Top 10 Reasons for Leaving Philadelphia: #6: Learning from afar
I am not going to lie - I miss Philadelphia. Most of the most important events in my life are connected to that place. After now entering my 7th year away from Philadelphia, I still call it home. When I travel to Philadelphia, I say I'm "going home."
I needed to leave Philadelphia to appreciate what the city means to me. I needed to leave Philadelphia because in terms of my career - teaching and learning - it was just too painful to stay. I often say I went from doing great things in my classroom to trying to mitigate damage to children and families to being complicit. I felt the system was so broken it would be really difficult to stay.
I also felt that I needed to learn and grow. I always believed that the struggles around school reform were just small visions being repackaged. When I read an article by Charles Payne entitled "So much reform, so little change" it encapsulated my feelings about what I saw. And I realized that we actually do know what makes great schools. They exist in private, elite and expensive spaces. We just don't want to pay for children to have access to what a great education looks like.
3 years in an international school and 3 years in an independent school have taught me that resources matter. Everything from a well endowed library to maker spaces to updated technology to small class sizes to the presence of robust specialists (art, music, world language, dance, drama to name a few), to nurses every day, counselors, learning specialists, after school enrichment programs, sports - I could go on and on. All the things I see available these past 6 years that were stripped away from public schools.
Being immersed in well resourced schools made it abundantly clear that providing children with a great education begins in being clear about what a great education means and ensuring that every child has an opportunity for the kinds of experiences we know are best for children. I have seen first hand what money can buy in education. And I have seen first hand what willful neglect for the children we are charged to protect and to serve looks like. It's been eye opening.
I am not going to lie - I miss Philadelphia. Most of the most important events in my life are connected to that place. After now entering my 7th year away from Philadelphia, I still call it home. When I travel to Philadelphia, I say I'm "going home."
I needed to leave Philadelphia to appreciate what the city means to me. I needed to leave Philadelphia because in terms of my career - teaching and learning - it was just too painful to stay. I often say I went from doing great things in my classroom to trying to mitigate damage to children and families to being complicit. I felt the system was so broken it would be really difficult to stay.
I also felt that I needed to learn and grow. I always believed that the struggles around school reform were just small visions being repackaged. When I read an article by Charles Payne entitled "So much reform, so little change" it encapsulated my feelings about what I saw. And I realized that we actually do know what makes great schools. They exist in private, elite and expensive spaces. We just don't want to pay for children to have access to what a great education looks like.
3 years in an international school and 3 years in an independent school have taught me that resources matter. Everything from a well endowed library to maker spaces to updated technology to small class sizes to the presence of robust specialists (art, music, world language, dance, drama to name a few), to nurses every day, counselors, learning specialists, after school enrichment programs, sports - I could go on and on. All the things I see available these past 6 years that were stripped away from public schools.
Being immersed in well resourced schools made it abundantly clear that providing children with a great education begins in being clear about what a great education means and ensuring that every child has an opportunity for the kinds of experiences we know are best for children. I have seen first hand what money can buy in education. And I have seen first hand what willful neglect for the children we are charged to protect and to serve looks like. It's been eye opening.
