A teacher speaks out

Editor’s note: Dean Caputa has taught in East Baton Rouge public schools for 15 years. His new book, Playing School, is scheduled for release this month at authorhouse.com.

I fully understood the forces marshaled against the March 8 sales tax renewal to maintain teacher salaries and improve public school infrastructure.

The opposition was loud and powerful. These people were angry, even though I knew it to be a frustration misdirected at teachers. They were angry with past school boards for allotting concerned parents a mere three minutes to speak at meetings on emotional issues, only to vote against their wishes. They were angry the NAACP had more influence on the school system than they did. And they were still fuming over the dictatorial powers of former U.S. District Judge John Parker’s plan to bus students all over the parish and thus destabilize the school system.

Elite editorial writers disconnected from the reality of today’s classroom urged voters to hurt the teachers by cutting their pay because our “public schools are failing.” Those pleas were ignorant, and ultimately the tax passed.

But what is a failing school? I never understood that. Are people under the illusion that the majority of our students attend school on time each day, rested from a good night’s sleep, homework at the ready, only to be ultimately disappointed at day’s end that teachers somehow failed them? Absurd.

Let’s deal with reality. Our school system is struggling because our society is morally bankrupt. Our public school children are a reflection of that culture gone awry. So much is out of a teacher’s control, despite the well-intentioned government phrases like “no child left behind” and “every child can learn.” And more to the point, teachers are being led by those who have never taught. How can such leaders understand a teacher’s problems?

That’s why I decided to expose the truth about inner-city classrooms by writing a book, Playing School. It’s one teacher’s account of daily classroom struggles in inner-city public schools. Although I wrote it as fiction, it’s based on 15 years of experiences in public school classrooms, and it sheds light on a job that grows increasingly difficult and dangerous with each passing year.

It’s a painful read, but it’s brutally honest. I think it’s time we tell that story.