Life in the Louisiana Delta

Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for life in the Louisiana Delta. I am only now starting to love it. When I first saw the Delta for the first time, I was riding up on a school bus with the South Louisiana corp and the Greater New Orleans corp. Yes, Kira Orange Jones was there. Yes, Michael Tipton was there. Some of you in education may know them, but they are kind of a big deal in terms of what they have done for our children in film and education. We arrived with so much dedication and so little resources. That was the fantasy stage. Nothing seemed real. The vast amount of poverty was evident; we definitely saw our fair share of run-down homes, enterprise was virtually non existent upon first inspection and the location is extremely rural. However, it still did not hit me how much I would miss the city, target, restaurants, movie theatres, coffee shops, and yes some form of night-life. I missed it so much, I would drive back to Baton Rouge every weekend. It set in after a few months however that I could not afford that trip so often on a teacher's salary. So, reality was just that. I realized that I had left my friends and my options the day I moved up to the Delta. It has gotten so much better now though. Trust me that there is a lot more to this area than meets the eye.

The truth behind my relocation.

Teach for America has regions all around the United States. There are two in Louisiana; Greater New Orleans and South Louisiana (Baton Rouge). I was chosen to teach in Baton Rouge. In August, our Executive Director asked us if we would move to the Louisiana Delta region to start a new charter corp. After some trips to the region, I agreed to go. It is such a devastated place. You would have to see it to believe it. The children I serve have experienced years and years of let downs in the form of low expectations, low teacher moral and outright physical and verbal abuse in the classroom. Much of this I have seen with my own eyes. Although the decision was tough to make and stick with, I have to consider that much of the reason why I left Baton Rouge was because Madison parish needed us. Let me be clear in saying that many of the problems do lie with the teachers and administrators but I am not in the business of placing blame. These problems are everyone's problem. If our students are being denied equal access to education, it is a national injustice.

Why start a blog anyway?

The idea of starting this blog came to me through one of the educational consultants at our school. It was her suggestion that I should undertake this self-reflective process as a new teacher. I always rejected the notion of starting my own blog for many reasons. Mostly because I wondered why anyone would want to post their rants and ravings online and why anyone would want to read it. However, if this blog can help me develop personally and professionally, I am all for it.