Dear Tina,

      I no longer work for the Los Angeles Unified School District. In the best move I ever able in my career, I took another job in a college prep school in Bel Air. It took some adjusting, but I now am able to teach. In fact, I had to completely re-learn how to teach students who actually wanted to learn -- it was like a completely different job! In contrast to where I was three years ago, I am very satisfied in my work today.

      When you teach poor students in public schools in the inner-city, you by-and-large are dealing with young people for whom school learning and academic achievement is not even close to being a priority. They are growing up in environments devoid of literature or college educated persons. Many have already given up on school, or they read and write so badly that they understand little of what goes on in school (and consequently hate it, are bored, cause trouble, drop out, etc.). There are always the exceptions, but you have to teach to the average person in the class -- as you well know. Therefore, I cannot but conclude that -- even in the very rare chance that your administrators and parents give you the support and tools to actually teach -- an instructor in such a place is always going to have a hard time, the test scores are always going to suck, the students often will be violent, etc.

      If you really want to teach, I suggest you do what I did: go someplace where you are able to do so. Such schools do exist in the urban United States, trust me. Go teach at a Catholic school or some other place which has its act together and puts up with no baloney. There are even a few magnet and academy public schools. On the other hand, many of the regular urban schools serve as schools of last resort for the least motivated and "troubled" kids whose parents don't care or have not the motivation and savoir faire to get them into better schools. Unless you can perform miracles and turn a sow's ear into silk, schools populated with such a student body are never going to be radically improved.

      Americans kid themselves how much a teacher (or school district) can do with an adolescent whose entire life is in chaos. You see this person among 35 others for 55 minutes daily and you are supposed to teach all this subject material. The scenario is not ideal for life counseling. Schools are designed primarily to teach students how to read, write and do arithmetic. They do a poor job, in my experience, in being parents to children whose authentic parents often are not worthy of the title. They are poor places to center crisis intervention teams for young people out of control. If you want to help students in urban Chicago, I suggest you become a gang or pregnancy prevention counselor instead of a teacher or researcher.

      Don't beat your head against a brick wall. Take a look at the conditions in a school district, understand what the job entails, make an adult choice as to what you where you are going to go -- and then spend your workdays doing something you enjoy and find fulfilling. If you want to work with "at risk" youth, then you must make your peace with the fact that major amounts of involvement and effort will still only garner a few true success stories (and it matters not if you work in a teacher or researcher capacity).

      Make sure that is enough for you, and don't settle for anything less than a job that feels "right." It is a tragedy that so many people in the world "settle" for jobs they dislike and disrespect. You have education and youth. You have alternatives. Take risks and expose yourself to as many new experiences as possible; you may just stumble into something that changes your life. Surround yourself with people you respect and admire; you will have a chance to experience a different work culture, meet new people and learn about noteworthy causes. Rather than trying to force things by searching exhaustively the landscape for opportunities in public schools, try to let life unfold and show you its treasures naturally.

      I wish I could give you better advice than that, but only you know what is "right" for you. I wish it were easier, but it never is.

      Good luck and be well.

      Very Truly Yours,

      Richard Geib