7. One Year of Teaching at Public Schools in West Philly… Lemme Tell Ya Bout It

MY JOB

I started teaching midway through the 2023 school year as a short-term substitute. I needed a job, the School District of Philadelphia was trying to fill a seemingly unlimited number of short-term openings, and the thought of teaching was much more appealing than just about anything else available. And I ended up enjoying it so much I would quit my engineering job to go back to teaching in 2024. That being said, I’m actually an ESS employee, which is not an official employee of the School District. We’ll come back to this distinction later.

All of 2024 was spent at Sayre High School, predominantly as a co-teacher in Math (Geometry, Algebra I & II), and as a building sub that typically picked up the science classes and gym. Math would’ve been the literal last subject I would’ve picked to teach, but it grew on me quickly. Seeing some of the kids go from struggling with basic algebra to successfully doing long division polynomials was a rewarding experience. Even more so when I was leading the class.

I was also an assistant coach on the men’s varsity basketball team. A good team that underperformed for a lot of reasons — lack of practice being the biggest reason. The day before our second round playoff game against the one seed, only three kids showed up and only one of them actually plaed. I joined them halfway through the season when I returned to teaching.

In 2023 I bounced around a number of local high schools including: West Philadelphia HS, Overbrook, School of the Future, and The Workshop School as well as a few elementary schools in the area, but most of my time that year was spent at those high schools as a Special Needs Assistant.

I was definitely that guy who came in ( both in ‘23 and again ‘24 ) thinking I could change things. Make a real impact. Improve the room. Make a difference!

How naïve of me.

Now, that’s not to say that I didn’t. There were plenty of students who went from tardy and uninterested to attentive and pendant. I was not the sole reason for that change for any one student. I just simply played my part.

But it was no movie. That’s for damn sure. Because, unfortunately, for every one of those ascending students, there was one who went from present to bored and two students who went from uninterested and tardy to nonexistent.

The EXPERIENCE

In some ways, West Philly high schools are what you might think they are — metal detectors, aggressive and unruly students, fights, loud music, etc.

In other ways they’re quite the opposite — the metal detectors never felt necessary, there were probably as many fights as any other public high school, and most importantly, there are plenty of students who show up on time, do their work, and go above and beyond to learn new things and become the best version of themselves every day. They have big goals and participate in extracurriculars.

It’s easy to complain about the school district and what needs to improve because there are a whole lot of things that need improving, but it’s just as easy to forget that there’s also a ton of great teachers who give a damn.

The biggest isssue far and away is discipline and understanding. Classes are rarely full, students roam the halls, cell phone control is impossible, disciplinary methods aren’t strong enough or effective, and at times the administration and the district prioritize the wrong things which leads to poor upper level management which trickles down through the faculty and staff, to the students.

The students don’t understand how valuable education is to them. Not because they can get into college because with half decent grades, but because of everything a strong sense of discipline will offer them in the future.

The Hard Conversation

For a student to receive a quality education, there are several parties at play:

— The school district

— The school they attend

— The rest of the student body

— The teachers

— The parents or guardians of that student

— The student

The Student and the Support System

And as far as the order of importance goes, I think you can go bottom up from the list above. — the student being the most important, the district being the least. Because ultimately so much of it comes down to the student being present and engaged in the classroom with a teacher who cares and a support system at home that holds them accountable.

When the support system at home is either nonexistent or unable to discipline the child for acting out, you basically end up with a student who does whatever they want in school. If what they want is to receive an education, they will. If what they want is to follow someone else, they will, for better or worse. If they want to skip class, they will. If they want to attend every class and get good grades they will.

But of course we can’t rely soley on teenagers to make the best decision for their well-being. Without my parents breaking my free will into submission, there’s no way I would have gotten the grades I got or stayed out of (serious) trouble like I did. All I cared about was blending in, so if I had made friends with scumbags and didn’t have any strict parental supervision, I’m fairly certain I would have become a scumbag.

The Teachers

As far as the teachers go, I can tell you first hand that getting more experienced teachers into inner city schools is not going to make the difference that people think it would. If anything, the younger, energized teachers suit the unruly classrooms better than an experienced teacher who’s put their time in and likely has less patience for ridiculousness. Public school teachers often get bashed for phoning it in, but everything that I saw suggested otherwise. Sure there are good and bad teachers, the same way there are good and bad doctors but there was no epidemic of lazy teachers at the underperforming schools I worked at. Often times the issue was teachers being unable to maintain the focus of their students or were teaching to half-full classes. Some of the better teachers had innovative ways of getting their students attention, some of the lesser teachers did not have those same methods in place, but in the end, you can only do so much to ensure a student is picking up on a lesson without entirely derailing it.

What makes it even harder to do so are some of the district and administration policies that don’t benefit anyone besides the school’s paper performance.

The District & The School

I wont’ pretend to have any sincere understanding of this besides what I’ve been told by other long-term teachers, but it’s my understanding that following is true:

• School’s are assessed by a number of metrics — one of which being the number of suspensions. The fewer the better.

  • This is an improper

P.S.

A bunch of Kids called me thor… not kidding

In the slideshow you’ll see the celebrities that the kids said I looked like. My actual nickname was ‘Thor’ to a bunch of students. I don’t see it, but appreciate the reach. There are a few I’m missing but as you can see it’s mostly just famous white guys with beards. Klay Thompson is more of a basketball reference then looks, which I don’t like. And yes, one of them actually said Stamos.

Picture reference of me to show that none of these are accurate.