Fake Grades and False Promises: A Fake Teacher’s Week with Failure and the Florida Education System 

Project Description

My capstone project is a feature-length article investigating the legislative, economic, and social restraints placed on struggling, understaffed educators at Pleasant Grove Elementary School in Escambia County, Florida. Over the course of the semester so far, I’ve researched HB 1069, a house bill in Florida that, in plain terms, bans books from school libraries and classrooms and restricts health education for elementary students in Florida. I interviewed seven people in Florida, community members, leaders, activists and educators, and compiled documents and articles to support this research.

Who was supporting you in your work?

Anjali Khosla and Alvin Chang. Anjali was instrumental throughout the whole process. There is less that she didn't help with than there are things she did. I owe much of this project to her guidance and tutelage.

Project Themes:

Social Justice

How has this project has been impactful or transformative?

On my final day as a teacher, or assistant, or teacher's assistant - it is quiet. I know these kids pretty well now, even if they don’t know me. They keep asking me how old or how tall I am. The answer hasn’t changed. I help as best I can, and enjoy working on their current projects with them. Their assignment is to write a fable - about anything. One boy wants to write about the first football field, another girl about a crying dragon, and another about the first fisherman giraffe. But one girl, in the corner of the room, by Van Sickle’s desk, is crashing - hard. She did not get much sleep the night before. She falls in and out of sleep multiple times before finally going out for what seems to be ten minutes. Before too many other kids can catch on, Van Sickle wakes her up and sends her to the bathroom. She is in there for twenty minutes before she comes out again, refreshed and focused. I see why my sister has so much respect for these teachers. It’s an immense amount of empathy and strength required, and I see that now.

What would you do differently? 

I'd interview more, I'd do more background work, and I'd do it for longer.

How was the experience connected to your work? 

I went to college for theater but hit a wall. I lacked the foundation needed to embody people - I felt I needed to see more. I transferred and set out to study my environment instead of the stage.

Journalism acted as my study of people, and it developed my abilities as a writer and made me see the value in good work. It gave me a better understanding of who we are collectively and allowed me behind the artifice we project individually. I got to work with real people and see what lay within them; what they care about and what nourishes them. This practice gave me the tools to chisel at that wall I felt I hit. And it made me love the act of pursuing journalism. I'm so excited to see where it leads me.