Since I have moved here, there have been seven deaths in the village. Five happened in the past month. Three in one day when a boat carrying three young men and their freshly caught moose capsized in rough seas. They left behind eleven children, some of whom go to Togiak School.
Before this, after the death of an elder in January, it was decided that the respectful thing to do would be to close school on funeral days so that as many of the staff who wanted to attend could do so without having to use a personal day. Then we would make up the day on a Saturday. Admin was very enthusiastic about this idea and, in my opinion, kind of rail-roaded and shamed the less vocal into agreeing to it. The proposal was brought to the CSC, who also enthusiastically agreed and sent a recommendation to the District.
Then the boat capsized and another funeral planned. Because of various scheduling issues having to do with living in a town with no morgue and religious organizations who appear to object to having funerals on weekends, the funeral for the three men was set for the Friday before our first Saturday school was to be held to make up for the funeral of the elder. Keeping up? Then you are doing better than I was at the time. Basically, we had a four day school week, a funeral day, another day of school, Sunday off, Monday to start a full week.
It was brutal. The kids were as confused as the rest of us, their little bodies trying to cope with massive schedule changes. The funeral for the three men was held at school because it was known that it would be heavily attended and there is nowhere in the village large enough to hold such a gathering. I went to show my respect, although I did not know any of the men. One was the cousin of a colleague, and the brother in law of one of my students, but in a village this size, everyone was related to at least one of the men.
The service itself was beautiful and heart-wrenching. Watching as a mother held her toddler as she kissed her father goodbye, laying in his casket. Hearing speaker after speaker unable to continue when the grief at losing a son, a friend, a fellow hunter became too great. Many cried, including myself. The service took three hours and by the end, I was drained and didn't attend the potluck. I am not sure if this was bad form or understandable. Going to school the next day to work seemed impossible.
But the next day, work was work. Except that it wasn't. All the kids had a kind of crazed energy about them. Their bodies told them it was a weekday, a day set aside for play and movement. Their teachers told them to sit down and get to work. I treated my class like it was a regular school day but tried to turn a blind eye to random misbehaviors. This was helped by the fact that half of my class wasn't there. A few straight up didn't come to school. The others are on the middle school basketball team and a tournament was happening that day.
Yes, you read that correctly. A basketball tournament was held the same day as Saturday School. I guess the powers that be decided that to help keep our attendance numbers up, Sat School would be right in the midst of team visits by two other village schools. All day, basketball games were going on, starting before the elementary day began. We were encouraged to keep to a regular morning schedule but after lunch we were free to come to the gym and help support our teams. By the time lunch was over, I had a total of three students left. We went to the gym, watched some games, got bored, went back to the classroom and while I graded mountains of paperwork, my remaining students played Stratego on the floor. If it was chess, I might have been able to justify it academically but in my mind, the day was a wash.
At our next staff meeting, two days before our second scheduled Sat School, an item was added at the last minute to the agenda (at the insistence of teachers) to discuss the impact of Sat School. We had 6 minutes, not nearly enough time to go over this, while being mindful that the parents of one of the drowned men were sitting in the room with us. It is hard to be respectful, culturally aware and sensitive in 6 minutes. Especially when the admin was quick to point out, repeatedly, that five deaths in a month is an anomaly. Any discussion of how Sat School affects students, older teachers who literally need the rest of two days off for medical reasons, any of it was met with "Five deaths in a month is an anomaly." I didn't bother to raise any objections, since it was clear that this was not going to be the time to be heard. But I feel strongly that we are sending the absolutely wrong message to students when we schedule Sat School on tournament days. "Come to school but you don't have to do school." "School is important, but only in terms of attendance, we don't care what you do when you get here." "Athletics do trump academics after all."
Not the message I want to send.
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