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• Alia Dzafrina

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BEYOND THE BLACKBOARD MOVIE REVIEW Beyond the Blackboard tells the inspiring story of Stacey Bess, a determined teacher who bound to teach a classroom full of homeless children in spite of her meager resources. I find the story very empowering and endearing in sending a clear message to the audience that teaching is a hard profession. It takes a lot of courage, energy and patience for you to be a teacher. I do believe that the majority of people nowadays still view teaching as a minimum wage job that only purpose was to educate children and nothing more. Stacey Bess portrayal as teacher proves that teacher sacrifice a lot for the benefit of their students and all for the sake of education. She does not only willing to take her valuable times to paint and decorate the class with arts and craft, but she also uses her own money to cover the expenditure of the materials needed or the class. Although this movie might be a tiny glimpse into the life of a teacher, but it does a great job in showing a teacher’s hard work in educating and giving the best that they could for their students. However, the underlying issue addressed in this movie is the homeless children right to education. As depicted in the movie, homeless children did not entitle to proper education at the beginning. The education department hired teachers without providing them any guidelines or materials to teach these homeless kids. As a result, these teachers end up being a babysitter by trying to keep the children in control and feeding them as opposed to what real educators should do. When Stacey Bess tries to do the right things by asking the department for textbooks and other supplementary tools for teaching and learning process, her idea was immediately rejected by the school district's personnel director whom reasoned that Stacey’s request was not under his jurisdiction and in order for her to obtain those essential, she needs to follow certain protocol before gaining it. This scene highlighted the most common issues that a civil servant constantly encountered which is inner political issues known as macropolitics. The focus of micropolitics was on “the interaction and political ideologies of social systems of teachers, administrators, and pupils within school buildings” (Iannaccone, 1975 p. 43). Other researchers have since defined micropolitics as the strategic use of power by individuals and groups in organizations to achieve preferred outcomes (Bacharach & Lawler, 1980; Ball, 1987; Blasé, 1989, 1991a; Hoyle, 1986; Pfeffer, 1981). The concepts of micropolitics can also be adapted from the political science literature as a means of organizational analysis such as polity, power, influence, authority allocation of scarce yet valued resources, dominant coalitions, etc. (Bacharach & Lawler, 1980; Cyert & March, 1963; Marshall & Scribner, 1991; Mintzberg, 1983; Morgan, 1986; Pfeffer, 1981, 1992; Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978).

This political situation occurs almost in every educational settings around the world and Malaysia was no stranger to this issue. It is a common knowledge that every school or teachers need to follow certain procedures and protocol when they are dealing with the education department or the ministry of education. However, when it comes to funding and asking for learning materials, these procedures tend to take a longer period of time than it should. Why does it take longer than it should? The answer lies within the bureaucracy itself. When an application is submitted it would be passed down bit by bit until it reaches the higher department which might take up a lot time. Then another problem arises when the decision makers are the higher officials who have to browse through hundreds of other applications and also have to manage their department at the same time. The delay in approving any application for that matters could really affect the learning and teaching process at schools. Teachers would have to make do with what they have or might have to use their own money in order to substitute for the lack of materials. This proves that there is some inefficiency in the higher administration and inner political struggles by prioritizing hierarchy in education system for every decision making. P. L. Thomas ,who is a reporter for The Atlantic magazine believed that politics and education do not mix. This is because bureaucracy honors leadership as a primary quality over expertise, and commits to ideological solutions without identifying and clarifying problems first. Thus the problem continues ,and the pattern repeats over and over again while expecting different results. The people who create the implementation are not the ones who are in the field executing the implementation, so how can they identify what’s wrong with the system? When ask by Stacey Bess on whether he has been to the homeless shelter school , the school district's personnel director was dumbstruck and speechless but quickly gave reasons as to why that is unimportant or relevant to the situation. Similar to Malaysian education settings on how the problem of School Based Assestment being handled by the ministry. Teachers that are tasked with implementing this program complained again and again on its ineffectiveness and validity ,but the ministry was very adamant that it will provide good results without even bothering to find the core of the problem. Another problem occurs when there are perpetual changes in administration. Different leadership will have a different agenda that will affect the education system. To make matters worst,people who are appointed as the leader have no or very little experience or expertise as educators or scholars but still attain leadership positions responsible for forming and implementing education policy. Therefore, a suitable candidate that has experience in education field must be chosen to lead the education ministry or department.

