WW #3: I'll Pay For It Myself

Reading: Savage Inequalities
Pages: 19-35

"The football field at East St. Louis High is missing almost everything--including goalposts. There are a couple of metal pipes--no crossbar, just the pipes. Bob Shannon, the football coach, who has to use his personal funds to purchase footballs and has had to cut and rake the football field himself, has dreams of having goalposts someday."

Jonathan Kozol does a good job of painting a picture of the schools he visits by letting the facts speak for themselves. Sure, he adds his commentary and lets the reader know exactly what he thinks of the schools, but he also lets the reader reach the inevitable conclusions that the facts present. Here, we see a football field in terrible disrepair. How can the game be played without markers of where the goals are? I guess no one is allowed to kick a field goal while playing on the East St. Louis High football field. I like the way that Kozol expects the reader to draw their own conclusions, even if those conclusions are limited (how can someone read about this football field and reach any other conclusion than that the school is terribly underfunded and "ghetto"?).

In this quote, too, is another idea that gets to me: how many teachers spend their own money and time (and time is, afterall, money) on supplies for their classes? Do workers in the private sector do this? Is this something unique to the way teachers think? I know that I'll spend money on copies if I need them for tomorrow and can't rely on the machines at school to get them done. For instance, I bought 48 4-color Bic pens because I need them in my room to teach a certain writing technique. That cost me somewhere around $70. I would spend that amount to help my teaching and help my students every week if I had to. Now, I'm not suggesting that teachers are the only people who care about their jobs that much. What I'm suggesting is that other workers wouldn't pay that money because they know it would be taken care of (paid for) by the company for which they work. Educators cannot rest secure in that, since education budgets are routinely cut to the bone. I wonder if politicians know that educators are willing to spend their own money and time on their classes. I wonder if politicians cut the budget with full knowledge that the money cut will come out of educators' pockets. I wonder if politicians think that any cut to education budgets won't matter since the cost will be absorbed by educators and likely not affec the students as much.