GUEST COLUMN: "When Even the Teacher Gives Up"

How do you repair a leak with a broken wrench? How do you solve West Philadelphia's class conflict when even the teachers aren't helping? I recently discovered that the repair mechanisms -- West Philadelphia schools -- are just another part of the problem. "If you want a job at a paper when you grow up, you have to start learning early," their teacher explained to them. One of the seventh graders commented that he never wanted to work at a newspaper. With this, the teacher turned to me and said, "They still want to be sports stars . . . and the sad thing is, if they get into college, they may be taking the place of people that deserve to be there." I never got to question this teacher on the specifics of her comment. She was not interested in speaking to a reporter. I think she felt most black students get accepted into more prestigious colleges than their grades would warrant. (Whether she felt they would be accepted through affirmative action or through athletic scholarships, I'm not sure.) Either way, even as she drags her students about on weekly field trips, she must think they are ultimately bound to fail in life. This is a teacher trying to expose West Philadelphia students to culture, experiences and opportunities, but she does not believe it will improve their situation. Why is she trying to expose her students to outlets for success in the professional world? She honestly feels that they will never really be a part of the system. Either they'll succeed through a scholarship they do not deserve or they'll try to attain success through athletics, a far less likely path. Her disillusionment with the system must have an effect on the way she treats her students. Her comment to me illustrates this. Several of her students could easily have heard her remark. This shows her lack of respect for them. She relates to her students as statistics-in-the-making, instead of as children she could grow close to. This woman cannot be blind to the potential and the intellect her students possess. She knows, even if society does not, that these children can succeed with positive reinforcement. How can she criticize affirmative action? Her students must wait years for field trips, while their white counterparts receive an equivalent education from their parents before they even get to kindergarten. How can their educations be equal? When a middle-class youth comes to kindergarten, his or her education is well on its way. He or she is likely to speak better and think more clearly. Toddler's toys and trips to the museum with mommy encourage all this. When inner-city youths enter kindergarten, they are already a step behind. Don't they deserve an extra push at the other end of the educational spectrum, when they get to college? Perhaps it is better to see her disillusionment as the result -- and not the cause -- of the low numbers of inner-city youths who advance to higher education. Perhaps she began her teaching career optimistic about her students' futures. Perhaps she found that the cultural biases they are exposed to from infancy are too much for the school districts to battle. This teacher obviously wants to help her students. In her comments to her students, she stresses professional jobs and personal responsibility for their future. But she cannot take the easy way out. She is a crucial part of the system. If this system does not provide opportunities for inner city youths to advance, she must work to change this situation. As a teacher, this woman has a year to impress her values, her views and her hopes upon her students for their future. But her negative attitudes will only foster the failure she predicts. Elizabeth Kopple is a sophomore History major from Beverly Hills, California, and production manager for The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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