What the title says. I went to an inner city school, so I kind of know what it’s all about, but I’d like to hear about anyone’s experiences actually teaching at one. How hard is it? Like, really?
FTR: I want to teach high school English.
Please tell us which country you’re in and describe the city area where the school is.
I’m in the US. I don’t have a particular school picked out yet-- I’m willing to relocate anywhere once I graduate next year.
My God. Have you done your student teaching yet?
Be prepared to be dead tired and have a sore throat (even if you’re not a yeller) when you get home the first few months. The high-schoolers especially will test you early on to see what your limits are–for example, how closely do you adhere to school rules regarding dress code? How much noise/off-topic conversation/swearing/chair-tipping are you prepared to tolerate?
You may/may not be shocked to find out what basic bits of knowledge students are missing. I’m in the middle of a practicum for a teaching-related field and have learned that requiring complete sentences from some ninth graders is “too much”. Since you want to teach English, reading comprehension will be a huge hurdle for some of your students. If you want them to do any essay-writing or book reviews, you’ll have to work on how to take notes while avoiding plagiarism.
Depending on the students, you’ll get everything from defiance to physical threats and/or violence–at the quasi-urban middle school where I recently interned, we had two physical assaults on teachers in the space of a week.
All I know about teaching in inner city schools comes from movies, but if they’re any indicator what’s going to happen is you’re going to come across a bunch of hopeless riffraff who mock and don’t respect you. At first you will be discouraged, but after a montage of reflective, solitary activities like walking through a park and looking out on the horizon while asking yourself “How do I reach these kids?” a clever, albeit unconventional solution will dawn on you.
Your dedication starts to turn even the most troublesome gangbangers in your class into star pupils who had it in themselves all along but just needed your passionate approach to unlock their full potential. After much intense training and hard work, also represented by a montage, your students end up passing their end-of-year exams with extraordinary marks.
But wait - the school board isn’t accepting this result and accuses your students of cheating. The evil, racist bastards clearly have it in for these kids and are convinced they will forever be relegated to lives of poverty and crime but you are having none of it. You and your students buckle down and work even harder, retaking the test in a high-stress, high-stakes finale that ultimately proves the conquest of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
That’s all I know.
Watch season 4 of “The Wire.” Yes, it’s fiction, but the teachers I know say it comes closest to reflecting their experiences.
*Before *you try and get a job in an inner city school, why not volunteer at such a school, or see if you can student teach at one? That should give you some sense of what you’d be facing. Are you in a teacher training program now?
Yeah, I am in a teacher program right now. I don’t do my student teaching until next spring, but I intend to try and be placed in the cities so I can get some experience at one before actually teaching.
I’ve done some volunteer work around here at boys & girls clubs but I am in a pretty small college town, so I imagine that the experience is quite different.
My step brother teaches english in Watts. I will see if I can hunt down his #.
You’ll get horror stories, of course, but there are good public schools, and good students, in the inner city. I spent a year team-teaching a constitutional law seminar at (IMHO) Washington, DC’s best public high school, and it was an incredible experience. Most of my students were genuine law nerds, and we had some incredible debates in the classroom.
Of course, I had plenty of colleagues at other schools who counted it as a good day when their kids showed up to class, so your mileage will absolutely vary.
Another thing to consider: Even at the best schools, the quality of administrative support will often be very, very uneven. If you have problems getting supplies, an accurate class roster, whatever, you must be aggressive about getting that fixed. Otherwise, you’ll slip through the cracks at a lot of schools.
I teach high school English (and Economics. And Academic Decathlon) I don’t know if I teach in an “inner city” school or not. It’s an urban school, smack-dab in the middle of one of the biggest school districts in the country. Our population is 65% socioeconomically disadvantaged officially, and we think it’s actually probably a fair bit higher. On the other hand, our “neighborhood” is affluent–like, old money affluent–and while many of those kids go to private school, we get our share. Compared to the 'burbs, my school is “inner city”–compared to other schools in the district we are the “rich kids school”. So I don’t know about typical, but that may be ok–no school is typical. Schools really vary a great deal in terms of school culture.
I tend to be pretty cynical of teachers that make their schools sound like a war zone. I may be overly cynical about this, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But I’ve heard co-workers describe MY school as a war zone, and in every case it’s been either 1) someone picking the best stories for effect or 2) someone with such poor people skills (let alone classroom management skills) that it was hard not to blame the victim. Case in point–there was a woman in my building who filed assault charges on a student at least once a year. And in every case, she was justified–she didn’t get attacked, but she got shoved, or bumped, or pushed. But she was also the only one the kids reacted to like that, because she would get aggressive and confrontational herself in situations that didn’t call for it. This doesn’t absolve the kids of responsibility, but it’s a bit like leaving candy with a toddler and then ruining their lives when they eat it.
