Ch 19 of 20: Why teachers don't complain

Teachers do complain! They complain all the time. If you sit for lunch at the cafeteria with a group of teachers, this is all you hear – complaints… Teachers who share lunch with few friends in their room complain to each other. Complaining is good. This is an outlet, the only relief from the everyday hopeless grind…

The real question is why don’t teachers voice their complaints in the media, in front of the governor’s office, the white house…Well… they do but only when their livelihood is being threatened, when a last straw is added to their heavy load, like benefits being taken away... When that happens, they express anger not only over the specific issue but over the accumulation of all their aggravation; about their indignity, about every day’s frustration dealing with students, parents, administration. About a system directed by people who had never been teachers in their life, but pretend to know everything about fixing the education system…

The main reason why teachers don’t protest the injustice more often is because they don’t have time… They are working after hours, weekends and vacations; checking work, grading papers, preparing lesson plans. At school, during short breaks or conferences, they are always busy; trapped in an endless cycle of work. When, at last, they have a chance to rest, perhaps few days during summer vacation, they are so exhausted that they don’t even want to talk about school…

Another reason for not voicing their frustration is, having their performance and role being attacked so often, and so harshly, by superiors, politicians and media, that, as one of my colleague once said, a self-doubt is creeping into their heart; lack of confidence in their ability of being real good teachers…

Unfortunately, the system takes advantage of this lack of confidence and lashes on teachers left and right…

So why do teachers come back every year to start over another impossible task? Well, we forget how impossible it is… how tough and thankless the grind is and how impossible it is to please any one at all… we just forget…

I remember my second year of teaching, at a charter school, where I, and two of my friends, swore at the end of the school year never to come back to that school, and for that matter never to teach full time again. It was not even October when we were ready to run back to that same school and beg them to take us back…

You see, we are just a naïve, optimistic group of people who keep believing that next year will be better; we will do a better job and as a result everything will be better… just stupidly naïve group of people…

Ch 18 of 20: Budget Cuts

A problem that plugs most public schools is resources limitation. No matter how rich a school district is, shortage in resources always present. Private schools, of course, can raise tuition. Public schools are limited to state and district budgets. There is much inequality in the private education system; some schools provide their students with every opportunity - academic, creative and technology, but it comes with outrages price tag afforded only by the rich and well connected…

However, there is much inequality in the public schools as well. In affluent areas parents are supplementing budget limitations with private funds, and thus afford schools to provide top facilities, rich arts programs, and excellent academics.

Public schools in privileged areas offer an excellent education, that, in turn, provides their students opportunities at prestigious universities. These are schools where professional fathers put demands on administrators and teachers, with the ever presence of law suit threat, and leisure mothers volunteer unlimited number of hour at school, and raise unbelievable amount of funds for its programs.

I watch the school facilities at my area, where my kids went to school, and I see new buildings, new modern theater, state of the art gym, a whole turf football field that any professional team would have loved to have, and hear about the ever-growing academic, sports and arts programs.

Reality bites, then, when I go to work at the city school district; the differences are striking! Mostly old buildings, smelly bathrooms, many classrooms located in bungalows, built in haste to accommodate growing students’ population, far away from the center of the campus, without adequate bathrooms and drinking water fountains. Schools that severely cut their extra curriculum programs -  arts, theater, car shop, wood shop, agriculture, music, foreign languages; programs that are being discontinued one by one, year after year, leaving students with very few options, and displacing wonderful teachers, or forcing them to an early retirement.

The ugly face of budget cuts is not only old building with dirty classroom, shabby, smelly bathrooms, and unclean, littered, yard. It is not only discontinued excellent programs and dispersing wonderful staff members, it is also unsecured schools!

But, of course, the worst face of budget cuts is overcrowded classrooms, shortage of teachers, aids, and counselors. Not enough administrators, and discipline deans!

As a substitute teacher I see the budget cuts consequences every time I step into school premises; results are obvious everywhere I go.

