Review: Why Do Only White People Get Abducted By Aliens?! Lessons From The Bronx by Ilana Garon

Dear Lit Loves,
I seriously hope 2014 turns out to be my year as I am now working on completion of my fourth manuscript.  This latest one is related to being one of the youngest folks to be diagnosed with Meniere's disease and how it has impacted my life as I have coped with it now for almost twenty four years.  In the meantime, I read the memoir entitled Why Do Only White People Get Abducted By Aliens?!  Lessons From The Bronx by Ilana Garon.  Given my history of teaching inner city school at the middle school level, this book brought back the memories let me tell you.  This testament to teaching is written by a young woman who spent her first years being an instructor at a high school located in the Bronx.   I truly felt empathy for her as she really was a first year teacher thrown to the wolves without any experienced teaching professional as a teaching mentor.  I've been there and done that as well.  Ms. Garon writes her memoir in the form of vignettes or chapters that describe the various types of students she encountered during her first years of teaching.  She also includes emails she was sending to friends and family about what it is like teaching in such a challenging and difficult environment.  The emails usually appear at the end of a given chapter and may be more information about the students written about in that chapter or may be more reflections on her experiences with other students and staff at the school.

The first point to note is that when you go to teach in an inner city school you are not going to encounter a restrictive and highly disciplined school environment unless you are able to create it yourself by having the students connect with you as an instructor or if you have a highly effective administration.   I was shocked at the outright vulgar and hostile student behavior described by Ms. Garon.  I had similar encounters during my teaching tenure; however, no kid was ever allowed to just get up from a seat and leave class to do whatever he/she wanted.  Interestingly, Ms. Garon also had students who were purposely skipping classes or students walking into her English classes just because they found her teaching more interesting than what was happening in the classroom where they were assigned.    A lot of the chaos within the school described occurs because there are well over 4,000 students attending several different schools located in the same building.  I've never seen a teaching environment/school environment like this.  You have smaller schools for advanced students within a larger high school environment of students that have little interest in their education.  I found it completely outlandish that the school's administration was not allowed to suspend students from school due to it being against the law to interfere with a student's educational interests.  If you proved an irritation or distraction where I taught, you would be sent to an "alternative" school which was situated in a completely different location.  The alternative schools were for those students who could not and sometimes would not make any measurable effort to learn and oftentimes prevented others from their right to a thriving, engaged learning environment. 

Another difference I noted between Ms. Garon's inner city teaching experience and mine was that I had experience under my belt teaching at a variety of middle schools through internships, case studies, and student teaching.  By the time I was recruited to teach in an inner city middle school I was not fresh out of college; I had some life experience under my belt and was twenty eight years of age.  Additionally, I did not come from a privileged socioeconomic background.  I didn't attend private schools and I most certainly did not attend prestigious, private colleges.  I was proud of the fact that I had gone to tough public schools that were still working to integrate students not only of different racial backgrounds, but also varying socioeconomic backgrounds.  It wasn't easy.  I quickly learned what it meant to be hated just because I was a white, middle class female.  Honestly, when I was in high school we were still experiencing racial riots.  I think my background helped me get my inner city school students, many who had moved from the New York, New Jersey, and Maryland areas, to buy into the concept that I had a basic understanding of where my students came from and what obstacles in life they were facing and would encounter.  Essentially I got my inner city school students to "buy in" to actively participating in the rewards that would come from getting the most from school that they could.  It also helped put pressure on problematic students to get with the program or be expelled from the classroom and school..

Occasionally, as a former inner city school teacher I would cringe during some encounters Ms. Garon had with students.  I could hear myself thinking, don't buy into it!  Or, he's up to no good!  Or, don't put that on a test!   I never became involved with my inner city school students ouside of school.  There's just way too much risk that something could be misconstrued.  There's no way even today that my students would have my personal cell number, my personal email address, or text message me.  I did make myself available after school to assist students with what we were studying or projects that were assigned.  I'm not on Facebook because I think it's juvenile.  Plus, I don't want the world all up inside my personal business.  I viciously protect my personal privacy and I don't regret taking this stance as an instructor because I saw one too many teachers fall prey to adverse ramifications of getting too close to students personally. 

There is one universal theme here about teaching in an inner city school:  You can't save them all.  If you don't understand and accept this concept, you will burn out quickly.  You do what you can for those who are willing and that's all you can do.  It's not about being a teaching superhero:  it's about making a difference in the lives of the vast majority of students that you are able to help.  Some students are going to fall through the cracks through no fault of a teacher.  There's a lot of factors that play into a student's rising and falling; you have to see yourself as a guiding force that participates in a student's life for a short amount of time and you do the best you can to help them rise above their circumstances and learn how to advocate for themselves and their opportunity to become better people through learning and getting an education.

This was a great book.  It brought back a lot of memories.  More books like this should be published to give society a better look inside what's really happening in the world of education today.

Till next time,
Grace (Amy)