Textbooks — the haves and have nots
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A college professor asks his students a provactive question about whether they could take their books home when they were in high school. The answers from some students provided a lesson for others.
As a college professor, I understand that the problems besetting the Philadelphia public schools are my problem as well. I don't consider basic education as a K-12 endeavor. These days, it's K-16. That's why it can be both extremely rewarding — and unsettling — when students arrive in my classes from disparate backgrounds.
Five years ago, I asked students in my introductory-level humanities course how many of them were fully expected to do hours of homework each night in high school. Hands shot up from at least half of the class. I then asked them how many were prohibited from taking their textbooks home from high school. A handful of students raised their hands — some sheepishly, some as a matter of fact.
As a teacher, you never quite know whether a particular tack will work. Luckily, this one did. Jaws dropped, mouths agape, the precious and fragile moment when personal worlds are revealed for how small they really are. The first group quickly raised the inevitable question born of this impossible state of affairs: Why couldn't you take your books home? How did you learn anything?
Many of the students didn't know. They just weren't allowed. So they worked as hard as they could during the school day.
I can't say I know either. My suspicion is that, when your funds are inadequate and you are looking at the only resources you can hold onto to stay running as a school, you keep what you can, just in case. You make policies that prohibit anyone — even those who stand to benefit — from using those resources. You cling to what little you have. Because a school with outdated books in the classroom is still better than a school without any books at all.
Some of the students from the first group said they had never heard of such a thing — students who weren't allowed to take their textbooks home to study. What was perhaps even more incomprehensible to them was how some of their peers, the kids who couldn't read their high school English books at night, could understand Immanuel Kant better than they did.
✚ Teachers Anonymous is a new column that shares brief stories from Philly teachers and others that illustrate the difficulties and joys of working in a drastically underfunded system. Interested in contributing? We're looking more for the stories you'd tell a friend than essays, think pieces, rants or laundry lists. Think of your audience as someone who knows nothing about being a teacher. Try to describe a brief situation, scene or moment that you feel communicates something larger about the challenges or rewards of working in Philadelphia schools. Email stories to emilyg@citypaper.net or by mail to Emily Guendelsberger c/o City Paper, 30 S. 15th St., 14th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