One example is a middle school in the west side, that used to be well managed, and I watch it now getting worse every time I am there. The first thing that caught my eye, recently, was lack of security at the entrance, not even a parent volunteer. The path from the entrance leads to the main office, but also to classrooms on each side of the campus; a stranger can wander in without any disruption. When, at last, I met the sole security person in the school he told me that they are very limited in resources, and sitting at the gate is not a priority…

There are many other consequences for not having enough security on campus, on top of compromised safety; a phenomenon of students wandering around, freely, during class sessions, without supervision. I was surprised and alarmed to read a note from the classroom’s permanent teacher about students ditching during the last two periods of the day. Ditching? At 6^th grade? And the school cannot do anything about it? But of course, with only one security guy for the whole school, and with deans of discipline being considered an unnecessary expense at many middle schools, students are taking advantage of the lax discipline …

I have seen good schools turning into terrible schools, and vice versa, for just one reason, relaxing or tightening security and discipline, nothing else! All it takes is one good administrator, dedicated specifically for discipline, and a school can turn completely around, but due to budget cuts, some schools get rid of this function.

A major consequence of budget cuts is class size. Seating forty students in one classroom, especially in a middle school, has terrible consequences on students teacher’s communication. Class size may not matter in high school honor classes, although I doubt it too, but in lower classes, and especially in middle school, ten extra students per classroom can make all the difference.

One of the effects of budget cuts was cutting janitorial services, causing good, hard working men and women, to lose their jobs because the district had to tighten its expenses, and cleaning was declared unnecessary. As a result, teachers and students step into filthy classrooms, with dirt and papers all over the floor, left there the previous afternoon, and still there early in the morning. Is it an academic issue? Not necessarily! Is it educational issue? Absolutely!

Fortunately, unionized teachers’ contract forbids schools to make teachers supervise during their breaks. This is not the case, however, at charter schools, whose teachers are usually not organized, and “at will”. Teachers not protected by unions must carry extra duties, to fill holes in the budget, like supervision, before, during and after school, and, normally, get no conference period...

There is another side to the budget shortage that never fails to surprise and anger me; the contrast between shortages in necessities compared, on the other hand, with ample of waste. Some school supplies are distributed without any reservation or control, while others are always scarce. A teacher may have to purchase her own white board markers, or pay for her lesson materials’ duplications, while students are provided with endless stock of papers, writing supplies, disposable workbooks, calculators, top of the line computers, and… free meals.

It would have been all good and generous if it served only the needy population, but in most cases, it is unnecessary and wasteful. Students are careless with supplies and are not accountable for their loss or damage. They are making paper planes out of the papers, leaving markers to dry, breaking pencils, throwing erasers and crayons at each other, leaving calculators and computers unattended and unprotected, and disposing their free meals to the trash!

Since the new, free “breakfast in class” program had started, I have seen hundreds of unopened milk cartons left to spoil, meals untouched, returned, in the best case to the cafeteria or donated to some food service, but usually just left to rot, and end up at the trash can. What a waste of food, money, and precious teaching time!

Every aspect of budget cuts, and wastefulness on the other hand, directly effects teachers and their job; large classes, lack of assistance, lack of discipline, lack of support from counselors and administrators, dirty classrooms, breakfast in class, lack of supplies on one hand and excessive supplies on the other, distributing and watching it being wasted.

Teachers are constantly blamed for the system’s shortcoming, but have no voice in preventing senseless decisions; they have no listener or supporter to their real needs or concerns! 

Ch 17 of 20: Charter Schools

In our desperate search for a solution to the education crisis, we agreed to believe in the phenomena of the charter schools, popping up left and right, as the answer.

Charter schools strive on what they are NOT, comparing to district run schools. They are NOT the huge monsters that serve thousands of students. Their teachers are NOT on a contract for the rest of their life. Budget distribution is NOT under a strict scrutiny, thus can be applied to current needs. There are NO layers of administrators between teachers and principal, making parents’ access far easier.

