Thread: suburban vs. innercity

Advice?

Hmmmmm ... well - ultimately it all depends upon what you want to do.

I was an inner city teacher for 5 years. They were five of the most difficult (and rewarding) years of my life. I have also spent several years in suburban schools.

The first thing I think you should know is that because of the socio-economic demographics in the inner-city schools, you need to be very patient. You will need to be calm and caring. You will find that some children come to school with a great deal of emotional baggage. Some don't have adult "role models." Some are not consistently fed at home - and rely on the free breakfast and lunch programs offered by the school. When I taught 4th grade in Austin, some of my kids were already being recruited by gangs. These kids were given cellular phones and served as lookouts for the police. If they saw someone who looked like a police officer, they hit the speed dial to alert the dealers. During my last year as an inner city teacher back in 1991, the police actually arrested one of my students for dealing drugs on his school bus.

It is very difficult for some of these children to do well in school because their basic needs - food, clothing, shelter, and having someone who loves them - are not always there.

I have had children who were homeless. These children didn't know where they would be spending the night. I have had children come to school in the dead of winter wearing the same ragged blue jeans and t-shirt that they wore in September.

Inner-city children (as a whole) - tend to be less academically proficient than their middle class suburban counterparts.

Part of this seems to be due to concerns about basic needs - and the lack of role models. Other children are tremendously impovershed. They may not have the facilities at home that many of us take for granted - a desk, a lamp, a chair, some paper, and pencils to write with.

In the Rio Grande Valley, I had kids - usually girls - who had household chores and babysitting duties to do after school. Some of these children were even held out of school to help Mom when she felt overworked taking care of the younger children.

On the otherhand - if you can win the trust of these children - they will be tremendously appreciative of the time you spend with them. Even simple things like eating with the kids in the cafetaria or talking to them one on one during recess seem to be greatly appreciated.

In general - the suburban kids tend to be more academically oriented. They are more likely to have some stability in their lives with regards to having basic needs met.

This is not to say that suburban kids are always wonderful.

Surprisingly enough - many of them also lack adult role models.

I have had kids from families whose parents were both on the professional career track. Their kids became "latch key" kids and were enrolled in afterschool programs because Mom and Dad had to work.

Some of these kids have acted out or deliberately failed to get parental attention - the idea being that some attention (even for bad things) was better than no attention at all.

In relatively affluent families that are supported by one parent's paycheck - the stay at home parent can sometimes be a big pain in the you know what.

I once had a mother who drove her 4th grade daughter to school. She sat with her outside of her classroom until the bell rang. She was at the door with a fast food lunch in her hands when it was time for lunch. She was at the door when the bell rang for dismissal in the afternoon.

Her favorite words always seemed to be, "Mr. Chin, do you have a moment?"

The woman questioned every grade the child got.

She questioned the child's assigned seat in the classroom.

She complained about the students who associated with her during recess.

YIKES!

Amazingly enough - the parent didn't annoy me. I wound up feeling tremendously sorry for the kid because the mother was very clingy. It seemed to me that the closer she tried to hold onto her child as she grew up, the more likely the child would be to rebel and push away from her mother during her adolecense.

Ah well ...

Anyway - there are pros and cons to working in either inner city or suburban settings. Ultimately the decision about what to do will be up to you.

Best wishes,

David

I have to agree whole-heartedly with David of Houston. It kind of depends on your definition of "challenged". I don't know what grade level you are thinking of teaching either, but my experience has been that teaching inner-city is physically and emotionally challenging, but not academically. They do not push you mentally the way that my students in a rural/suburban district did. And he is totally right: it is because they are on a much lower level in their schooling. It gets depressing to have to "dumb it down" to student level, but defending failure rates is even more depressing.

I teach in a high school with 715 students, and believe me, it is challenging! You have the complete range of students from gifted to needy, but what you do not have is the violence. Yes, drugs are present and weapons like knives, but no one has ever pulled a gun on anyone or threatened a teacher. I have spent my entire career here and have enjoyed every minute of the teaching.

I just wanted to add something that may help you with your desicion. If you have student loans, and work in a low income school for five years they will be forgiven. This was the deciding factor for me.

Originally Posted by coramdeo21

I just wanted to add something that may help you with your desicion. If you have student loans, and work in a low income school for five years they will be forgiven. This was the deciding factor for me.

