It's Parker's last full day at Shamrock, and I'm
in the garden again. So much to do: bulbs to move, mulch to spread, seedlings
to water. The long, hot summer looms.
When we got to school this morning, one of Parker's
teachers was standing in the corridor outside her classroom, holding a copy
of the Charlotte Observer. Students
gathered eagerly around, marveling at the article that filled the center of the page.
"Shamrock Gardens blooms with its kids," the headline read. We started at Shamrock with a story on the front page of the Observer,
and now we're ending it that way.
Six years ago, the coverage struck an ominous note.
"If it were your child, would you risk it?" the headline asked,
invoking the phrases that strike terror into ambitious parents' hearts: "low
scores," "high poverty" and "struggling school." The
reporter followed several middle-class families who were thinking about sending
kids to Shamrock, their neighborhood elementary. By the end of the article, we were the only family left.
Now, the pendulum has swung the other way. "An elementary once so bad the
state took it over has some miracle growth," the Observer informed its readers. The article went on to detail the
progress we have made: new programs, more strong teachers, higher test scores,
an abundance of gardens and a growing number of the neighborhood families who once
avoided the school.
Growth? Absolutely. A miracle?
Hardly.
Schools and gardens teem with miracles, with seeds
that unfold into magnificent green towers, caterpillars that transform into
gossamer-winged wonders, children who surprise you at every turn.
But building places where children, plants and
butterflies will thrive has little to do with miracles, magic wands or silver
bullets. It calls for plain, old-fashioned, day-to-day hard work.
I say old-fashioned for a reason. We entered
Shamrock in the midst of a national school "reform" movement whose backers
clamored for sudden, radical transformation, championed firing staffs and closing
schools, embraced the idea that destruction could somehow be
"creative."
That isn't how we did it. Our successes were
rooted in time-tested ideas – small classes, a stable, experienced staff, racial
and economic integration – tempered with the understanding that good work takes
time and patience. To use a garden metaphor, Miracle Gro may help you for a season, but if you want lasting
success you have to build your soil. Our principal, Duane Wilson, had been an
educator for more than thirty years, long enough to know that.
We used some new ideas, of course. Teachers tested
and retested students, studied the results and spent hours discussing specific
strengths and weaknesses. A pilot bonus program gave staff an incentive to stay
at the school. Mr. Wilson liked the young people who joined Teach for America,
and several of them passed through Shamrock's doors.
But most important, we built connections. In the
end, a school depends on the people who work there, day in and day out. A good
school is a place where those people work hard, hold to a common goal, care
about and look after each other. That kind of school doesn't make for a tear-jerking movie, or
a riveting Power Point. It just works.
It wasn't easy, and it definitely wasn't fast, for
the school or for the garden that became my pet project. A couple of years into
the garden work, I got frustrated with how long it was taking. We won a grant
from Lowe's in the spring of 2008, but didn't get organized enough to build the
beds until almost a year later. We didn't put much into the ground until the fall,
when we cleared out the weeds and planted a handful of ragged-looking seedlings.
One day, looking over those scraggly beginnings, I
apologized to a fourth-grade teacher about taking so long. I shouldn't worry,
she replied. It was good for the kids to see that some things take time, to learn
the value of patience and persistence.
I don't know if the students learned that lesson,
but over the years I certainly did. If you hit an obstacle, look for a way
around. If something doesn't work this year, regroup and try it the next. If
you hold together and keep pushing, step by step you'll move ahead.
One of my greatest pleasures was watching our young
teachers bloom. When Parker entered kindergarten, Shamrock's staff was full of novices,
the result of the revolving door that plagues so many high-poverty schools. As the school began to improve, more of those young teachers chose to stay, growing
stronger and more confident with every passing year.
The garden grew as well. Our spindly transplants filled
out and swelled the beds with leaves and vines and flowers. Butterflies began
to visit.
One day, as a friend and I looked over one of the
beds, she reached out to unfurl a spicebush leaf and reveal a bright green
caterpillar, complete with yellow-rimmed black eyespots. Students crowded
round.
A few months later, the passion vines were covered
with fritillary caterpillars, spiked black and red. A nearby brick wall gleamed
with their green-gold chrysalises, and a sharp-eyed student spied a spangled
butterfly emerging from beneath a drainspout.
The butterflies weren't alone in noticing the
changes. Two years ago, nearly a dozen of our neighbors decided to put their
kindergartners at Shamrock, bringing with them the time, money and connections
that make middle-class parents such an asset to a school. Their work helped
expand the garden, and multiply our enrichment programs. This past year, an
even larger group enrolled.
Looking back, it's hard to believe how much that students,
staff, parents and volunteers, all working together, have accomplished. Academics have taken off. Along with "gifted" classes, Shamrock has added Science
Olympiad, Engineering is Elementary and chess instruction. The fourth grade traveled to Raleigh for the first time in recent memory, and the school now boasts dozens of
garden beds for growing fruits and vegetables as well as flowers.
Attendance at school events can number in the hundreds, and volunteers step up from all the different communities our school serves.
Many of our students
have risen to the occasion. The day of Parker's graduation
I watched with pride as his classmates picked up end-of-year awards: Lawrence
Thomas, who didn't get less than an A all year, Filiberto
Esparza, who scored a triple 4 on his End-of-Grade exams, Phillip Nguyen, who
started in the below-grade-level "inclusion" class, but ended in the
advanced class and on the principal's honor roll, reserved for straight-A
students.
It's still far from a miracle. Shamrock has not
become an enchanted place where students' struggles are magically stripped
away, and everyone soars into a bright future. More students pass exams than
used to, but too many still do not. Many students seem primed for success.
Others still face enormous struggles, both personal and academic, and it's hard
to see what lies ahead for them.
Our nation's hard times have also hit the
school, along with other challenges. Budget cuts have eaten into support staff, even as our students face
growing economic and family stress. The small classes that allowed young
teachers to develop their skills without being overwhelmed have grown much
larger. Yet another budget-cutting move landed a hundred preschoolers in our midst, crowding our limited space and complicating school logistics. Federal
and state initiatives focus far too much on high-stakes testing, and far too
little on what really matters to schools and children. Mr. Wilson retired last
year, and this spring a number of our key staff members decided to move on as
well.
So the challenges are far from over. But with dedicated staff
and a strengthened community base, the school and its supporters have the means
to meet them. I know they do, because we did.
Was it a risk to send Parker to Shamrock? Maybe.
But we could not have asked for a greater reward. We made so many friends from
so many walks of life. Working together, we all created a place where children who were sometimes overlooked could thrive. We
learned that you can set out to do what you think is right, and with hard work succeed.
Nothing in my life has given me greater satisfaction. I highly recommend it.
Note: Ann
Doss Helms, the terrific Observer reporter who wrote the article on Shamrock,
did not write the "miracle" headline. That person shall remain
nameless. Ann knows better. Observer photographer Todd Sumlin took the beautiful swing picture.