Sounds great, doesn't it? It is like sending your student to a private school but without having to pay the huge tuition fee… right?...not quite…

I have seen tens of charter schools in my area, maybe more. I think I remember only one or two that at least left me with some tolerable impression.

My first experience with a charter school was working at one for an entire year. Wonderful teachers, dedicated administrators, OK students, caring parents… but one thread connected all the problems we faced - lack of professionalism. Staff members were good, smart and dedicated people, but not professionals…

We did not have a defined academic plan or clear goals, nor did we have a specific procedure for discipline. We had no textbooks for two months, and worse – no facility for four months, not until January. In the meantime, we were guests in a church hall, with only thin patricians separating one classroom from another, with flying objects filling the space between the classrooms. Everything was a ‘Work in Progress’, even though the school had been operating for several years.

To make things worse - by March all the school funds were exhausted and we were seriously considering shutting down the school and dispersing our students… 

After that experience, I swore never to work at a charter school again, and to spread the word about charter schools whenever and wherever I could… But reality bites, and after working at district schools for a while, or worse, not working at all, you start wondering if charter schools are that bad after all…

I was, since, interviewed by numerous charter schools. Many of them did not hire me not because I was not qualified, but because I was over qualified; credentialed, experienced, know my rights. It would be hard to make me work extra hours and get paid half of what the public district pays… For jobs that I did get an offer I just could not say yes. I just knew that I will be miserable for the whole time, and yet, knowing myself, would never quit midyear… (Not even if not paid, as before…)

I admit that I still apply to charter schools from time to time, but I can affirm that I never found one that I thought would be right for me…

However, as a substitute teacher, contracted with a respectable agency, I do work at charter schools quite often.

Charter schools, often, choose weird places as their site; I have seen charter schools in strange locations, abandoned buildings, with old ugly structures. I was in a charter school that was right beneath two major freeways intersection. I did not even think of the dreadful air pollution. What bothered me most was the possibility of falling cars off those freeways and smashing into a crowded classroom…

On one of my substitute assignments at a beginning of a school year I was sent to a charter schools in the east side. The area was not bad, the facility was oldish but quite OK, there was even something homey about the small yard in front of the main office and the classrooms surrounding it. I have changed my mind about the homeliness when I entered my classroom. It was not darling anymore. This was a classroom with only few, old, chairs, and even less, decorated with graffiti, desks; for sure not enough for all the students soon to enter the classroom. Something else bothered me as I looked around, but I thought it might be the unappealing look of the bare walls. Then I realized what was wrong – there was no whiteboard or even blackboard… Later on, I discover a spot on the wall that, apparently, was used as a whiteboard, but it was so small, and its quality so poor, that it was unrecognizable.

But this was not the worst part… The bigger problem was that it was the first week of the school year and the school did not have yet… teachers. I am serious! This was a small school that should have employed about 12-15 teachers. On the day I was called to substitute, there were 9(!) other substitute teachers signed up! And this was during a time when hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers were frantically looking for a job… I talked to few of the substitute teachers and they told me that they are trying to get hired at that school but the school would not give them an answer… My guess? The school was looking for a real cheap labor, and knowing how many teachers were out of job, they were waiting to find the people who will be willing to work for the minimum wage they had in mind…

Another charter school, to which I was sent recently, prides itself as a science and math academy… Well, this should be good, I thought. This is probably the model of school that, in our mind, the public education system should have …

I arrived about fifteen minutes before the start of the school day, and with the help of some students located the “Main Office”, the main institution in every public school. I was completely surprised to find it locked. A pleasant looking teacher arrived few seconds later and said “oh, it’s close”, without much surprise, and continued on his way, and I was trying to search my mind for possible instructions that might have directed me to a different destination rather than the main office …

Few minutes later the secretary had arrived and asked if she could help me. I told her I am a substitute teacher and the name of the agency that sent me. Apparently she was not aware of the need of my services, and disappeared for several more minutes to get the information. I was then sent to a science class to replace a science teacher. I am not a science teacher but with instructions and material to occupy the students I can manage to keep a class full of 8^th graders busy.

