Children We've Left Behind

I tell the story of my experiences as an inner-city teacher, beginning in 1981 and continuing up to the end of June 2021, sharing anecdotes and discussing the issues that cause inner-city children to be so egregiously underserved in this country's public and private schools. I draw a strong connection between this story and the Black Lives Matter Movement, arguing that the racist educational system in the United States is the root cause of people of color's exclusion from the benefits of a relatively prosperous white society. The anecdotes I share provide a close look at individual circumstances that too often lead to tragic outcomes for children of color, from becoming trapped in the school-to-prison pipeline, to a lifetime spent languishing in extreme poverty -- and even, in far too many instances, to an early demise. I argue that these children of color are just as bright and capable as their white counterparts, just as eager to learn, but that they are rarely given a chance to demonstrate this fact due to underfunded schools and the predominance of inner-city high school faculties composed primarily of white teachers who neither understand the culture of racism and poverty in the inner-city, nor believe in their students' ability to succeed.
I argue that students of color in the inner-city require and deserve an educational curriculum that is relevant - that connects to their actual lived experience. When students begin studying culturally relevant topics, they become motivated to learn and begin to develop the reading, critical thinking, and writing skills that will enable them to work successfully with a broader range of academic subjects and topics across the content area. I argue further that teachers who work in inner-city schools should be required to study the culture of racism and poverty that afflicts inner-city children so that they can become more empathic and compassionate, and therefore more effective, in teaching inner-city children; such teachers should be required to earn a specialized certification for teaching in inner-city schools. The current one-size-fits-all approach to teacher training does not begin to address the special needs and pressing concerns of inner-city children. All teachers who work in the inner-city should also be required to study and implement the principles of restorative practices in working with inner-city children.
I tell stories of intensive work with traumatized students who were likely to become potential drop-outs, but who ended up becoming successful not only in graduating from high school, but in proceeding on to success in higher education and pursuing professional careers, or simply finding gainful employment, all of them living fulfilling, productive lives, along with their loving families, as a result of their patient, consistent, and compassionate interactions with at least one of their teachers, a teacher who provided them repeated opportunities to demonstrate that they could be successful. My memoir begins with stories of tragedy, but culminates with stories of success in my recent position as an English teacher at a large inner-city school in New Britain, Connecticut.