Thoughts on the Education System in the South Bronx

I traveled up to Morris Academy this past Saturday to spend some time with the students as they were attending an extra prep/tutoring session in advance of the New York State Regents exams during the latter part of this coming week. First of all, it was a wonderful sight when I first walked into the school - one of our mentors, Ji Son, spending one-on-one time with a student in our program. Our jobs as mentors are not necessarily as academic tutors, but it is a role that we can assume in certain circumstances - preparing for the Regents being one of those. I think what's more important than the instruction is the level of focus that one-on-one attention can provide for the students.

My general observation, after sitting in on one such session, is that our students lack a certain structure in a classroom environment. They engage in sidebar conversations, they doodle, they take extended breaks from the action, they take turns trying to be the center of attention. Not to say that this doesn't happen in a professional setting (I've certainly been in board rooms when this behavior is more frequent than you might imaging), but it does hinder the teachers' ability to focus their students to the materials at hand. These thoughts were lingering in my head the entire time I sat in the classroom with the students. Fortunately, I was able to share some of this and gain some perspective with someone who knew and dealt first-hand with these issues.

After the tutoring session was complete, Ellice, Ji Son and I spent time talking generally to Mr. Daniel Norte, the Morris Academy history teacher who I profiled in an earlier posting, about his experiences at the school, updates and perspectives on certain students at the school, challenges of teaching in this environment, and the challenges the kids face growing up in the South Bronx. I'll keep some of the topical matter between us, but what we concluded are a few points:
(1) Discipline and focus is a life-long quality, stemming from focused attention at an early age. For reasons that may be related socio-economic concerns or non-traditional family structures, children in the inner cities do not enjoy the benefits of this focused attention. This cycle continues onward to the high school-level students.
(2) The expectation levels in the NYC schools has been gradually declining through the years. Part of this may be caused by the political pressures to show progress, but it's hurting the long-term development of the students, particularly at schools like Morris Academy. These kids need to be pushed to their highest potential, and not just to a point where third-party administrators can feel content.
(3) Students in the inner city seem to have an overzealous sense of immediacy about their futures, such that procuring part-time work is more important to some kids than gaining a life-long education. Also, students question the purpose of secondary education because it does not translate into . I recognize, but perhaps not fully understand, the implications of living paycheck-to-paycheck for a family under the poverty line. However, this inability to see beyond the current undermines their futures. This materializes in some of the students' views on the need for post-secondary education. My experience has been that high school is important not just for the material covered (honestly, calculus is not an everyday trade), but is a process of learning how to learn. I'm going to strive to instill this more broadly in our students as time goes on.

To me, there is nothing more important in developing character than consistency. In other words, it is just not enough to demonstrate a propensity to learn some of the time. To me, it is either ingrained in your system or it is not. Certainly, there are some areas of interest that we all gravitate towards. But the process is more important than the underlying tasks. It takes a whole lot of discipline to understand and enact this in ourselves. And it's not enough to do things over and over. You know that saying that "Practice makes perfect"? Well, I was taught long ago that this statement isn't exactly true. It should have read "Practice makes permanent". In other words, if you practice flawed methods on a consistent basis, the desired outcome will be missed everytime. It takes not only self-discipline, but help from our peers, family, community to form the kind of environment that predisposes individuals to think in this way from an early age.

Ok, enough preaching for now.

Random fact: I haven't heard the word "Meiosis" in about 10 years. As you might imagine, I was less than helpful in the Life Sciences session.