On the desk I found a big folder with instructions for each day of the week. I was slightly alarmed by a note that asked me to administer a final test and then grade it. I didn't think I was quite qualified for that, but I kept reading the instructions. Then, all of a sudden, I realize that these instructions were intended for the previous week, given by a responsible, previous, substitute teacher… At that point I realized that I was on my own, and tried to seek help from the… students.

The students told me that their teacher had been out for over a month. She was pregnant with twins and probably would not be back after she has the babies. They had, so far, 4-5 substitute teachers. When inquired on what chapter in the book they are, they could not remember, and of course suggested watching a movie…

I returned to the same school a week later, hoping things have changed for the better. From students’ reaction (another substitute???), I understood that not much had changed. A permanent teacher was not yet hired, but few changes had been made to accommodate the situation. A psychology elective class was replaced by a new elective - computers. When I asked where the computer lab is, I was told - at the same classroom. “So where are the computers?” I asked. No one could answer that. In the meantime the class was a “study hall”, fancy name for “doing nothing” class. Other science and math classes became general “tutoring” classes (more “study halls”), and the only substantial class left out of six-period day was algebra …  

The case of charter schools is about public funds, originated in our tax money, intended for public education. Charter schools divert resources from the well-established district, to their un-established institutions. They namely “steal” students from the district, depleting its finances. District schools have a very strict guideline, good or bad, and ample of well-educated and trained academic staff; administrators, teachers and aides. Charter schools offer a very poor replacement.

Charter schools, in many cases, are financial expenditure, generated by business people rather than educators. (Education, apparently, is a very profitable business, benefiting from holes in the system). Unlike district schools, they are not subjected to the same scrutiny, and are given years to prove themselves and become accredited. In the meantime, and even after, they have a very flex guideline…

As much as I disapprove the way the district runs, the type of events described above would never happen under district domain; classrooms without the bare minimum, unsafe locations, a school without teachers… As an educator, it is painful for me to watch credentialed and experienced teachers losing their jobs to unqualified personnel, who work for poorly managed charter school, for less money, and are at the disposal of anyone – administrators, parent, students…  

Do parents blindly believe that their students get more in charter schools than in the public school system? Did they know, for example, that their charter school of choice had started the school year without teachers? Or that their student’s science teacher in that “math and science academy” had been away for two month without a permanent replacement?

Until someone absolutely proves me that students are doing better in a charter school, not because it is located in an upper-class area, and not because it refuses to accept certain type of students, and not because it is quick to send certain students back to public district - I am very skeptical! I do hope that a responsible politician will soon look into it… In the meantime - parents - never assume anything! Do check your premises, at least from time to time…

For more - Read : "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", by Diane Ravitch

Ch 16 of 20: Language Deficiency

Another learning inhibitor that is part of classroom reality, and is originated in student’s background, is language deficiency.

In many parts of the state, and the country, (including the school district where I work) deficiency in the language is a key problem. A large group of students who are defined as English Learners is only part of the problem. A source of a bigger crisis is a population who communicates in English but doesn't master the language beyond its everyday conversation’s vocabulary. The trouble is not even mastering the English language to its deeper layers, but rather mastering any language to a level that connects to abstract nouns and terms. This obstacle is not necessarily rooted in immigration status, but rather in socioeconomic status.

The language deficiency has an absolute effect on learners of literature, social studies and humanities in general. It has no less effect on subjects like science and mathematics. If a student had never heard terms that are used in these subjects he/she will have hard time connecting with them. When words like ‘acceleration’ or ‘friction’, for example – are new to a student, in English or in foreign language, he/she will have hard time creating a mental picture of their meaning, and thus will have difficulties understanding, assimilating and applying the concept.

