Module 9

In reading about the Leandro case there were many things that jumped out at me, but the biggest was the idea of a “sound, basic education.” As a teacher of at-risk children I am amazed at what I am asked to “do without” for financial reasons. Sure, I have more supplies in my classroom than the children have at home to facilitate their learning and I speak English, but is that really what I should settle for?!?!?! I don’t like the idea of that and I have spent plenty of my own money this year ensuring that my children are not only getting a good education, but also have good materials to work with. I don’t think it is fair to look at a low income group of children, at any age, and say “well, at least they have something.” Trust me, my children aren’t sitting in gold plated chairs and I am certainly not wealthy by any means, but I do make sure we have good markers, good construction paper, good play dough, good paint, etc. I think the stories and art work produced by children in the poorest schools should look just as nice hanging on the walls as the richest schools in the county. I agree with the court case that you can’t take away from the “sound, basic education” of one group of children to fund another group, but I feel like we should all be funded. Living and teaching out of the country I was able to get many school supplies donated and sent to the school in Romania. If businesses will send supplies to me in Romania, surely they would send some to the school down the street.

I think the creation and funding of the new “More at Four” program, as a follow up to this case, is a great idea. It follows the same basic principles of the “Smart Start” or “Head Start” programs and gives at-risk (low income or non-English speaking) children a chance to go to preschool that perhaps their family cannot afford. Hopefully, it will work to give these children a more even playing field on which to start kindergarten so we as teachers won’t have quite so big a gap at the beginning of the year. You can’t get everyone on the same level, all children learn differently and need to have the space to do so, but it can help those children who will be behind and not able to catch up in kindergarten, resulting in being behind for many year and possibly never be promoted to the next grade or able to pass the EOG tests.