Classroom Essays

Classroom Essays Classroom Essay Classroom Essay Twenty-seven years of neo-conservative, corporatist economic policy has gutted the United States from within, bringing the nation to the brink of a collapse that will destroy democracy and replace it with an economic, imperialist kind of corporate and theocratic fascism. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the nation’s public schools. Thomas Jefferson fervently believed that a well-educated middle class was vital to the survival of democracy, which is something that Reagan conservatives knew all to well. Since 1980, there has been an unrelenting attack on the middle-class by a moneyed oligarchy that is determined to reduce a once powerful and much admired nation to the status of a third-rate banana republic where a few wealthy families live in luxury inside of walled enclaves by sucking the life-blood out of a huge, impoverished population of peasants. Nowhere have they been more successful in tearing down democracy than in the public schools. In her book, Inside Mrs. B’s Classroom, Leslie Baldacci – who in 1999 left a secure, prestigious position at the Chicago Sun-Times (now little more than a corporate propaganda mouthpiece for the Bush Administration, like most of today’s mainstream media) to teach in one of the â€Å"toughest† schools in   a severely impoverished inner-city neighbourhood. Ms. Baldacci, not surprisingly, was unaware of the neo-con agenda and political and economic machinations behind the nation’s educational crisis, but she could clearly see, and was an expert on the results – which are typical of any hyper-capitalist society that relentlessly steals wealth from those who work for it and hand it over to a bloated, predatory â€Å"investor† class. After years of calling upon civic leaders to do something about the problem, she decided to roll up her sleeves and do something about it herself, becoming a classroom teacher. Like many who go into the teaching profession today, she was motivated by admirable – if naà ¯ve – ideals and expectations. What she discovered is that her â€Å"classroom was just one deck chair on the Titanic†(2004, 5). The opening page is both a literal image and an allegory of the U.S. public school system: a â€Å"broken, gutted desk, its drawers long gone. Chairs in various states of disrepair and other junk†¦Pipes†¦taped and painted over in a pitiful attempt to contain the deadly asbestos that had insulated them for decades† (1). Baldacci pulls no punches as she describes in blood-curdling detail what amounts to a war zone from a third-world country – located in one of the richest cities in the wealthiest, more powerful nation on earth. Any true American reading through her account should feel shame, embarrassment and righteous outrage toward the self-serving, back-stabbing politicians who for thirty years have been nothing more than whores to a blood-sucking capitalist corporate machine that hates democracy, hates freedom and hates America far more than any militant Islamist – and is willing to destroy her so that CEOs and stockholders can live in lackadaisical luxury as children around them die for want of food and medical care, or kill each other over scraps .   The similarity between Baldacci’s images of her school and its South Side Chicago neighborhood and downtown Baghdad or Mogadishu are not unexpected. According to Baldacci, one-third of all new teachers quite after three years, and half quit after five (6). Others – â€Å"mavericks† – are invariably driven out.   The author displayed uncommon courage in taking the step she did, changing careers at midlife. She was not alone; many of her acquaintances made similar moves. What touches us about Baldacci was her motivation: she wanted to make a difference in a system that continues to be dismantled today by politicians who are hopelessly beholden to private, corporate interests. In becoming a teacher, she incurred a 33% reduction in pay in order to do a job that is highly stressful, thankless, and often downright dangerous. Teaching is a profession in which colleagues often will stab their fellows in the back out of jealousy; administrators act like monarchs; it is a profession in which one can be accused of wrongdoing and dismissed without ever knowing what the accusation was or being given an opportunity to de fend one’s self; simply an accusation of wrongdoing by a student – whether true or not – can destroy a career. Why did Baldacci ever decide to undertake such a job? She tells a colleague: â€Å"Because a voice called, and I answered† (53). Ultimately, Baldacci succeeds in the face of overcrowded classrooms, endless behaviour problems, a complete lack of faculty or administrative support (no surprise there) and a huge workload that would be the undoing of most mortals. After a time, she was able to reach these children, possibly because her journalism training had given her greater powers of observation, with the ability and willingness to â€Å"drill down,† and get the story behind the story. Assuming that Americans are able – or even willing – to take their country back from neo-con corporate fascists and the Christian Taliban who threaten the very foundations of our freedom, it is possible that, as resources are taken away from the parasite investor class and restored to society in order to provide for basic needs, teachers who work not from theory and a bunch of â€Å"methodology† drivel and psychobabble, but rather with their eyes, ears, hands and hearts – like Leslie Baldacci – will be instrumental in restoring the Jeffersonian Ideal – quality public education as the foundation of   a healthy, vibrant, functioning democracy.