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A few years back, I was working in social services for youth in Oklahoma. I could see that social services was only treating symptoms so I decided to be a teacher. I got my emergency teaching credential and had no jobs so I printed out my resume and dropped it off at every secondary school in town. 3 schools called me. One was a high school in North Tulsa that had a bad reputation among the kids I worked with. ANother one was one of the top high schools in Tulsa, but the principal seemed crazy and I didn't want them breathing over my shoulder, so I accepted an offer from this culinary magnet school. My first teaching contract paid me 21.5 k a year BEFORE taxes. I ended up having to get 2 other jobs just to even have pocket change,
It ended up being some bullshit, but i was able to see the inner workings of white supremacy. My principal was boning the school treasurer (I knew someone who knew all the district gossip and she told me this off the rip) and the hallways looked like Lean on Me had location scouted at the campus. The way Tulsa works is that it oil money kids go to private school, and there were 3 really good schools that your kid had to win a lottery and a wait list to get accepted to. THey aren't private schools, but they may as well be. THe kind of schools where rich people who wanted their kids to be somewhat in touch, but also wanted their kid to get an actual education. Then of course, there was my school: 85 % kids living below poverty line. Old and outdated extracurricular facilities, bars on the windows....but the good thing was I was on my own to figure it all out. They just showed me my classroom and I didn't hear a peep out of admin until my evaluations started in the spring. Their offices were on the other side of school, a good 5 minute walk at least. Luckily, there was an older Black man working in my department (Social studies). He looked out for me. He always had material because we taught the same classes. Good dude. Great vet. Also played for the Redskins and OU so we could really shoot the shit, Anyway, I taught Oklahoma History and it was a drag. I taught U.S. Government too which left me some loose reins to teach. Oklahoma History was dry, and boring. Mostly it felt like a geography class up until halfway through the book, then they talked about the 5 tribes, and then the oil boom and then the OKC bombing. The Tulsa Race Riot, as it was called back then, made up about 5 pages tops. It's criminal.
[Side Bar: The town still feels like that race riot just happened. WHen I moved there I had heard about in my U.S. History class back when I was in college. But I was shocked when i would bring it up to people around town and they would act like they didn't know. But if I got a chance to talk to some Blacks they would be a bit more candid. Especially about Black Wall Street and how it was before the Ofays strong armed them. Anyway, Wayne Brady was a big time big wig and had lots of ties in Grand wizardry and other racial terrorist activites. A lot of his money is spread around town and he had a whole district named for him. Not even a 2 minute drive to other east side of downtown you had Black wall street (which got cut in half when the town built a new baseball park). Lastly, most of the Blacks were pushed North, and that ended up being a good 65 % of the clientele I worked with at my social services job. But a lot of the kids would have no idea why they were living in poverty and how they got there. North Tulsa is usually where the cameras end up on first 48. ]
I only taught there 2 years. I was too lazy to go looking at other schools, and they were the first school to offer me a gig, but also as dysfunctional as the gig was, it was nice to not have admin peering over my shoulder, because I had no idea what I was doing, but I needed space to figure it out (which for me was make a ton of mistakes). My OG left the next year and he got replaced by some young dude who looked like a Siliicon Valley character (the initial investor of Pied Piper who was in the 6 comma club), On one side of my room was a female teacher whose husband was a cop, across the hall was a racist Okie yokel who wore gym shorts, the and the other was this lily white chick who had ambitions on being the youngest chair in school history, but was also showing movies like the Help, and the Butler in her classes. I bounced out after I had coaches try to press me about passing their baseball players, among other weird shit that I'll talk about some other day.
But it was the toughest year I ever had working at a school. The demographics went from like 40 hispanic, 40 Black and 20 percent white or other. The hispanics always gave me the most trouble, then the white kids, and there were Black kids who were trouble makers, but I could still reach them. It was hell, plus the material I taught sucked. But there was one Black kid, a freshman....the minute he came in was always fronting for his friends, always making the class harder than it needed to be. I got sick of sending him to the principal's office without results, so I called his mom after another Black teacher told me he was failing HIS class too. SO we set up a parent teacher conference. Surprise, surprise. Its just his mom in a t shirt and some sweatpants. And there are some white teachers in there and a white counselor and white VP.
We start comparing notes and talking about his behavior and the subject of basketball comes up. He was on the team, but has been ineligible all season becuz of grades. One of the counselors then asks if that isn't enough incentive to pass. The VP asks him what would he like to do after high school. The kid says he wants to play in the NBA. There is a moment of silence. To which I have enough time to think about the times I played against him in pre season scrimmages with the team and I'm thinking "This kid stinks! I would give this dude work if we ever played one v one. He was kinda athletic, but low basketball IQ and no handles. " I then look around, waiting for someone to break the news to him that he better start filling out his Jobcorps paperwork ASAP.
The counselor says "well that's a good dream to have." While the VP says "Don't forget about us when you make it big." I was astonished at how phony these white folks were being. I couldn't believe it. The other brotha in the room looks at me, I shoot him a "wtf?" scowl, and he says to the mom. "Miss I know you have expectations for your son. Maybe you'd like to share those expectations with us all here so we can help your son meet them. She gets all teary eyed, thinks for about half a second, then replies "I want him to go to the NBA too. " I just got up and walked out of the meeting. But that kid was a number for that school, and instead of getting him into a program where he could really empower himself (the kid could barely read. Maybe at a 6th grade level), they wanted to keep him in school and let him spin his wheels in high school.
