Anyone who has read Toni Cade Bambara's "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" might chuckle over the Charleston County School District's attempt to show new teachers North Charleston "communities where their students live." In fact, administrators at the Taj Mahal might benefit by reading the story themselves.“Go tell that man we ain’t a bunch of trees.”
“Ma’am?”
“I said to tell that man to get away from here with that camera.”
However, the tour is not funny. How would you like it if a bus rolled through your neighborhood in order to show how "the other half" lives? Condescending, to say the least.
How I wish Mr. Cain had showed up to request that these intruders leave.
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1 comment:
I applaud the well-intended efforts initiated by the local police departments in their attempts to 'educate' the education establishment, but the bus tour does appear rather condescending. Unless their “feet are on the ground” and they can “walk with crowds” in these communities, school officials, not just new teachers, will remain out of touch. I've never seen any top officials of the school district in such a setting without a police escort. What does that say? How can any of them understand the issues when they remain so removed from the people involved?
I have two more questions. Have Nancy McGinley, her senior staff or most members of the school board ever really mingled with the people they describe as being the target of the district's problems? When the new teachers take the 'tour' of downtown neighborhoods, will it be with a licensed tour guide as the law requires?
If we are administering public schools like tourists, then we have a bigger challenge than we may realize. I agree, “…we ain’t a bunch of trees.”
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