In the matter of desks and walls

            Yesterday brought scenes of teachers scurrying to get their rooms ready for students, moving file cabinets, cutting paper to create a backing for bulletin boards and otherwise trying to pretty up an environment that can never be made esthetically pleasing.   In this regard, urban teachers who teach in older buildings often find it difficult to convey to the general public the conditions under which they work. Examples include outlets too old to accommodate three socket plugs, electrical systems that predate the  power demands of air conditioning, paint peeling off the walls, as well as desks, tables, chairs, and cabinets whose appearance are coldly institutional  and whose age can often be determined by the dating of graffiti etched in them by students whose retirement years are approaching shortly. 

Can one be an effective teacher is such an environment? Surely.  Can students learn? Absolutely.  But there is a reason that parents from suburban schools would never tolerate their kids going to school in such conditions. Its effect on student motivation and performance is also difficult to quantify. And while I’ve never seen any studies on the impact of physical plant on employee productivity, it must negatively impact one’s psychological state as well as general staff morale. Just one more reason why teachers often feel they’re called upon to perform miracles in the most unlikeliest of circumstances.