(Still) Making Do

In 2019 I wrote a blog post entitled "Making Do" where I talk about our state budget and a difference of opinion I had with a state politician. My grandmother used the phrase "making do" a lot to describe how she grew up. She was the second of seven children in a sharecropping family that had a definition of poverty that I am not familiar with. Making Do means figuring out how to get by with what you had. We haven't adopted a state budget since that conversation with the politician and in many ways, we are still making do throughout our state. 

But this post isn't about a state budget. It's about the state of education right now. I work with principals from throughout our state, many of which work in much more affluent school districts than ours. They are used to having resources and the money to acquire them. Principals in high-poverty schools often joke that we do a great job training the teachers that more wealthy areas are happy to steal from us later on. As I talked with some of these principals over the past few weeks, a different perspective hit me. But you'll have to indulge me in a bit of a history lesson and a relation to my grandmother. 

When the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression began, many wealthy areas throughout the country and the world suddenly went from rich to poor and struggled for several years to come. On the contrary, rural parts of the south and midwest did not feel the immediate shock. These areas had been poor for a long time. They were used to small houses, families where everyone worked on the farm and worked harder to stay one step ahead of hunger and bankruptcy. This is the life that my grandmother was born into and grew up in. Making Do meant stretching meals, sewing dresses from flour sacks, and contributing to the family as soon as you were old enough to help.

Rural schools were making do long before we did not have a budget or before COVID brought about staff shortages. More affluent districts are realizing a way of life that we have been accustomed to for some time and to be honest, we are better at it than them. We know how to help support others in ways beyond our classrooms or our traditional roles because, quite frankly, we have always had to. That doesn't mean that it isn't difficult but it does mean that we know that we can beat it. In the same way that my grandparents learned to live without many luxuries and could save money and provide a better life for their children, we are doing the exact same thing today with our students. While the state and nation gripe about shortages, I am seeing teachers in our building that roll up their sleeves and get things done. We are still Making Do and we are doing a great job at it.