Mondae

Woven Plate
January 2005 Raleigh, NC
____________________________________
When WakeCo decided to jump on the Academically Gifted Schools bandwagon many years ago, the placement of these schools became a political hot topic. Academically gifted schools receive more money, meaning they are able to hire additional staff, provide specialized learning environments, buy more/newer technology and generally cater to the brighter students. "Bright" became synonymous with "Rich" and to deflect some of the criticism that comes with catering to the well-to-do, academically gifted schools were put in the poorest of areas. In this way, the extra benefits would be shared by the academically gifted and the neighborhood kids.

The Untreated Bipolar Principal (UBP) at one of the AG schools I worked at was ambitious and was constantly looking for ways to improve her standing with the Board of Education. One such plan was to "Improve Awareness of the Community" by having all of her staff take a tour of the surrounding neighborhoods in buses that she would rent for the occasion. This idea lasted several weeks until some of the local community members pointed out that it was going to have the appearance of better off white folks taking a sight-seeing tour of the ghettos.

Eventually she changed the wording and used us all as pawns in a scheme to "Improve Community Awareness" of the school. We were sent out in groups of 10 or so to various resource centers around the community to discuss the needs of the children they serviced and what the schools could do to support those efforts.

The group that I was assigned to drove down and back in a passenger van. It was before the days of minivans and was obviously used by it's owner to transport her kids (both of whom I had taught) to and from soccer practice, baseball practice, football practice, gymnastics, etc.

The Registered Van's Owner (RVO) was a teacher's assistant at the school. I'd worked with her for a few years and liked her balance of discipline and care and concern for the kids she worked with. While teachers are paid very little, teacher's assistants are paid close to minimum wage. People who take these jobs are primarily women, married to someone who has a very good paying job, and is less educated. RVO not only fit this bill but struck me as likely to be the first woman in her long-running Southern family to have ever worked "outside of the home."

On the way back from our meeting I sat in the front seat commander's chair next to the RVO. Behind us the seats were filled with teachers discussing anything but the 45 minutes we'd just wasted.

As we drove through the streets lined with dilapidate houses, trash and the occasional waving kid who recognized his teachers, the RVO turned to me and said:

"You know, I don't care what anyone says. I really don't think they want to live this way. Do you?"

She said it with all of the earnestness and awareness of someone who had just come to a revelation that changed the way the world around them worked.

"No," I said simply. "They don't."

This morning I drove through that neighborhood again on my way to the downtown DMV to get my car registered. I don't know any of the kids in those streets anymore -- most of the ones that I knew are probably old enough to have kids of their own by now. I just know that none of them want to live that way still.

...