Are We Preparing Students for Careers or Prison?

A wise man once said, "It is better to laugh than to cry." This man was obviously talking about the teaching profession.

Though it is early in the school year a question has been bouncing around in my head since the earliest of summer meetings, and has remained with me as I have struggled through what has seemed like endless meetings and mountains of new paperwork created in the name of "teacher accountability". The question...are we (teachers) preparing our students for careers or prison? The reason I ask is simply because I have noticed how our schools are increasingly becoming more like prisons than places of learning.

Here are some examples for your thoughts and amusement:

1. Of course the students are the inmates.
2. The teaching staff are the correctional officers.
3. The principal is the warden.
4. The students have yard time, but it is called P.E.
5. Good behavior of the inmates/students is encouraged through different programs...in prison the  
    inmates get time off for good behavior...at school the students get rewards.
6. Both students and inmates are required to wear uniforms.
7. Both students and inmates are herded from place to place by the teachers/correctional officers.
8. Both students and inmates are served unsavory meals.
9. Both students and inmates have rules and procedures that must be followed. If not, prisoners are put
    into isolation. At school, the students are isolated in 'Chill-Out'.
10. Students bring weapons to school. Prisoners make weapons.
11. Both students and prisoners are constantly creating new ways to get around and/or bend the
      institutional rules.
12. Both students and prisoners are sexually harrassed by one another.
13. Like in prisons, the correctional officers have as little power as teachers do in the school system.
      Anyone who has spent any amount of time in either a school or prison know that the
      students/prisoners really run the facility.

I am sure there are more you could add to this list, but I want to get to the one I chose not to list because for me it is the most troubling and therefore deserves more discussion than those listed above. Once people are processed through the prison system, they are each assigned a number. From the government's viewpoint the prisoner's identity has been all but stripped and replaced by a number. Well guess what? The same exact thing is occurring in our school systems, but no one seems to notice or care. As school systems focus increasingly on the results of high stakes testing and teacher accountability, the students are being stripped of their identity and are being replaced by a number. The students no longer have names, unique identities and situations, but instead they are all referred to as whatever their predictor EOG score is or if they are a 1, 2, 3, or 4. Very often throughout the school year the teachers/correctional officers hear the principal/warden discuss ways to improve the scores of the 1's, 2's, and low 3's.

What we do not hear is that each of our students are unique individuals with unique, and often, horrifying circumstances resulting from living in poverty, being constantly bullied, being sexually, physically, and verbally abused on a daily basis. Why don't we hear about things such as this?

THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In North Carolina's effort to 'race to the top' the very ones we are trying to help (the students) are the ones that are suffering the most. Sure, I would love to receive better pay for what I do...I think all teachers would, but I also know that teachers did not get into this profession to get rich. We became educators to change student's lives, and we are increasingly NOT being allowed to do that.

When do we cut the crap and get back to what really matters?

Calling All Adults

While I agree with the definition of collaboration from the textbook Teaching Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Classrooms that, "...a key ingredient of the efforts of inclusive schools is to meet the needs of all students in different settings and activities” (Bryant et al 2008, 302), I also feel collaboration must take on a much broader meaning when discussed in terms of education. By that I am largely referring to the growing absence of parental involvement in their children’s education. Are we really making a meaningful impact in the lives of our students if the parental support for education and learning does not exist? In my opinion the answer is no. The impact of collaboration is greatly reduced when everyone at the child’s school is doing everything they can to ensure the student is receiving a quality education, but then the student goes home to an educationally non – supportive environment. This leads us to the idea of ‘shared responsibility’. A child needs every adult in their life to be on the same page. In many respects the old adage, “it takes a village to raise a child” has never had as much meaning as it does within the current circumstances of our educational system.

Even though I believe the concept of shared responsibility should be the same across the board for any and everyone involved in a child’s life I am also wise enough to realize that this rarely, if ever, actually occurs. From burned out teachers to ill conceived government policies and from the growing problem of absentee fathers to the pop culture/technological society that promotes instant gratification we must begin to understand as citizens of this country and the world that we are losing an entire generation of young adults who despite their seemingly apathetic nature are actually desperately searching for and wanting structure, consistency, education, and love in their lives. For this to occur it is vital that we (as educators) have the full support of our student’s parents.

Unfortunately and sadly, parental involvement and the importance placed on education by many of the parents of the students I teach simply does not exist. For many parents their view of school is a place to send their children for eight hours a day, because the government tells them they have to. There is very little, if any, importance placed on their children’s education. It is difficult to deal with, as some children are caught in the crossfire of mixed messages. At school they are disciplined and repeatedly told how important receiving an education can be to their future, and yet when they get home they are receiving messages from other adults in their lives that completely contradict what is being told to them at school. Not to mention the lack of discipline occurring in many of the homes of our students. One personal example that still aggravates me is when one of our students was suspended for repeated disruptions of class, and while driving home the next day I saw the student out riding his bicycle and having a great time playing with his friends. Where is the discipline from the parents?

Finally, I believe that when any group of people agrees to work together for the betterment of a child or students that there will naturally arise situations in which not everyone agrees. In my opinion it is crucial to the welfare of the student that the adults work through their issues in a responsible and constructive way so as to demonstrate to the students the proper way of working together to achieve a greater goal.

