It’s been a while since I watched a full hockey game, but I still remember marveling at the endurance of that special unit, the penalty killers. Facing a 5 on 4, or even a 5 on 3 situation, the coach would unleash his toughest crew, the players who could keep the opposition scoreless for a lung-aching two minutes. The best defensive lines could do this a few times a game, but even they wore out eventually.
My educator colleagues and I have been operating in penalty kill mode since the school year began, and unfortunately there’s no sign that relief is coming anytime soon.
While people with a lot of power in Harrisburg are still squabbling over money this week, many schools all across the Philadelphia area will be heading back into regular session without adequate staffing.
Plenty of people (including students) have written about this shortage. When I worked at a public charter school in South Philadelphia the state’s budget cuts left us first without a Dean of Students, then without a librarian, then without a library, then sans paid substitute teachers, then without paid assistant sports coaches, then, then, then…
You get the picture.
But unfortunately lots of people who aren’t connected to public schooling don’t get this picture, or at least they don’t see the underlying and real need to pump more resources into public schools in the Philadelphia area. When the number of people who are suppose to be caring for and about students continues to be whittled away, those who are left can’t help but feel the strain.
A quick anecdote: a week before winter break, a guidance counselor at the high school where I work came a-knocking during homeroom. She’d gotten a call from the parent of a student with a Learning Disability who’s in one of my general education classes. This parent had complained that her son wasn’t receiving the needed attention in my class, mainly because I was busy with other students. I agreed with this assessment, and said I would try something different with this student. At the beginning of the year a special education teacher had been assigned to this particular class to help assist students with IEP’s (Individual Educational Plans, to those not in the know), but I hadn’t seen him in my classroom in over a month.
I told the counselor this. She arched an eyebrow.
“So where is he? Is he showing up?” she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders in response. “I think he’d like to be around, but frankly he’s continually covering for other teachers who are out, or for the longer-term subs.”
Both the counselor and I knew what was happening: with teacher shortages (budgets) and substitute shortages (tough to lure them to our school—more on that another time), this teacher was being used like a building substitute. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t.
He didn’t have the resources, aka the time. And the school didn’t have the resources to make time for him, aka the money to hire another caring adult.
I need to help surround my students with the resources they need. And that doesn’t translate into me getting paid more (though that wouldn’t be unwelcome!), it translates into more backup, more people. In schools, more “resources” for me = more caring adults involved in students’ daily routines.
And people are expensive, I get that. However, if we were serious about giving each kid in the country a decent and nurturing environment at school, I think we could scratch together the dollars and cents to make it happen. The problem lies in the will, or maybe in the awareness first and foremost.
It’s tough being stuck in penalty-kill mode, as even a clueless hockey fan like me would know.