Are Questions Allowed?

Do you know how to drive? If so how did you learn? Do you have a checking account? Yes? Did anyone explain it to you and when you first opened it?

I know that when I got my first job, and first “real car”J, and auto insurance, and recently independent health insurance I didn’t know what I was doing. I had TONS of questions, but was too embarrassed to ask them. It was as if I thought that because I had a college degree now I am supposed to know everything all the ins and out of this “real world”. Thankfully that was a lie and I had people that came along side of me and TAUGHT ME and I learned how to do these new exciting things.

Yet the other day I was saddened when I heard a young mother tell me of an experience that she had a local bank. This mother wanted to start investing her money; she had heard about CD Investments and wanted to look into them. First of all this is a very courageous thing to do, to step out and to try something new… to want to better your children’s futures and at the same time stepping out of what has always to been to what might be. As the young mother proceeded to meet with a bank clerk she explained that she did not know much about CD Investments but that she would like to learn about them to see if it was a good choice for her family.
Well… the clerk couldn’t believe her ears and asked my friend, “Don’t you know how to manage money?”
The young mother laughed nervously as she replied, “Well no that is way I came hear to ask how and where to start.”
“If you can spend money you can manage it!” The clerk answered in a condescending tone.
After this and a few other unkind and unhelpful comments, the young mother walked out from the bank. She questioned herself if she even had the right to ask questions. She questioned herself why she didn’t KNOW how to do things.

To the readers:
Does this surprise you? That a young women living in the hood does not know about these things? Does it surprise you that I really don’t either? Why do we “expect people to know things that they have never been taught? Why have we, Christians allowed the government to take the place of what the Christ has called us to do?

This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am'

-Isaiah 58:6-9

To have or not to have, that is the question? HOMEWORK

It is an age old question; one that is debated across the board from high achieving private prep-school, to the schools that are struggling to stay open, to the schools in my part of town where the first question in the morning should be did you eat breakfast instead of where is your homework.

I received an e-mail last week with a question from a teacher that was struggling with the “Home-work Dilemma” yet when I went to answer the e-mail today it was not there, so I will do my best to answer from my experiences and beliefs here.
The main question that I remember was, “Should students in poverty situations be given homework?”… “What about the fact that there usually is no one home to help them with their work if they get stuck.”

Living in the inner-city I see the good and the bad effects that HW has on the students living here. Setting poverty aside I believe that when a teacher is giving homework he/she must – know why it is being given and what is the expected outcome from the assignment. I have known many teachers that give homework because they feel they are supposed to yet it really is only busy work. Busy work does not count as an upstanding reason to have homework.
Homework should be used to assess the students grasp on a certain subject that was taught that day, not something to be “learned at home”. (If you want to student to do research at home, teach the how to do that first.) When assigning homework it should be an amount that truly gives the teacher an understanding of how the student in doing in a particular area of his/her studies. There is no reason to assign 25 Math problems all of the same skill when 10 would give an accurate reading of the student’s performance.

Is there a difference from middle and upper class kids to kids on a poverty level when it comes to HW? Yes! Sad but true. Parents of school age children on a poverty level are not as available to help or make sure that the HW is done. Most parents are single mothers working to keep food on the table and the lights turned on. Many of these parents do care about their children’s education yet have grown up in a cycle of apathy and the children catch on to this.

While there are times to assign HW I strongly encourage all teachers to think of the children. It is our jobs as teachers to teach our students well, to teach so that HW can be completed with a low amount of stress. Not to try to dominate the kids by loading them up with homework.

From one teacher to another, hope this helped a little.

Ways to Encourage kids in HW:
- Have a time during school that kids can choose to work on their HW. I did this at the end of each day for the last 20 min. Soon all of my students caught on, and would do the HW they thought was the hardest at school so that I was there to answer any questions.
- HW does NOT have to be BORING! Spice it up make it fun, so they look forward to it.
- Do not make typing a requirement unless you can provide a time and place during the school week for the assignment to be typed. (Make Typing worth extra credit! Most of the kids will start thinking creatively how they are going catch that bus and go to library to type it.)
- Make sure all HW is clearly explained and have students volunteer to explain it to the class at the end of each day. (Make sure you are all on the same page.)
- If HW is not necessary one day than don’t have it! J

i feel the rain

I was close to tears as I drove home Wednesday night of last week after coming to the intersection of Aycock St and Lee St. As I sat in the left turn lane and watched two homeless men cut through the parking lot of Leon's Beauty Salon. This was the day Greensboro got 2" of rain. One of the men was pretty young (30's?), but his companion looked to be in his 50's, and was quite frail. Neither man had an umbrella, poncho, or anything, and both were soaked from the torrential rains that had been coming down for well over an hour. It was around 6:30pm, which meant it was too late for them to go to the Wednesday night dinner, cutting out that option of shelter, even if it would only be for an hour or so.

I was upset for lots of reasons...
...because the two men were stuck in the rain
...because if they got sick as a result, they probably wouldn't have health insurance
...because my annoyance at my leaking car pales in comparison
...because my friend Bo sleeps outside every night
...because I felt helpless

I am reminded of this passage...while it is hard to reconcile this with the occurrences I see in my neighborhood everyday, I know that it is true. I know that our friends are not forgotten.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31