-a journey of 10,000 miles begins with one step

Super Quotes from a Super Student

The person who is responsible for sending me the following hilarious quotes knows who he is and I thank him once again.  Before you read these real quotes spoken by a real student I want you to know that my only wish would be for you to actually see the student who says these things, because it would make what you're about to read even funnier. All I'm at liberty to say is that he is an 11 year old country boy. I promise all my faithful readers that all of the following quotes are real. Enjoy and I hope you get a laugh....

You see my sister, she may look nice but the devil is in her soul!

What's that word?   "Bangladesh"
Ok, because I don't speak i-raqi!

I'm a true carnivore, because I know my meats.

I can't take ritalin, it makes me see things that aren't there...


I shot a mouse in the head with my bb gun...then my dog ate it

I caught a mouse once with my bare hand, you have to be quick and quiet

I like badminton because I am good at it

You know the song by Michael Jackson "somebody's watching me," my mom got drunk and sang it in a bar

I am a husky boy (smiling)

And finally...
Don't approach a donkey from the rear, a bull from the front, or a fool from any direction!

Hope that put a smile on your face! :)

Vocational Program Anyone?

This just in! Newsflash! Newsflash! In case anyone out there was unaware, not every student that enters our classroom each day is destined for college. 1) Some students quite simply do not have what it takes to get into college, particularly at the university level, and 2) some students quite simply have absolutely no desire to attend college.

Want to prevent and/or decrease drop out rates? BRING BACK VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND GIVE OUR STUDENTS SOME FRIGGIN OPTIONS.  IF WE PROMOTE AND NURTURE OUR STUDENTS INTEREST, THEY WILL STAY IN SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Successful versus Unsuccessful

Before I begin I would like to apologize to myself and my few, but passionate, faithful followers for my lack of blogs in recent months.  Without boring you to tears, I'll just say that I've been very busy. I have made a promise to myself to write at least one blog a week from now on. I think I can, I think I can....

It is said that your first year of teaching is the most difficult.  Whoever says these things have also said that one of the best things about teaching is that you can always start fresh each year.  I bring all this up because my experience this school year has included aspects reminiscence of my first year in that I went from teaching 7th grade to 8th grade.  I've also had to adjust to working with new colleagues (principal included) and a new curriculum. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, teaching the same students two years in a row has had both advantages and disadvantages. All in all I feel like teaching the same students from last year has made me a much better teacher, primarily because it has forced me to think outside the box.  Essentially, I was not afforded the gift of a fresh start this year.  I began the year knowing most of the students very well and vice versa.  Again, this provides advantages and disadvantages...if you're a teacher I think you can infer what these are.

The purpose for bringing all this up is to say that I decided before this school year began to use this year to try many different teaching and classroom management strategies.  As with most things in life there have been ups and downs.  One of the positives is that I really feel like I have a better understanding of what it takes to be a successful student at the middle school level.  Of course that means I also feel like I have a better understanding of what it takes to be an unsuccessful student at the middle school level. Please enjoy my breakdown, and feel free to add, subtract, agree, or disagree with anything on my lists.

Successful students...
                                 listen and obey directions
                                 follow rules and procedures
                                 complete all assignments on time
                                 are intrinsically motivated
                                 having caring and supportive parents
                                 value education
                                 study
                                 apply themselves
                               
Unsuccessful students...
                                 rarely listen and/or follow directions
                                 pick and choose what rules and procedures to follow (if any)
                                 Pick and choose what assignments to complete and
                                 whether or not to turn them in
                                 are motivated by receiving incentives for doing stuff
                                 they are supposed to do anyway
                                 have uncaring and nonsupportive parents
                                 place little or no value on education
                                 cannot even spell the word study
                                 are lethargic superstars

Here's Some Data For You!

With so much focus being placed on the importance of data and data driven instruction in today's public schools, I can only hope that the 'powers that be' realize that despite their best efforts there will never exist  any data that will ever show or tell...

how much teachers sacrifice for their students.

the massive amount of time that teachers spend not in celebrating most of their student's wonderful achievements, but in agonizing over the one kid that they were never able to reach.

Nor can a number, score, or statistic ever show how much of a positive impact a teacher has had on a student that...

comes to school each day to enjoy the one meal he or she will likely get for the entire day

only recieves kind words, safety, and love when in that teacher's classroom

is regularly abused at home

has to spend his or her nights making sure their drunk father does not beat up their mom when he gets home

lives in abject poverty

The list could go on and on, but from my perspective what is most important to understand and remember is that within the public school's current obsession with data and data driven instruction is the fact that behind each of those numbers, decimal points, bar graphs, and fancy excel spread sheets is a student and a teacher. A student that could be having the best childhood of anyone on earth, or a student that is experiencing things daily that most of us would not wish on our worst enemy.  Behind those numbers are also teachers...a few of which burned out years ago and could care less, but so many more that passionately sacrifice their time, money, sweat, family, and yes tears to make sure that every single student that steps into their classroom each day walks out a better person than they were before.