The University of Pennsylvania's Career Services office hosted an education and social services career fair this past Wednesday. I found the event to be informative. I also found the event to be psychologically confusing and unnerving. With 2-3 exceptions, all of the school representatives that attended hailed from charter schools. And while I made my rounds and asked questions/ pitched my credentials, I struggled with just being there because the event was an indicative of the state of public schools in Philly. It's all about charter schools these days and to be frank, I did not sign up for this.
I decided to pursue a career in education because I think that it is a critical means to fight against modern day oppressions and bring about advancement for many communities. My desire to teach is not so much to instruct and assess via skills tests (although, I do love curriculum development and implementation a lot). I want to teach because I had some inspiring PUBLIC SCHOOL teachers who provided me mentorship, support, and encouragement when very few outside of my family, did. My hope in becoming a public school teacher of the humanities/social studies is to do what other teachers did for me. I want to encourage students to think outside of the box and to do something with content. My hope in being a social studies teacher was to bring cool material and questions to the classroom and let the students apply learning in a meaningful, relevant way. 1. I'm not sure I could do that in a charter school. 2. Even if I could be the educator that I want to be in a charter school setting, I'm not even sure that I want to join a (what I think is a flawed) operation.
The thought of working for a charter school elicits the most vile, visceral response within my spirit. Joining the enemy- working within the flawed system- seems counterproductive and antithetical to everything that I believe. When I visited all of the charter school representatives at the Career Fair and signed my name on their email/contact list, it felt like a piece of me had sold out to enemy. While it was interesting to listen to some of the really cool things that some of the schools were doing with regards to inquiry-driven learning or social justice, I couldn't absorb all of the great things that the representatives were saying because I am well aware that charter schools are not producing better results that public schools. The job fair was cool because I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people and recognize that there some great teachers in charter schools that are doing dynamic things. With that said, they faced a ton of challenges or were blessed to secure jobs at very very unique schools. Additionally, one representative told me that s/he struggled with the decision to join the school that s/he is currently attached to and still has a political beef with what s/he is currently working.
Philadelphia schools are all transforming into charter schools, so I know that in order to ensure some type of job security in the city of Philadelphia, I'll have to 'turn to the bad side.' Knowing this is forcing me to make some careful considerations and ask some critical questions. As someone who has familial responsibilities, financial responsibilities, and a personal commitment to stay in this immediate area for at least the next 4-5 years, I'm thinking that I might have to sacrifice my convictions if 440 (the Phil. public school district) isn't hiring. At the same time, I'm also thinking whether or not I should pursue another (but associated) route in regards to career, even if it is just in the short term. I can't help but reflect on the time when I applied for consulting gigs; if I was going to compromise my convictions, I might as well did so and got paid well to do it. I wish there was someway where I could remain committed to my beliefs and get a check. All of this just to serve my community as an educator... it's such a shame, especially when so many other career opportunities are accessible.
Not losing hope, BUT raising a critical side eye at prospective employment,
Kevin
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