Before basing your decision upon what coramdeo21 said - you should confirm this through your loaning institution - if you have a student loan. Although it may be true that some loans may be forgiven - this really depends upon who loaned you the money. Although a state institution might forgive the loan if you're working within an inner city school within that state - I think a private institution like a bank would be unlikely to forgive a loan. It all depends upon who your creditor is.

Best wishes,

David

It does INDEED depend on what you call a "challenge."

All situations have their pluses and minuses. There are no perfect situations. We are dealing with homo sapiens remember.

I lasted but 7 weeks in the one, true, inner city situation I was in, yet there were teachers there who had been on faculty there for eons. I don't know how they did it!!! They clearly had a gift that I did not.

I've done lower socio economic status schools before, and was in one of them for 5 years. Parent involvement was nearly non existent. At PTO meetings, kids and faculty far outnumbered parents. Yet the faculty was very close knit and, until we had a real "lemon" of a principal come in, things were tolerable. And, David is right in saying that once the kids learned to trust you, you were their hero, perhaps the only stable adult influence in their lives. This doesn't mean they didn't drive you nuts sometimes. My last year in that school, the kids on my team ALONE got into dozens of fights over the course of the year. Felt as though I were in a combat zone.

But there are other extremes. I did parochial school for ten years and had parents like David described. One of them even had the same favorite expression...."you got a minute?" That usually meant trouble.This woman barely had a high school education, but thought she could tell me all there was about teaching. Had she been an isolated case, it would not have been so bad, but she was one of a small coven of witchy mothers who made me crazy during my six years at this one parochial school. Besides being meddlesome, some of them were just plain evil - no two ways about it. You did something they didn't like and they'd spread lies about you, try and turn the kids against you - I was relieved to get out of there and go into public school.

The school I am in now is clearly the best one I have ever worked in. No, it isn't perfect, but I get admin support nearly all the time (something I never had before!), the kids are teachable, and the community values education. Yes, we have some fruitty kids and parents (and a few egotistical teachers to match), but I am glad I found this place!!!

I guess it depends on what sort of challenge you're looking for!

I am truely surprised at the number of nut-case parents I encounter. It is painful to meet the parent of a mixed up child.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and the parents are just as screwed up. These kids don't stand a chance.

These are children who have role models that can't keep jobs. Or sell drugs. Or have ample sex partners.

Most of my students fail every test I give them. They don't do homework. They don't take school seriously. By the time they do take school seriously, it will be too late. These children will give birth to another generation and the cycle will repeat.

Day after day, I don't feel like I've taught them anything. Even hands-on work is merely a distraction - the unfocused kids see to it that no one gets any work done.

These children aren't dumb. They are as smart as kids anywhere. But they are so damaged. Their wounds run so deep that I can't heal them.

I am exhausted by the end of the day. They run me ragged. I love kids and I love working with them. But being an innercity teacher is unrewarding and emotionaly draining.

Some say that "kids are kids" and that there is no difference between innercity kids and suburban kids. But this just isn't true. When you have a class of easily distracted young people, then you add hunger, violence, drug abuse and brain damage from their parents hunger, violence and drug abuse, you have a classroom management nightmare.

I have 12 year olds that are so out of tune with school they scream whenever it suits them. They argue. They taunt you. They swear at you. Their parents can't control them. And the kids are so little. Poor little kids.

I cry just thinking about it. I worked my butt off this year. And today, I got my notice of being non re-elected. Thank you, Mr. Teacher, for all the work you have done.

Definately do suburban. The gentlemen that wrote about his experience with inner city kids really summed it up well. I teach at a predominately black/lower socio-economic background and he's right, they drove me absolutely crazy. I left feeling 'beaten down' and 'emotionally abused' by a bunch of 12 year olds. :evil: They ruined it for my and for my good kids. I really have no sympathy for these kinds of kids. I'd definately take the suburban kids ANYDAY if I had a choice. Unfortunately, where I live, there are very few openings in the good schools. We have a wonderful faculty and staff at our school but the kids really ruin it. I was so dumb to think I could make a difference with those type of kids. I know we're supposed to try to love and help them all, but some make that extremely difficult, I know this is bad, but I let about 15-20 out of 115 kids ruin everyone of the 180 days. If you're smart and have the opportunity, do the suburbs. Atleast most of them have someone at home that cares.