White teacher, Black school

[The following was my reply, to a White teacher who was burned out from working in a Black school.]

Opinions are like assholes (everybody's got one). Here's mine. 

You've taught for 5 years. I quit after 2 months. So I have no credibility. No matter. It's the Internet.

I'm Black, like my students were, so I didn't have to deal with the cultural-outsider status like you do. But many of my kids still didn't want to learn anything. I was a music teacher, so I brought in rap and soul music, thinking that would resonate with them. It didn't. Not all the time. Color is not a magic bullet.

Neither is anything else, for that matter. Students still have to be willing to learn. In spite of poorly interrogated, inspirational bullshit, the human will cannot be overridden or redirected - except by its owner. Volition. That's why it's called FREE will.

The fallacy of influenced will is a variety of POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC – “after this, therefore because of this.” Some teachers think that because they do a few pedagogical cartwheels in front of 13-year-old, Jamal "I-Don't-Give-A-Damn" Washington, and at some point after, Jamal appears to give a damn, then the cartwheels deserve the credit.

They don't. JAMAL does.

And Jamal has to trust you. If you think you're above him, or you're pissed because you couldn't get a position in a better part of town? He knows. And that might be the real, deep-down reason why he (and they) don't like you. Because the feeling is mutual.

If you're surrounded by teachers, administrators, and parents who don't recognize the sovereignty of students' human will, and who, driven by the fear of losing their jobs or being called lousy parents, place their blame-game crosshairs on YOU, it can drive your stress level off the meter. Perhaps this is where you are. 

And I understand, you signed on to teach, not to do a total-immersion, psycho-emotional self-defense practicum. You asked: "How do I keep the passion, when the students have been beating the stuffing out of me, from every angle, for almost five years? How do I not just say, 'I've given you everything; the only thing I haven't done is do it for you! Get off your whiney, lazy rear end and do something'? I'm giving my life and blood to teach children who hate me and hate school."

If you liked school as a kid, this may be difficult for you to understand, but a lot of classes are USELESS to students (not just the Black ones; they're just more blunt about it). "How is this useful to me?" That's what they want to know. Useful = money-earning + life-bettering + happiness-generating. Kids have seen enough crooked, moronic politicians, borderline-illiterate entertainers, Enron CEOs, and street pharmacists (whose truck rims match your annual salary) to know that the value of "education" has its limits. 

You probably think, "Of COURSE it's useful! They should understand that!" If you really feel that way? Prove it. 

Teach for free.

Finally, you asked: "Any ideas on how I can re-motivate myself and stay motivated, after suffering a slow, painful death of my dream?"

Parents don't hire teachers to fulfill their dreams. They hire you to teach their children, and you can't do that effectively if you discount their definitions of curricular usefulness. You cannot teach effectively if you resent your students, because your negative subconscious expectations will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. "They were already losers," you say? Okay. 

No one can prove you reinforced it.