As far west as La Cieniga, as far east as South Gate, as far north as Eagle Rock and as far south as San Pedro, FAEALA today took newly-arrived teachers from the Philippines along for a tour of LAUSD schools.
Led (and driven) by Daniel and Glenn, 14 teachers were afforded with a rare opportunity to visit a variety of schools in different communities and Local Districts. To date, it is common practice that Filipino teachers are offered employment at a school that they have not even seen or visited. The school is usually just a name that applicants have only heard and read about during the placement process. Sometimes, the school is described for them much in the way the puppeteer describes reality in Plato's cave. Given the pressures exerted by staffing schools with highly-qualified teachers and the shrinking number of available positions, teachers are caught in the middle and will often "bite the bullet" without any idea of what their work environment is like. Sure they have a school job, but where is the school? Is it reasonably accessible by public transportation? What are the housing possibilities in the community? Does the school have a healthy culture?
The goal of the tour is to give teachers some idea about the schools they might just find themselves teaching in. Here are a few questions to think about. Does a school select its staff or is it the other way around? Who buys a car without test driving it first? How much apparel would a department store sell if there were no fitting rooms? Perhaps, through this effort teachers will be able to make a more informed decision during the placement process. As educators, is this not what we ultimately want for our students? To be able to make informed decisions, why should it not apply to us? Let the dice roll.
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