A subject that all math teachers have trouble teaching is geometry. This field requires language connection to the terms, as well as mental ability to picture it. If ‘diameter’ or ‘perimeter’ is not already part of student’s vocabulary, he/she will have hard time grasping the idea. Skills that are expected from middle, or even elementary school students, are not mastered by so many high schoolers; they struggle with basic computation, but, worse, with their concept. Terms that are meaningless for them are memorized the same way an odd cell’s name in biology is stored; for a short time, to be immediately forgotten after the test.

It is possible, then, that in order to address this problem, a new theory that is now widely used, was conceived. The new idea consists on presenting young students with advanced concept, so that later on, at high school, concepts will be familiar and thus easy to recall and ready to build on and expand with new knowledge.

This theory might have justly earned its merit being well researched and well accepted by educators, but in my experience does not serve its purpose. I feel that instead of advancing knowledge, we limit learning by teaching the same material over and over, skipping other important topics. I notice it when I, periodically, cover social studies classes, but I can, for sure, testify for its harm in math classes.

In mathematics, the progress of the curriculum is almost comic. I had my doubts before, teaching high school students and being dismayed by their poor knowledge of arithmetic, and fractions. But it was not until I taught middle school grades 5^th   6^th  7^th and 8^th math, that I realized how poor the program really is. I was obligated to teach exactly the same material, though using different, grade appropriate, books, to each of my four different grade levels… No kitting… I didn't even have to change the titles on the board from one grade class to another...

When students start their “official” algebra course, they had already been exposed to algebra concepts for years. They had seen equations and already know how to plug a value instead of a variable. No wonder, then, that they conclude they know it all, and listening is a waste of time… The problems start when equations get more complicated and they need to learn new, correct, methods to deal with them. Now a strong resistance starts to build: “but we already know it!”, “that’s not the way our teacher had taught us”, “you are just complication things”. Not only that I waste time defending my competence, but students’ adjustment is much harder.

Algebraic equations are only one example. The sad fact is that while teachers at elementary and middle schools are forced by the education planers to teach algebra concepts – they don’t have enough time to focus on what middle school learners must know before advancing to algebra. They don’t have time to strengthen basic arithmetic concepts, and fractions and decimals are completely neglected. I can’t even count the times that I had to explain the difference between 1 over 2 and 2 over 1 to algebra, geometry and even algebra 2 students.

The harm in introducing high school material too early is twofold. Lower grade teachers don’t have time to concentrate on basic math skills to create a sound base. But even worse - early introduction of a concept that is beyond students’ mental readiness can be either too confusing thus creating math-phobia, or can form bad habits that will be hard to change later. High school teachers are juggling their limited time between those two challenges; closing gaps and uprooting bad habits.

The solution for the language disconnect is not to introduce complicated concepts before their time, to students who are not yet ready, but to intensify and enforce language skills in the lower grades, presenting the terms in their everyday usage, as well as investing massive resources in reading comprehension; enriching vocabulary and developing reading skills will prepare students for higher math, not premature algebra.

Links:

http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Professional_Development/Focus_of_the_Year/Equity/08%20Lessons%20MacGregor.pdf

http://www.merga.net.au/documents/RP532005.pdf

http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v8n1/green.html

https://www.dpi.state.nd.us/title1/project/Acd_Lang.pdf

Ch 15 of 20: Reading and Imagination

Our education quality level is rooted not only in the educations system itself, but also in other grounds, like the era in which we live; what students bring with them to the classroom.

A phenomenon that, unfortunately, is disappearing from our everyday, especially from the young generation’s life, is reading. Reading used to be a fun pass time not only for the educated elite, but for every person who could read. It was not unusual to find a poor boy sitting on abandoned stair case in the middle of the city, reading a book that he got from the library, or even stole from another boy.

Reading, regrettably, is not considered fun pass time for youth anymore. Yes, there are still some adolescents who read but they belong, mostly, to elite group of AP students, made to read by their English teacher or their parents…

The price for the decline in reading is the weakening of our ability to use our imagination. When we read a book our brain creates a picture of places, events and people, and we thus develop the ability to see in our mind situations that are not part of our everyday reality, and objects that are not tangible.