When discussing about homeless children education, one cannot help but ask how these children and their parents become homeless in the first place? Is it the American economic state that cause these people to live on the streets or in their car. Most of these unlucky family are from low-income households as shown in the movie. When the economic recession starts, the majority of them were either let go from their company or were not making enough money to pay their house mortgage. Soon the bank issue a foreclosure and they are forced to move out of their home. Even the middle class family also falls victim of foreclosure because of the lack of affordable housing. Unemployed and homeless, these people struggle to find resources to get back on their feet by looking for a new job. However, the job market is limited. What used to be a minimum wage job in a factory was now no longer available as many companies opted by replacing human labor with machines and robots. Jobs that are available required certain level of skills that the lower class did not possess. Additionally, many members of the homeless population have to combat barriers such as limited transportation and reduced access to educational and training programs (Long, Rio, & Rosen, 2007). The financial difficulties faced by the homeless parents restrict them from sending their children to school. But by registering to a shelter, these parents at least were able to provide security and education for their child that was under the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The McKinneyVento Act helps by ensuring that homeless children transportation to and from school are free of charge which allows the children to attend schools . It further requires schools to register homeless children even if they lack the normally required documents, such as immunization records or proof of residence. In comparison to United States, the living cost in Malaysia is fairly low. Nonetheless, homelessness and poverty still occur around the country ,especially in a bustling metropolitan area such as Kuala Lumpur where everything is much more expensive than the other part of the country. The main reason for this problem was similar to the homeless people in the United States which is unemployment and financial difficulties to support family members. The Malaysian job market also very limited since most of minimum wage jobs such as cleaner, cashier and manual labor are taken by the immigrants. Therefore only highly skilled and professional job left for unemployed citizen. Most of them came from small town an have a very limited set of skills that cause a challenge in looking for a job. Even if there were able to find a job, their monthly salary proves to be insufficient to support their family especially their child’s education. Uniforms, books, stationary and food are some of the expenses that need to be covered by a parent and sometimes the amount would doubled or tripled when they have many children. Not to mention other living expenses that parents or adults need to pay for such as

house mortgage, car payments, electricity and water bill. Some desperate parents resolve to not send their children to school and instead force their children to work in the hope of making more money to support their family. This is unethical and wrong as all children have rights to receive education. Thankfully, the Malaysian Ministry of Education has taken a step to provide assistance to this unfortunate student by establishing Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pelajar Miskin (KWAPM ) in 2003 under section 10 of the Financial Procedure Act 1957. The primary objective of the council is to help the parents of students with low income that could not afford to send their children to school. Through his trust fund, the Ministry hopes can reduce the education gap between urban and rural areas. It is the intention of the Ministry of Education to eradicate students who drop out of school due to poverty and at the same time give them equal access to education in order to promote excellence in the country.The establishment of this fund is also in line with the implementation of the Compulsory Education Policy with effect from January 2003 under Section 29A of the Education Act 1996 ( Act 550 ), which requires parents to send their children to school from the age of seven years ( primary education ). Besides political and economic issues, homelessness also related to social issues. In the movie Beyond the Blackboard, most of the shelter residents are homeless because of social problem. Maria, the promising young girl that Stacey Bess took in that have a father who is an alcoholic. Drug addiction also a common social problem as seen in the movie when a couple of homeless addicts steal the shelter’s television so that they could sell it and use the money to buy drugs. It has been estimated that 38% of the homeless population in America suffer from alcoholism and 26% abuse drugs (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009. Many people view substance addiction as a personal choice and the result of homelessness because of this factor are the consequence of their choices. However, Phlips (2012) stated that sometimes substance abuse is not a trigger for homelessness, it often appears later as a result of the homelessness. She reasoned that the most obvious reason is the desire to numb emotion and physical pain since homeless individuals have such traumatic pasts, many suffer from flashbacks and anxiety they cannot control and alcohol and drugs are used to cope. Drugs and alcohol are also utilized in order to sleep, especially when the weather is cold. But the greatest impact of drugs abuse and alcoholism to adults, especially someone who is a parent is numbing them and causes them to not function well in their daily lives. Children with an addict or an alcoholic parents live in poverty because all their money and saving went to support their parent’s substance abuse and when their money run out, they were forced to become homeless.

According to Patterson 1994) heavy drug and crack use can conversely cause homelessness directly by making "marginally employable adults even less employable, eating up money that would otherwise be available to pay rent, and making their friends and relatives less willing to shelter them. Without proper financial, these children were unable to attend school let alone having their parents to stay sober enough enough to take them to school. As a result, bright child like Maria fell behind in her studies because of his father problem. What’s even more disturbing was the fact that homeless children are easily influenced by their parents addiction and ways of life that’s encouraging another generation of homeless people. As seen in the movie, Danny (Stacey Bess student) lives in the shelter with his mother and grandfather. Danny is also showing an early sign of following the destructive life of his mother who is an addict when he was seen smoking at such young age. Every step that the child make are essential in determining their future and therefore it is fundamental to help these children obtain a proper education. In Malaysia, children of homeless are often labeled as “street kids” where they were seen wandering around the streets in the city asking for money. The Borneo Post online reported that the authorities have been urged to take pro-active measures to solve the problem of homeless children roaming and playing around in the dark alleys around Lorong Haji Taib and Jalan Chow Kit in the city. Social activist and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) lecturer, Associate Professor Dr Mohd Fadzil Che Din said this was because these children faced the risk of becoming aggressive individuals and getting involved in various immoral and criminal activities in the future due to their surroundings. He pressed that the ‘dark’ areas the children were living in needed to be cleansed in order to give them a more conducive environment to grow up in. Mohd Fadzil, who is with the Department of Counsellor Education and Counselling Psychology of UPM’s Faculty of Educational Studies stated that: “We have to understand that that is their space and their home, so if we give the family a new place to stay and new jobs in another area, it may not work. “In order to improve the area, we have to provide facilities such as a playground, recreation area, health care and proper learning place or in another word a proper neighbourhood for these children,”