On the other hand, I’ve certainly seen teachers who really did need administrative support whose concerns were dismissed by administrators who have grown to accept standards of behavior that would simply never fly in a suburban district–and these administrators often blamed the teachers for having “poor classroom management skills” when the problem was clearly bigger than that.
Personally, I’ve never felt personally unsafe in an urban school, and I think that would hold true even in the ones that are more “inner city” like than the one I am at. And while classroom management can be challenging, I’ve never had to yell myself hoarse, and I’ve rarely had to raise my voice.
Here are the things I like about teaching at in an urban school:
[ul]
[li]Room for advancement. I like teaching advanced classes. “Desirable” schools in posh suburbs usually have a solid AP team with openings coming up only once in a great long while, and even then you may be stuck in the “pre-AP” level for even more years waiting for the grand old lady/grand old man to retire. I was teaching AP Language and Comp (the one course I wanted most in the entire world) my second year teaching, and I picked up AP Macro after 5 years because we literally couldn’t find anyone qualified to teach it. I also do quite a bit of work for the district (test-writing, curriculum-writing) that means a lot more when you are doing it for a huge district.[/li]
[li]Diversity. I know suburban schools aren’t perfectly monolithic, but the diversity where I teach–on every axis–is tremendous. It’s not just racial diversity (though we have that), it’s also religious and socio-economic: Afgani refugees and trust fund babies and Orthodox Jews and Eastern European mob kids all mixed up together.[/li]
[li]Freedom. My impression is that many suburban districts keep their teachers on a pretty tight leash. Urban districts aren’t that organized. I got to design each of my courses from scratch–I pick the books we read, the way I assess things, my grading policy, my course requirements. Also, standards of professionalism are more relaxed in a lot of ways, I think. I’ve heard you can get in trouble for saying “crap” in the classroom in the suburbs. If that’s the case, I’d get fired.[/li]
[li]The pay. Contrary to most people’s assumptions, at-risk districts pay more than suburban districts because they have to in order to get teachers.[/li][/ul]
Now then, there are also things to dislike about urban schools:
[ul]
[li]The facilities. Urban schools are often in crappy shape. Half the sinks in our girl’s restroom don’t work and apparently can’t be fixed (they told us that from downtown. Unfixable). I got a new computer today, which replaced my PENTIUM that was running WINDOWS 98. I don’t have a TV in my room, or a projector mounted in my ceiling. I only have a white board because I nailed shower board to my chalkboard. We have an active, well-funded PTA, but some schools really don’t have a PTA at all, and they are falling apart. Paper can be precious (I blow all my political capital on paper)[/li]
[li]The academics. Not all urban schools have poor test scores, but many do, and in an urban school, chances are you’ll be working with kids that are less prepared–many will have weak backgrounds in English and many will have a poor idea of how to behave in school. I don’t just mean “mind the teacher”: I mean understanding how to get your head into a school-space. I think I’m a damn good teacher (though I am also wracked with self-doubt, like all teachers) and I only hit the national average on my AP scores in a very good year. [/li]
[li]The inertia and corruption. This may well be true in all districts, but it seems to be worse in the big ones. There’s a lot of deadweight in any organization with tens of thousands of people, and it’s often frustrating to try to change anything–one learns pretty quickly that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission.[/li][/ul]
I could talk for hours, but I have to go to bed half an hour ago. One last thing: don’t go to the inner city to “help the kids that need it most”. ALL kids need good teachers, and you can do good where ever you go. Teaching is a calling, but it should never be a burden, so don’t take a job that’s a sacrifice. It never works.
You might also check out It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages, a blog by a teacher at an NYC public school. The author is an elementary school teacher, but it gives you a good sense of what urban schools are like. She loves her kids and loves teaching, but does not hesitate to describe (in a very funny way) the administrative irritations that she deals with daily.
Very well put. I’m not a teacher, but I’m married to one, and have lots of teachers among my family and friends. If you let it, teaching can consume *all *of your life. Early on, you’ll need to set boundaries and limits for yourself. As harsh as it sounds, you’ll have to realize that there’s only so much you can do. There will always be some students who need waaay more than you can give–emotionally, academically, financially. At some point, you have to leave them at school (metaphorically) and take time for yourself, your family and your friends.
My sister-in-law teaches elementary at Cleveland Public Schools. She’s been there for I think 10 years now. I don’t have any advice because a) I’m not her and b) IMHO elementary urban schools are way different than high schools.
Everything Manda JO said seems spot on with what my SIL says about her school. The diversity is awesome, she feels like she is making more of an impact than in suburban schools, the resources are bad, the kids’ at-home learning is extremely poor, the district is always in an upheaval, and the pay is really good.