You may ask what does imagination have to do with academics, especially with mathematics, and I will claim – everything!

Abstract ideas are part of every curriculum, unquestionably math and science. Students have to apply their imagination to create a mental picture in order to be able to understand and analyze a process, and use their brain to complete the picture and draw conclusions.

  

This same process is happening when one reads a book. You imagine the character, imagine the surrounding, the events, and in your mind predict and complete the situation before you know the entire story.

With TV and computer screens, being the main source of information and entertainment nowadays, images and audio are constantly feeding our senses, leaving no room for the brain function of imagination. We are losing the important independent thinking and processing because we don’t have to complete any mental picture. Every bit of data is being chewed up for us before being fad to us.

There are other reasons for the decline in the use of imagination in young people. We live in a culture that unstructured time and uncontrolled activity for kids is a waste of time. As soon as a toddler can sit and respond to interaction, he/she is signed up for a class, tutored by a relative to identify the alphabet, and strictly monitored in the playground or the assigned play group… What happened to free time? Free play? Kids’ games of their own innovation and rules without parents’ constant interruption? How about just sitting outside in a rainy day, looking at the sky and giving names for the imaginative shapes that the clouds form…?

An article that I read (link is attached) talks about the word “play”, how the meaning of the word had changed over the years. Play used to be an unstructured free activity that did not involve any toy… nowadays “play” means an organized game or a ready-made play tool, created especially for a specific kind of activity…

That brings me to another source for creativity despair in our children; the nature of the games and toys. When, and where, I grew up, before Toys R Us had hijacked our imagination by providing every possible toy to place in our game space, we played with wooden blocks and simple Lego-like pieces. With them we created our own imaginary toys. We could build a house and a bench, trees, furniture, and even good guys and bad guys with their weapon. We had to use our imagination to build objects, that are now can be found in any toy’s store. It is hard to envision anymore, what could be missing from those over loaded shelves. I even have a nightmare of a toy company that employs innocent children, pay them with piles of candies, and pry on any spark of imagination that they might have… (Sitting them in a one-sided mirror room, with microphones, and record any flash of imagination as soon as it is born, and immediately sends it to its developers…)  

Another favorite plaything that resulted from what might be called “deprived childhood”, was a simple compass, the one that has one sharp edge, and a pencil is inserted to the other side. I used to make wonderful creations of circles intersecting circles, and with crayons colored the different sections. When I started geometry I was already proficient in handling the compass, I knew what a radius was, and I also knew that if I drew a circle and placed the sharp edge on the circumference without changing the radius, I could mark six points that can be connected to make different shapes. I also noticed that as hard as I tried, the last point was never quite aligned with the starting point. It took me years to realize why, but never the less I had that experience; I could already visualize circles, rectangles and triangles...

How can you explain congruence and similarity concepts to youngsters who cannot create a mental picture of a triangle in their mind? They are not incapable, but they lack a skill that used to be widely accessible, imagination! Its absence prevents them from developing a higher level of thinking and creativity.

When reading is replaced with ready images and tangible objects, imagination development suffers… When a student cannot create a mental picture of a field with fence around it, he/she will graduate from high school not comprehending the difference between area and perimeter… And when a young person lacks the ability to process an abstract concept in general, he/she will be limited in intelligence and vision…

Links:

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/con/summary/v017/17.1.saiber.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/is-technology-producing-a-decline-79127

Ch 14 of 20: Parents' Rights

Back in the days, the worst-case scenario following bad behavior was parents’ conference. If a parent was contacted and asked to meet with the teacher, it was a complete misfortune for the family, the student, and his/her social life.

My parents, unlike most parents at the time, were at least willing to give me a fair hearing of what had happened. Most parents would not even listen, and automatically side with the teacher. It would be considered a disgrace for the family if their student so misbehaved.