I have figured out too late that school is just a business like any other, and principals are just middle management. Teachers are just babysitters at best and at worst, correction officers. I'm giving it another 2 years before i pivot to something new entirely. These people are fucking crazy and should not be around kids as much as they are.
It ended up being some bullshit, but i was able to see the inner workings of white supremacy. My principal was boning the school treasurer (I knew someone who knew all the district gossip and she told me this off the rip) and the hallways looked like Lean on Me had location scouted at the campus. The way Tulsa works is that it oil money kids go to private school, and there were 3 really good schools that your kid had to win a lottery and a wait list to get accepted to. THey aren't private schools, but they may as well be. THe kind of schools where rich people who wanted their kids to be somewhat in touch, but also wanted their kid to get an actual education. Then of course, there was my school: 85 % kids living below poverty line. Old and outdated extracurricular facilities, bars on the windows....but the good thing was I was on my own to figure it all out. They just showed me my classroom and I didn't hear a peep out of admin until my evaluations started in the spring. Their offices were on the other side of school, a good 5 minute walk at least. Luckily, there was an older Black man working in my department (Social studies). He looked out for me. He always had material because we taught the same classes. Good dude. Great vet. Also played for the Redskins and OU so we could really shoot the shit, Anyway, I taught Oklahoma History and it was a drag. I taught U.S. Government too which left me some loose reins to teach. Oklahoma History was dry, and boring. Mostly it felt like a geography class up until halfway through the book, then they talked about the 5 tribes, and then the oil boom and then the OKC bombing. The Tulsa Race Riot, as it was called back then, made up about 5 pages tops. It's criminal.
[Side Bar: The town still feels like that race riot just happened. WHen I moved there I had heard about in my U.S. History class back when I was in college. But I was shocked when i would bring it up to people around town and they would act like they didn't know. But if I got a chance to talk to some Blacks they would be a bit more candid. Especially about Black Wall Street and how it was before the Ofays strong armed them. Anyway, Wayne Brady was a big time big wig and had lots of ties in Grand wizardry and other racial terrorist activites. A lot of his money is spread around town and he had a whole district named for him. Not even a 2 minute drive to other east side of downtown you had Black wall street (which got cut in half when the town built a new baseball park). Lastly, most of the Blacks were pushed North, and that ended up being a good 65 % of the clientele I worked with at my social services job. But a lot of the kids would have no idea why they were living in poverty and how they got there. North Tulsa is usually where the cameras end up on first 48. ]
I only taught there 2 years. I was too lazy to go looking at other schools, and they were the first school to offer me a gig, but also as dysfunctional as the gig was, it was nice to not have admin peering over my shoulder, because I had no idea what I was doing, but I needed space to figure it out (which for me was make a ton of mistakes). My OG left the next year and he got replaced by some young dude who looked like a Siliicon Valley character (the initial investor of Pied Piper who was in the 6 comma club), On one side of my room was a female teacher whose husband was a cop, across the hall was a racist Okie yokel who wore gym shorts, the and the other was this lily white chick who had ambitions on being the youngest chair in school history, but was also showing movies like the Help, and the Butler in her classes. I bounced out after I had coaches try to press me about passing their baseball players, among other weird shit that I'll talk about some other day.
But it was the toughest year I ever had working at a school. The demographics went from like 40 hispanic, 40 Black and 20 percent white or other. The hispanics always gave me the most trouble, then the white kids, and there were Black kids who were trouble makers, but I could still reach them. It was hell, plus the material I taught sucked. But there was one Black kid, a freshman....the minute he came in was always fronting for his friends, always making the class harder than it needed to be. I got sick of sending him to the principal's office without results, so I called his mom after another Black teacher told me he was failing HIS class too. SO we set up a parent teacher conference. Surprise, surprise. Its just his mom in a t shirt and some sweatpants. And there are some white teachers in there and a white counselor and white VP.
We start comparing notes and talking about his behavior and the subject of basketball comes up. He was on the team, but has been ineligible all season becuz of grades. One of the counselors then asks if that isn't enough incentive to pass. The VP asks him what would he like to do after high school. The kid says he wants to play in the NBA. There is a moment of silence. To which I have enough time to think about the times I played against him in pre season scrimmages with the team and I'm thinking "This kid stinks! I would give this dude work if we ever played one v one. He was kinda athletic, but low basketball IQ and no handles. " I then look around, waiting for someone to break the news to him that he better start filling out his Jobcorps paperwork ASAP.
The counselor says "well that's a good dream to have." While the VP says "Don't forget about us when you make it big." I was astonished at how phony these white folks were being. I couldn't believe it. The other brotha in the room looks at me, I shoot him a "wtf?" scowl, and he says to the mom. "Miss I know you have expectations for your son. Maybe you'd like to share those expectations with us all here so we can help your son meet them. She gets all teary eyed, thinks for about half a second, then replies "I want him to go to the NBA too. " I just got up and walked out of the meeting. But that kid was a number for that school, and instead of getting him into a program where he could really empower himself (the kid could barely read. Maybe at a 6th grade level), they wanted to keep him in school and let him spin his wheels in high school.
I have figured out too late that school is just a business like any other, and principals are just middle management. Teachers are just babysitters at best and at worst, correction officers. I'm giving it another 2 years before i pivot to something new entirely. These people are fucking crazy and should not be around kids as much as they are.
