I Am Your Public School: Embracing All Of God`s Children
By Frosty Troy, Editor
The Oklahoma Observer
I am your public school, a 200 year-old experiment giving America the strongest economy in world history. We are 88,000 buildings in more than 15,000 districts. And we are as diverse as this great country.
This fall I embrace more than 46 million children; for most of them, I am their only hope for future success.
When the buses roll up, my doors are flung open to children of all shapes, sizes, levels of ability, some in wheel chairs, geniuses and the retarded, average and the developmentally disabled. They speak more than 100 languages, including Mong-the Cambodian highland children who came here with no written alphabet.
I represent "home schooling" at its best for I am the "home school" of 10 million latchkey children.
Some of you would judge me by test scores but I would remind you that a test only measures one dimension of a student`s development-only in that subject on that day depending on whether the student tests well.
Although my SAT math and science test scores are at a 33 year high, and my ACT scores are up for 11 consecutive years, I remind you that those tests don`t include foreign language, music, art, drama and other vital extracurriculars.
If some of the children fail, it isn`t for lack of trying by the faculty and staff-among the most dedicated and least paid among the industrial democracies of the world.
My dirty little secret is that many of the 11% of children who drop out are the products of sorry parenting-parents who send me children who are undisciplined, unwanted, unwashed, unloved; some strung out on drugs and alcohol; some abused and neglected; and few who have ever been taken to a church, synagogue, or mosque.
The miracle is that my doors are open to all of them and many are reached-not by textbooks alone but by teachers who know there is more to a child`s life than rote learning.
For thousands of kids, the only hug they ever get they get in school.
It is painful to be accused of failing African American children. That`s a calumny. Our greatest hurdle is that half of African American children are born to single moms, creating a whole new set of problems for the schools.
My plea for more early childhood education goes unheeded, yet there are hundreds of millions of dollars for more tests.
I grieve when I hear critics say I am "secular" because no specific beliefs are taught in this pluralistic system. But when it comes to doing God`s work-we`re on duty every day.
Last year more than 30% of the students got their only hot meal in our cafeterias. Thousands of poor children find decent clothing and underwear in the school clothing closet filled by faculty, staff, and PTA moms.
Teachers spend nearly $600 of their own money for things like workbooks and pencils for needy children.
Role modeling, not mantras and Hail Marys, come from a teaching profession that provides more Sunday school teachers than any other profession or occupation in America.
Aren`t feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and nurturing the little ones spiritual injunctions in all the great religions of the world?
No school prayer? I wish you could hear the thousands of reverent, whispered entreaties sent heavenward from students and faculty every day. God`s presence is palpable.
One of the prayers I overhear most often is, "Please God, give me the patience to get through just one more day with these kids!"
Some would mock our athletic programs, yet for many of the boys, coaches are often their only male role models. Teamwork and sportsmanship are enduring principles that millions of our graduates have translated into successful careers and successful families.
Some say I should prepare more students for college, as though college is for everyone. We are the only education system that educates the student to the level of his or her ability-doctor, mechanic, engineer, nurse, computer manager, or carpenter.
America is third in the world in college graduation rates-nearly 25% with a four-year degree or more.
Who says there are no heroes today? Did you see the biographies of those rescuers who died in the World Trade Center tragedy? Firemen, policemen, union members, emergency workers-90% of them public school graduates.
I am passionately committed to the belief that God gives children different gifts, and we alone address all children whatever their gifts. We play no favorites, taking all of God`s children.
My most precious possession is more than five million special education youngsters-we alone address their needs. If your heart ever needs a lift, visit with a Downs Syndrome child happily employed, thanks to public education.
I suffer the slings and arrows from those who stress my shortcomings in order to defund public education. Yet my students outscore students in the average charter school.
Repeated studies show that when students are matched in family structure, family income and family education attainment, public school students do as well or better than parochial school students.
Defaming public education in order to promote vouchers for religious schools is an egregious miscarriage of education`s mission. I am held accountable by my school board-every dollar spent. Vouchers require zero accountability.
Yes, my corridors have known random acts of violence, yet the FBI says a child is safer in my arms at school than in his or her own home.
Thanks to the vision of our forebears. America had a 100-year head start on every other nation in creating universal free public education. Today, with all its flaws, it is the finest system in the industrial world.
I leave no child behind but some of you would dim my lights, leaving in the shadows the poor, the halt, the blind, the lame and the special education student.
You would use public school dollars to construct new forms of theocratic education, yet the U.S. General Accounting Office national survey showed that one-third of my buildings are dangerous and unsafe-yet no help is forthcoming.
Do as you will, but for me, I will stand proudly in my neighborhood. America`s last egalitarian institution, my arms embracing the finest educators, administrators, and support personnel in the world-dedicated to helping our children realize the American dream.
©Reprinted by permission from The Oklahoma Observer [P.O. Box 53371, Oklahoma City, OK73152], August 25, 2002.