Homeless can also be caused by domestic violence and abused. There were a pair of siblings in Stacey Bess class whom end up homeless with their father after being domestically abused by their mother who locked them in the basement for days without any foods or water. In 2005, 50 percent of U.S. cities surveyed reported that domestic violence is a primary cause of homelessness. Forty-seven percent of homeless school-aged children and 29 percent of homeless children under five have witnessed domestic violence in their families, according to a 1999 report. A child of abuse also would be far behind academically than their peers because of the frequent neglection by their parents. The majority of homeless fourth graders cannot read or do math at their grade level (CDF, 2005). They also faced difficulties to attend school because lack of immunization records and health care. The inabilities for them to attend school may lead them to fall on the same route as their parents as suggested by (CDF,2005) that abused and neglected children are 1.5 to 6 times as likely to be delinquent and 1.25 to 3 times as likely to be arrested as an adult. Therefore, NCANDS or the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System was established as the primary source of national information on abused and neglected children known to public child protective services agencies. By gaining the information needed, this system would be able to give the children proper schooling and safe living condition. A local study conducted by Dr Sharifah Mariam Alhabshi, a Senior Lecturer of International Institute of Public Policy & Management at University of Malaya and Alifatul Kamilah Binti Abdul Manan, Head Assistant Director of Federal Service Department of Malaysia revealed that young people who flee violent homes are at heightened risk for emotional and behavioural problems. Their study led them to Chan who in his early twenties and was abused by his father since he was a boy. Because of his traumatic life experience, Chan became very reclusive and therefore reject any social contact, especially in schools. Rossi (1989) studies are applicable to Chan as he was showing a symptom of dysfunction. He opted to skip school as Baker (2001) pointed out that early experiences of bullying, neglect, rejection and problems at home will cause fear, anxiety and self-loathing. Chan was scared to face similar situation in school and as a result he was unable to fully gain the education and knowledge for him to survive and obtain a job to escape the homelessness crisis.

The culture of homeless in the context also influence a person decision to choose whether or not they will adapt. In America, homeless people existed in almost every part of the country which showed that the issue of homelessness is very common and normal in a sense. Though some homeless people find themselves in unfortunate situations, others are homeless by choice .People who became roofless knows that there is a lot of shelter and soup kitchen that they can rely on. They feel safe in a way that they have a place to go back without worrying about money. This behavior promotes laziness and prolonging their past problems that lead them to homelessness in the first place. Rossi (1989) categorized homeless into two types: “the episodically homeless and the chronically homeless”. The episodically, or short-term, homeless makes up the majority of the people whom suddenly losses their job, unable to afford rent, just been released from prison and have family problems. Meanwhile, the chronically, or long-term, homeless are persons who have “been homeless for two or more years and who appear likely to continue in that condition for a much longer period” (Rossi ,1989). Mental illness, substance abuse, poverty, and in some cases, personal choice can attribute to chronic homelessness. However, for adults with children who choose homeless as a lifestyle is a selfish act. They are jeopardizing their child’s future and risk the probability to create another generation of homeless. The popularity of homeless lifestyles also leads teens to run away from home in order to experience freedom or escape the conflict between them and their parents. National Coalition for the Homeless recorded that teens age 12 to 17 are more likely to become homeless than adults and over 50% of young people in shelters and on the streets report that their parents told them to leave or knew they were leaving and didn't care. The American family dynamic is different than what we experience here in Malaysia. In America, parents are either really supportive of their child or not supported at all. When there was indifferent between parents and child, parents does not hesitate in giving huge punishments or ultimatum to their child. American teenagers also was raised in a very social environment that they would not be scared to run from home to escape these punishments. Malaysian teenagers meanwhile, we brought up in a very strict upbringing. Defying our parents is a considered sin. However, teenage who were deprived of social life might be tempted to escape their home and run to the city where they most likely ended up homeless. These teenagers will end up doing odd and risky jobs in favor of money in order to survive in the city. The thought of education already vanished because earning money is the most important thing to them now. Therefore, parents need to have a better communication with their children, especially teenagers who are in their rebellious phase in order to prevent them from running away and ultimately became homeless.

As homeless issues are increasing in Malaysia, this problem is still treated as invisible. This is because there is no policy or guidelines on homelessness and if there were an implementation done it would be too complicated. Welfare agency in Malaysia also argue that the duty in taking care of the homeless cannot rest with them alone and should be a shared responsibility with other public service agencies. Dr Sharifah and Alifatul Kamilah (2012) agree by stating that many countries have realised that handling the homeless was a complex business and normally requires support from not only various public bodies and NGOs but also friends and families. This support are essential and crucial in ensuring proper education and home to homeless/street child that currently roaming the streets of Kuala Lumpur. By helping them we are improving their future and also the life condition on this country.

REFERENCES

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