This type of parents’ reaction does not exist anymore, especially not in second-generation American families. It may still be true for families who recently emigrated from different countries, especially developing countries, where education and teachers’ authority is still taken quite seriously…

One of the reasons for this phenomenon results from parents losing authority with their children. They may be too busy working multiple jobs and thus being away from home, or they may start losing respect from the younger generation due to language deficiency or cultural background.

I have met so many wonderful, willing to help and supportive, Hispanic parents, who valued education and wish their students to succeed, and yet are completely powerless in their attempt to influence their child.

Situation changes for the worse, unfortunately, after families have been here for a while, and are swayed by a sense of entitlement; feeling that the system owes them. They neglect their responsibilities and lay it all on teachers, and school in general. From this group of people I often hear a blaming tone. They, often, refuse to take responsibility for their student’s behavior and blame teachers and administrators. Some even flatly declare that they are not going to do anything about their misbehaving student…

And then there is a third group of parents, parents of students who are fairly motivated, disciplined, and quite well mannered. Usually they live in affluent areas, and go to respectable schools. These are the schools where teachers have fewer problems with students but many more problems with parents…

Teachers who work in those schools tell me horror stories about parents screaming at them for not complying with their demands regarding procedures, homework assignments, and most commonly – grades. These teachers deal with parents who treat them like kids and try to control their teaching and decision making…

Imagine a corporate environment where a boss has to answer for employee’s parents’ demands regarding special treatment for their son or daughter…

Consider a situation where a worker is directly responsible before the law, not only for things he/she has done, but for things done by somebody else. A case where not reporting, or not even noticing, misconduct done by others, may carry a severe punishment that could cost him/her job, and even imprison...

Compare the education profession to other careers, considering the layers of “bosses”, so to speak, to whom teachers have to report. There is the department head, the administrator in charge, the principal, the school district officials, as well as other special supervisors and advisers, to name few.

…Add to that 200 students, and double this number of parents and guardians… all bossing the same teacher…

Ch 13 of 20: Students' rights (no obligations...)

Somewhere along the way of making education mandatory for all youngsters, it stopped being a privilege and became an entitlement. Everyone under a certain age must go to school whether student and parents want it or not. It became the law.

I am not against enforcing education on children and young adult, and for sure, I am for a system that prepares adolescents to become functioning citizens, with education, skills and social values. What I am against, though, is forcing every young person to go through the same mandatory system. There should be different systems for different needs and wants of youngsters and their families.

Even if every child was capable of becoming a rocket scientists or a brain surgeon not everyone would want to become one. The most talented girl at my school, whose father was a medicine doctor, and her mother highly educated as well, wanted just to learn manual crafts, and fortunately her parents supported her.

What I see at schools every day are classrooms full of students who are not only completely disinterested in education, but also determined to spoil the experience for everyone else. They are using every tool in their arsenal to resist any positive progress; refuse to cooperate or participate, disrupt teacher and students and tease the ones who show interest. They destroy educational materials that are handed to them with no cost, and leave graffiti on books and trash on school property.

I can’t describe the frustration of trying to teach, aide, or even just observe such a  class; watching the phenomena of students wasting, on purpose, the one most valuable asset, given to them for free – education, paid by each of us. It aggravates to see the time and resources wasted; tax money paid by all of us, including their parents, earned with hard work; Spoiled opportunities – theirs and others!

My frustration and anger often boil to a point that aggravates administrators. I understand that kids will be kids… They don’t see the whole picture and lack the maturity to recognize what is good for them, but - how do we allow that? How do we let few irresponsible youngsters to spoil education for eighty percent of school population? How do we let them control us, educators, kind and giving individuals, whose only fault is trying to help them? Why are we so helpless against them?

I heard it so many times – “…but you are the teacher! It is your job to control the class!” And my reply is “How? Using what tools? “ What do you say, or do, to a  student who is completely candid about his disinterest in school?

