An Introduction?

So here I am with a soapbox and who knows who's listening. I guess that's the point of these things... you have a platform, but nothing to say, right? I'm there with you, friend.

To preface - for the past year, I have been a New York City public school teacher. THE BRONX, USA. So you ask, why the hell am I starting this now, in JUNE? Well, look at the last post. I figure better late than never. If you've read the book Educating Esmé by Esmé Raji Codell, then you know exactly what a first year teacher's first year is like. Just go with that. Picture the exact same behavior but by kids who are 10 years older.

To be honest, I'm not technically a "first year teacher." I've been working in classrooms for the past 10 years in some form or another, so I had somewhat of an idea of what to expect... kids are kids, right?

Add to the fact that I GREW UP in the Bronx. I moved to Portland, Maine in 1995 from New York - and decided last May it was time to come home.

This is NOT the Bronx I grew up in.

The Bronx that I grew up in (meaning my neighborhood) was mostly Italian... although I was there to witness the start of the changeover. When I saw my first Jerk Chicken place - go ahead and laugh, I did when I first saw it - Jerk Chicken/pork/beef is VERY real - I knew that things were about to be very different.

In my school the predominant color is black, but the predominant race is Jamaican. The second color is "tan," Spanish of some sort... P.R., D.R., Mexican, Honduran, Ecuadorian... the list goes on. Just to give an idea... there are 4,000 or so students in my school. There are THREE white students. THREE. The staff however, is - I would say - 99% white. This "statistic" bears its own post, but I'll save that for another day. When we were cleaning out the book room one day, there were OLD books we were discarding... so old that the last name written in them was something like Melvyn Goldfarb. THAT old.

But whatever... as I said, kids are kids, right?

When I first moved down here, I went through a period of intense internal questioning... am I too soft? Have I been in Maine too long? Am I too suburban?

The short story is, no... because I'm still here. One school year later and I'm still here. The long version would include more "maybe's" but once again... I'll save that for another day.

So what am I hoping to throw out here? What is going to be my focus? Well, I guess my thoughts/observations on the things that seem to occupy my world right now. Race. Culture. Art and Literature. Education. School administrators. The Future. Mice. (I have at least THREE mice in my classroom.)

Oh, and not only MY thoughts on the subject... you would be surprised to hear some of the things that come out of my students' mouths... both good AND bad. Some people would believe that it is more bad than good, but that is not so, I will dispel that rumor right now. Overall I love my students, and as a brilliant mind once said... no matter where you go, Maine, Tibet, The Bronx... indeed... kids are kids.