Tales from a New Orleans Moneybags Academy

by Taylor Scott

Published March 14, 2009 @ 11:51AM PT

[Taylor Scott isn't her real name, but she is a real teacher in the really troubled schools of New Orleans.]

Our little academy is funded by a foundation we'll call Moneybags. Moneybags has given the school district tons of money to implement a program developed by a different foundation we'll call Bag of Tricks. Moneybags paid beaucoup dollars to the school district for the program we're supposed to be using, supplied to us by Bag of Tricks.

Some of the features this program is supposed to include are symposium-type interdisciplinary classes such as the Geo-Lit class my teaching partner and I are teaching, 1:1 technology implementation, and project-based learning. All of which I'm in full support of as concepts, and all of which I was very excited about when I took this job.

Trouble is, the school district hasn't supported the academy's needs for implementing the program successfully. The list of things needed but not supplied by the district for this program is long, and maybe I'll bore you with that another time.

Reasons for this lack of support are myriad and complex, I'm sure. I can't even remotely figure out the tangled issues at the district office. I would just be thrilled if I could get the forms I need from them so I can get health insurance.

One clue to the mysterious workings of the district office is this: they do keep humanoid beings there. I know this because a woman showed up the week before Mardi Gras, called a meeting with the academy teachers, and began issuing orders without even introducing herself. Despite her lack of typical human manners, other teachers confirm to me that she is, in fact, a human being from the district office.

The orders this human issued were interspersed with statements about how she didn't even know the district had an academy such as this one, or what the requirements are for making it work.

(click "read more" below for the rest....)

The reason for the panic visit is that Moneybags is coming to observe to make sure the money is being well spent, that Bag of Tricks' program is being implemented properly and successfully. So the district sent this female human in to “oversee” what, according to her, the district never even knew was taking place.

Until, you know, two weeks before the visit from Moneybags, when it has all suddenly become very important.

So she made some changes to the requirements the district had on us which were inconsistent with Bag of Tricks' program. But she apparently didn't communicate these changes to the head of language arts for the district, who showed up in my classroom Tuesday of this week to ask why I wasn't doing things the way the district requires. It was also, apparently, news to the observer that this academy operates on an A/B block schedule.

Fascinating.

I wish I had time to study the nuances of this stupidity further, but I am busy.  I'm busy trying to be a teacher.

But if this institution cannot even see its own stupidity, it's very difficult for me to take its criticism seriously.

"Unbrand Me" by timsamoff