This is not a new problem, what new is our inability to deal with it. We, school staff, cannot force students to learn, their parents have very little influence, the system has neither authority nor alternatives, and law suits are looming over everyone who dares say “fine, this is your choice…” Politicians are making decisions for school administrators; officials who had never been to a classroom…

Before I started teaching I worked as a teacher aide. Helping in different classrooms I was amazed to learn what teachers are facing every day at their job. I must admit that in most cases I blamed, in my heart, the teachers. I thought the chaos was a result of a poor classroom management and bad teaching methods.

I vividly remember one specific class where the teacher was standing in front of the room, lecturing to only two students; a brother and sister who just emigrated from Iran. They were the only ones who showed interest, or maybe just had good manners… The rest of the students were throwing paper balls, talking, and listening to loud music. I would walk around the room, trying to get students to focus their attention on the teacher and work with them individually. I even had some successes with a sharp African American boy who showed interest and ability (but unfortunately got involved in a fight, and was expelled from school, despite my pleas…). I would come home and tell my family about that one bad teacher, that though I liked him personally, was, in my opinion, a poor educator…

Over the years, I often thought of that teacher, and the longer I stayed in education, the better I understood him. It was not long before I was ready, in my frustration, to do just that – teach the only two interested students and ignore the rest. I was so discouraged by the inability of the system to deal with what he used to call “those low performing students”, who disrupt learning and teaching, that I justified him.

… I saw him again years later. It was by a pure coincidence. I lost a job due to low enrollment and was offered a temporary assignment at a different school, replacing a teacher on a sick leave, for an unspecified length of time…

The name of the teacher sounded familiar, and something about the way he worded the instruction made me suspect that this is the same person. Few days later when we spoke over the phone he did not remember me, yet I could swear it was him… It took few more weeks before we met, but when we finally did, sure enough, it was the very same teacher, dealing with the same frustrating situation. Trying to teach unmotivated, low performing students, in a low performing school…

I could tell him now how much I sympathize with what he was going through back then, and now. Apparently he was hoping I would stay and replace him for the rest of the semester but when he asked me my reply was “Thanks! But no, thanks!”. Unfortunately he was forced to come back, despite of his health condition … but as bad as I felt for him I did not want to stay beyond the two weeks I committed for. There was nothing I could do to improve the learning environment, and I knew that eventually I will be the one to be blamed for that… It was a losing game…

You see – since education became an entitlement, it carries only rights! Students have the right for an appropriate education; best teachers, best programs, best materials. If not - they are entitled to sue; every sixth grader can, and will, tell you that! However, they don’t have to come to school ready; bring supplies, protect the ones they are given, respect property, teachers and staff. Their only requirement is to show up at school! And yes! Schools are very particular about that; it means money! But what about other obligations like carrying a pencil and a piece of paper? Displaying positive attitude, attempting to learn something, or at least – give just respect to the people who try to teach, and to the ones who try to learn?

Every time I hear complaints from parents, backed by a smart advocate, I want to scream. I want to ask – have you been to a classroom? Have you seen those students sitting with a big, empty, backpack, with absolutely no school supplies? Have you noticed those students who completely ignore instruction, deliberately disrupting the lesson? They don’t learn because they don’t want to learn! They should be held accountable for that! Teachers are not responsible for the failure of the education system! It is the system itself that fails those reluctant students by not making them answerable for what they do, or don’t, know!

Why do schools have to provide students with every piece of supply is beyond me, but at least students should protect and respect what is given to them! Instead – they complain! Give them papers they ask why they are not lined, and make paper balls! Give them pencils – they break them, but not before complaining that they don’t have erasers… Give them erasers – they through them at each other! Providing something for free, without attached liability, is not only expensive and wasteful, but also against every value and principle that we are trying to instill in our youngsters. It is education without educating!

So, next time when you ask your student what did he/she learn at school today, ask yourself what did they NOT learn at school! What basic human and citizenship values, like respect, responsibility, care for property, appreciation to resources, among others, did they not learn!