2024 April 10 We are Billion Year Old Carbon

 Yesterday was a beautiful day…or so everyone said. I spent the workday inside until 4pm, then I went to the bank, then I went to my Soil class at LCCC until 8pm. It really solidified to me that our education system is not natural. Before this school, I spent 6 years in mostly windowless spaces. Basement classrooms. The windows did not open anywhere in that building. This year I have windows. I’m grateful. My indoor plants are doing well. The windows even open! Bonus.

A happy Peperomia in my well-lit classroom. 2024

This school is the shiny gem of CMSD. The children of city officials and district administrators go here. Don’t ask why they would only send their kids to one school in the district…then send them to private high schools…

As I leave this profession I can’t help throwing a little shade. It’s not the students, teachers, administrator or even district that I blame. It’s our collective society. When the Ohio Supreme Court found the school funding system unconstitutional, then NOBODY followed through to change it…yes that’s a society problem. School funding, along with state testing, is modern day redlining. It is keeping the “have nots” away from the “haves”. You can overlay a map of state testing scores on top of median income and SURPRISE! It’s the same map. Enough people in the suburbs benefit from the system to notice the change. 

Isn’t it fitting that the shiny gem of Cleveland schools sits on property they don’t own between an abandoned building and a homeless shelter? It fits perfectly into the stereotypical imagery suburbanites imagine for Cleveland school children. 

I grew up in the suburbs. I know what people say. They love to confirm their biases…the biases the vote for, the biases they invest in, the biases they build their homes away from…

I didn’t expect today’s blog to get so dark so fast. What would I like society to do? Find public education properly in a way that considers EQUITY. There are formerly redlined communities that could really be built up. Give ALL Cleveland classroom windows that open. Invest in the collective common good. Knock down abandoned buildings that sit next to schools and plant a mini forest of inspiration. Consider ways to improve socioeconomic status of Clevelanders, improve mental healthcare, improve addiction services. Make owning a home and land affordable. It’s possible if we invest in it.