Wish they all could be…California schools?

I’m admittedly ignorant when it comes to California education policy and achievement, but last week when I was visiting old friends in L.A., I tagged along for a day of observation at the Culver City Middle School. The Culver City School Unified School District is a small independent entity separate from the surrounding behemoth that is the LAUSD. I spent all day at CCMS visiting two eighth-grade English classrooms, one seventh-grade English class, and one eighth-grade math class. This past semester, I logged in over 20 hours of observation in Davidson County Schools.

I won’t try to generalize the similarities and differences between the two districts because I’ve only visited a handful of classrooms in each, but I will note a few things that stood out to me during my visit to Culver City. The diversity in Los Angeles is, as one would expect, extreme and lively. I grew up in public schools in northern Virginia which is home to a similarly diverse population, so an environment in which there is no clear ethnic or racial majority feels comfortable to me – and contrasts sharply to what seem like highly segregated (by virtue of geographic distribution, if nothing else) schools I’ve visited here in Nashville.

I appreciated Culver City’s outdoor hallways and large classroom windows. The school’s mission statement mentions the importance of an aesthetically pleasing environment to promote learning – as a highly sensory person, this is something I appreciate.

I also noticed the way the teachers at Culver City smiled at their students – genuine, warm smiles of camaraderie. Although I’ve never considered the fact that other teachers I’ve observed don’t smile often, the fact that I noticed Culver City’s teachers’ smiles more than once made me wonder if perhaps a happy teacher is a rarity in Tennessee (and maybe many places).

I think we could make a case for the claim that a happy teacher is a better teacher, but many of our policies and procedures leave teachers tired, hopeless and, consequently, grumpy. I doubt that a grumpy teacher will do a very good job of improving test scores, let alone helping students achieve their whole potential.

So what factors contribute to teacher happiness, and how might we build our policies and structure school environments to bring about a better quality of life for teachers – and, consequently, their students?

- Rachel Bowers