I am watching a train wreck in progress, and I cannot do anything to stop it. The wreck is in ultra-slow motion; in fact, it has been developing for years. I can see what is likely to happen, yet there is nothing I can do. I am watching three students fail. Fail to the point that they will likely drop out before their senior years. All three are children of poverty. All three have been given numerous opportunities to "turn things around" over the course of years, but all three seem powerless to turn away from the wreckage. As I read the book, I see these faces in my mind's eye. I have never had any of these students in my own classroom, but they are the children I see when I read about all the facets of poverty.
I think our district is beginning to understand the crucial importance of addressing its understanding of and response to poverty. I think there are several teachers who are waiting for the next steps to help them do what they cannot do alone or in isolation: help the kids who do not or cannot respond to other offers for help. We are hungry for solutions for the three. But we are lost. At least I am.
When I read this book, I see the successes of other districts with much larger problems than ours, and I wonder what we are doing wrong. But I am beginning to think that we are doing many things right, for if we are reaching 268 kids with only three students failing to the point of dropping out, we are clearly doing something right. But what about the three? I feel as though they need something--desperately--that we cannot offer.
Look at it this way: from the list of resources to provide on pages 72 and 73, I count only four that our district can offer every day. Other resources are be available periodically, while other are not available at all through the district. That isn't an excuse, but it is our reality. So what can we do within our reality?
That's what I haven't figured out yet. None of us who discuss these things on a regular basis have figured that out yet. But I maintain the hope that we are getting closer. We have to.
