Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Obvious Differences . . .

To Dunbar I drove past the capital city's homeless shelter and Georgetown Law School.
To Deal I drive through one of the country's wealthiest neighborhoods and the ritzy shops of historic Georgetown.

At Dunbar I had to ask for a (note: the singular "A") whiteboard to be added onto my classroom partition.
At Deal my classroom WALLS come complete with two whiteboards, four bulletin boards and a SMART board.

Did I mention Deal has Walls?
Dunbar did not.

Also in my classroom at Deal you'll find five Mac desktops.
Opposed to five craptacular computers total throughout the whole of Dunbar's 9 story building.

Entering Dunbar I wasn't even given a district e-mail account, let alone my own working computer.
Entering Deal I inherit a Macbook, a personal class website, electronic grade book, and much much more.

Deal has floor by floor bathrooms in the hallways
Dunbar had floor by floor bathrooms, in the back of my classroom area (note: students from other classes needing to use the bathroom had to walk through my classroom to do so, same for the drinking fountain).

I'm guessing Deal won't reek of Marijuana daily.
I'm guessing I had several second hand highs at Dunbar.

When the fire alarm was being tested at Deal we exited the building.
When the fire alarm sounded (daily) at Dunbar we were expected to continue teaching while the noise blared into our rooms for several minutes. Note: they often claimed these interruptions were also fire bell tests, I think it was just a cover from admitting "we have no control over the students and don't know how to stop all the alarms they've pulled."

I'm beginning to realize I could go on forever. So let me wrap it up with one more.

When my students leave Deal I'll worry about possible inappropriate text messages they could send back and forth.
When my students left Dunbar I worried about drive by shootings.

The surprisingly disturbing similarities. Both schools are part of the same district, receiving the same amount of public funds, only 3 miles apart. More disturbing, Dunbar was located just a mile up the street from our country's Capital building, where educational policies are created.

God, please bless America.

4 comments:

Claudia said...

I am so excited for my Bettylou's third year of teaching. Go girl go! Yeah!!! Can't wait to visit Deal with you. I think you will allow me to do so! I was glad I got to visit Dunbar also, but glad it was after I knew you would not be returning. What a nightmare!

Riki Lee said...

Wow. Very interesting.

The Pitchforths said...

I always love to read your blog! I laugh so hard. Enjoy your third year, that's all we made it. It is very interesting how funding and administration works. We've come to accept that there really is no rhyme or reason. It's all about money and where it comes from. Sad that they don't try and do more to improve the lives of the underpriviledged. History will repeat itself. So sad.

Kelli said...

I don't understand how two schools in the same district can be so different! What was Dunbar doing with their funds??

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