, Crystal (the generally peppy social worker) made comments that I am still thinking about. ( I listened to the podcast on Monday and have been chewing on it all week.) Crystal Smith states, “It’s not over.  The shooting hasn’t stopped…..20 years later nothing has changed. The same cycles are being repeated over again. “    My mind is swimming in questions.   Infusing money into the situation helped for a short time.  Infusing more and better trained staff helped for a short time. Intervention , Reconstitution, Turnover money,   have all been programs that helped for the short term, but eventually the cycle of malfunction, dysfunction repeats.   Can a school fix the problem?  Can education fix the problem?  Are schools supposed to fix the problem?  Why did I listen to this?  What can I do about this? Really, I’m asking.

I know more about the school and “topic” than I did before I listened.  It puts my challenges in the classroom in an insignificant light.  I started to think that I will never again complain about anything to anyone because at least I’m not worried about my students getting shot at on the way to school or having to be affiliated with a gang with no choice in the matter or facing the death of peers on a fairly regular basis.  In reality, I will still have complaints and concerns. I can be grateful that I don’t have to teach in Chicago.  Is that my take away?  Has it caused me to renew my pledge to be very aware of the influence I may have in the lives of students I see? Yes.  It has done that.   Once again, far more questions than answers.