I’ve been teaching that demographic since 1988; first in Texas and then in Pennsylvania. I’ve been mentoring new teachers since the mid-90’s. I’ll give you a couple pieces of advice that I give them that, if followed, will dramatically increase your chances of lasting in the job:
- Remember that it took generations of societal issues that include poverty, discrimination, disintegration of the family, crime, and drug abuse to produce the problems you are dealing with. You are not going to unfuck those kids in 45 minutes a day, in an overcrowded classroom where the amount of individual attention you can give is measured in seconds.
- Leave the building empty-handed as much as possible. You must have a life outside of the job. Live it.
- Your paycheck is not a teaching tool. Tightly limit the amount of classroom stuff that you pay for out of your own pocket. You’ll be making little enough as it is.
- Do not become emotionally invested in the kids. You are going to know thousands of them through the course of your career.
All I have to offer (not much in substance) is that Rigamarole’s post deserves the A+ Hearty Laugh Inducer Award.
I agree. Rigamarole really stood and delivered, didn’t he?
I disagree with much of this. It may be one way to survive teaching in an at-risk enviroment, but it’s not the only way.
This is true, but you also can’t hand-wave away all responsibility. “Fucked” kids can still improve tremendously, and it may be in your power to help that happen–it’s like being an oncologist. Despite your best effort, half your patients are going to die, but since you don’t know which ones, you have to find a way to try your hardest to help and then find a way not to take it all on yourself when you fail.
These I agree with, but you do have to accept that it’s not a 40-hour a week job.
I do agree that you have to maintain an certain emotional distance, a certain detachment, but it’s not a case of not being emotionally involved. It’s about moderation. Kids, especially kids with uninvolved parents, won’t give a damn about their performance if you don’t give a damn about their performance. Kids have a lot of trouble stretching themselves for abstract concepts like “work ethic” or “future earning potential”. It’s much easier for them to understand immediate respect/admiration (or avoiding immediate disappointment).
Furthermore, not getting emotionally involved at all removes the best part of teaching–warping young minds.
I didn’t say it was the only way. It has worked well enough for me and the teachers I’ve mentored that I’m considered the go-to guy for integrating new people to the job.
You can, and should, teach every one of your kids something. Minimally, something about the subject you teach. Ideally, larger lessons that are useful throughout their lives. If, however, you go into this thinking you are going to work miracles and “turn their lives around,” you are going to be disappointed in yourself and in the kids. If you turn one kid’s life around in your whole career, call it good.
It’s also still just a job; not a holy calling. It’s especially not a holy calling that entails a vow of poverty.
I teach high school. My students are young adults, more than a few are legal adults. One of the things they need to learn about is a professional, business-like relationship between two people. They need to know that you don’t decide whether or not to meet your obligations/do your job based on liking or disliking your boss. I expect them to be polite and respectful and I show them the same things in return. They must learn that those are not things reserved only for your friends.
Haha for the whole post. I went to school to be a teacher and taught in an inner city school while I went to law school (though I taught at a well-performing magnet school, so my experience wasn’t exactly typical). Sadly, the above quoted portion actually is the thinking of the education establishment. Be prepared to deal with the expectation that you should love teaching so much that you’d sacrifice your own personal life and/or do it for free and that if your students aren’t acheiving, its because you didn’t put in enough time or effort or utilize the latest brilliant (but soon to be discredited) pedagogy.
Thank you all for the responses so far. I will try to take the advice to heart and not expect miracles.
I am mostly worried about the discipline/classroom management aspects of the job. If anyone has any tips to control a classroom, those would be appreciated as well.
I’m not an inner city teacher, but I’m a teacher and I attended a very troubled high school. So I can speak from my experience as an inner-city (well, downscale suburb but same concept) student.
You can do a lot of good. I’ve seen teachers change lives. And I probably wouldn’t be where I am without the care of some very great teachers who really worked to help me realize my full potential. The good teachers in these schools really do amazing stuff.
But your first year, the kids will try to break you. They understand they are screwed. They understand they are stuck in crappy, falling-down schools that everyone wants to escape from. And they know the nice suburbs up the street have great schools.
They won’t put up with your bullshit. Don’t feed them a lot of “inspiring young minds” stuff. They know that if anyone really cared, they wouldn’t be stuck in their crappy school. You have to be honest with them. Our most respected teacher was the one who outright admitted he’d never send his kid to our school. We understood and respected that. Don’t try to snow them. Let them know why you are there in as honest of terms as possible. And this means you have to be honest with yourself.
Let them see who you are. We respected the quirky teachers, and the serious kick-your-ass teachers. It was the ones in between we did our best to destroy.