Food for Thought

Gerry Garibaldi is a high school English teacher in an urban Connecticut district. He had a very thought-provoking article in the newspaper recently.

He says that schools, especially ones in low-income districts, are swimming in money duet to Title I and other federal programs. He says his school pays five teachers to tutor kids after school and on Saturdays. The kids never show up. He says they have all the books and gizmos they need -- computerized whiteboards, Elmo projectors, state-of-the-art-facilities, and fully automated libraries.

He says that money is NOT the reason so many students are failures. The reason so many students are failures is . . . are you ready for this? . . . immorality. All the "judge not" folks are out there right now turning red in their faces, but what he speaks is truth. Indeed, Garibaldi says, "Personal moral accountability is the electrified rail that no politician wants to touch."

Garibaldi uses one of his students, Nicole, as an example. Nicole often slept in class, and Garibaldi soon learned it was because she stayed out partying all night. After about a dozen calls, her mother,who was unmarried, finally called him back. She said she worked nights, but she'd talk to her. Nicole improved for awhile, but she soon began falling asleep again. One day, as he tried to wake her, she said, "Leave me alone, mister. I feel sick." As an aside, I wouldn't put up with such a disrespectful form of address. Nicole's two giggly friends informed Garibaldi that Nicole was pregnant. As if a teenagers pregnancy were funny!

Garibaldi makes a point that I have often harped on. "Within my lifetime," he says, "single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure. . ." Isn't that sad?

But Nicole is not worried about the ramifications of her situation. Connecticut provides out-of-wedlock mothers a vast array of welfare benefits: medical coverage when they become pregnant, medcial insurance for the family, child care, Section 8 housing, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, cash assistance, and transportation. She will also get a $35 an hour in-home tutor in her final trimester.

Garibaldi asked Nicole if she thought getting pregnant as an unwed teenager was a good thing. "Depends," she answered. "On what?" he asked. Nicole explained that her grandmother and mother both got pregnant when they were teens, and they were good mothers. Uhhhh - define "good." They both had daughters who got pregnant when they were teenagers.

Nicole didn't like Garibaldi "picking on her" because she was pregnant. "Nobody gets married any more, mister." Again I say, isn't that sad?

Back to Nicole's education. Nicole is in the 11th grade. She reads on a 5th grade level as do most of Garibaldi's students. Do you think that if Nicole's mother had made sure she went for the tutoring that was available to her rather than allowing her to party all night it would have made a difference? Certainly couldn't have hurt anything!

Garibaldi says there is another aspect to this teenage pregnancy thing that is disturbing. One of his students sent her little son home with his father for the weekend. I'm sure it wasn't so she could study -- Garibaldi says she was barely pulling D's in his class. My guess is more partying. These kids don't learn with one child. They tend to have several. At any rate, when she picked the toddler up, he was bruised and cut. Garibaldi insisted they report the father, which they did. However, she backed down and refused to file a complaint.

I think Garibaldi's article makes a lot of sense. If we have the best facilities, the best teachers, the latest gizmos, it does nothing if we don't insist on a little morality along with it.

"Expecting to Fail." The Dallas Morning News; March 6, 2011; p. 1P.