Had I been
teaching at the high
school, I would have received a stipend
for coaching. Hence it would have been
“school-sponsored.” And I would not have
been a “volunteer.” Had I been at the
high school, I also would have received enough texts, equipment, prep
periods, classroom
space, etc. I read this poem to the
Board during a difficult budget year, in an effort to get fair
treatment for the
elementary schools in the district.
AND THEN THERE’S LOWLY ELEMENTARY
We have divisions.
Have
you missed them?
We have an age-defined caste system.
The junior/senior highs are gentry,
and then there’s lowly elementary.
To study this it would be prudent
to start with each school’s cost per student:
To help solve problems in quadratics,
the teens got books for Mathematics.
The younger got none—just three dollars.
Is that enough to yield math scholars?
And now new
woes, to be
specific,
arise from funds for scientific:
The plan for bucks for older learners
includes both texts and Bunsen burners.
Yet many students who are younger
will have to curb their learning hunger:
They once again just have to wait for
their texts and tools till some time later.
There’s also been a lot of gripin’
about unfairness with the stipend.
And if, to you, that fact’s surprising,
just count the coaching and advising:
The older students have six dozen.
And elementary? The
get nothin’.
And what of duties
and
assignments?
Again the schools need realignments.
With several duties more before them,
staff elementary can’t ignore them.
Within each day that teacher squeezes
a breakfast, buses, lunch, or recess.
Despite these duties—quite the myriad—
they all have less than one prep period.
They also must report past supper
some four more times than do grades upper.
Another of our big disgraces
is district funds for needed spaces.
“Itinerant” takes on new meaning
as carts all-filled go off careening,
When Art and Music teachers pass (zoom)
to every elementary classroom.
Would junior high or high schools do this?
Of course not, since for
them that’s foolish.
This point on space can’t have
refuters
As to instruction for computers:
The younger have no lab space for them.
So they use gyms or near ignore them.
Would junior high or high schools do this?
Of course not, since for
them that’s foolish.
The youngest of this generation
are victims of discrimination.
To say “intended” may be fictitious;
the bias, though is repetitious.
Instead of having needs respected,
too often they are just neglected.
