Yesterday, however, we did our second week of classroom support and library innovation. We're making headway. It may look crazy, but behind the students, the bookshelves are coming together. We are restoring the library and making sense of all the stacks.
As I was sorting yesterday, I couldn't help but think about the absolute chaos of the books as we found them. They were in total disarray, all over the place, and nowhere they should be.
Yet the resources were there. The power of literacy is there. It's only that there hasn't been the personnel and staff to support the library. It's such a metaphor for all that is absolutely unbelievable with urban school reform. All the investment of great materials, wonderful kids, and yet so little professional development for teachers (or even staff hired to be in the buildings)
I couldn't help but think about this one little library in one little school being a total metaphor for the entire system. It's just wrong, but I've been writing that for years.
It is what it is and I'd like to say it was going to change, but America's been voting and, well, we know where that went. I'm learning more, now than every before, that the vast majority of people don't care and are simply disconnected to the truths of our social divisions. I know this may sound strange, but I'd much rather be in a school that is in disarray looking for ways to turn itself around, then being in institutions of privilege.
I've never been one for the high life. I couldn't live with myself if I was.
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