IT'S THE STUDENTS - NOT THE TEACHERS!

As anyone can clearly see, I have not been posting to this blog site for a long time.  However, I hope to blog more often from now on.

I want to update readers regarding the problems in our educational system.  At this time, I have substituted in 21 schools in my county so I feel that I have enough experience to give my opinion.  I will only return to approximately one-half of the schools that I have subbed in because I have had terrible experiences, even to the point of abuse.

My pet peeve is that teachers are blamed for the spiraling down of our educational system.  I disagree.  The spiraling down is due to the deterioration of our culture.

First, let me clarify that I have had some good experiences in schools with civilized students who attend the school.  These schools are located in good districts where the parents who live there are competent as parents, teaching their children how to behave in the classroom and in society.

However, discipline is usually the primary focus of most teachers in all schools.  Disruptive and inattentive students cannot be taught anything.  They also keep  teachable students from learning.  All schools have discipline programs.  A common one is to send misbehaving students to RETRACK but some students cannot be motivated or forced to start following a different track in life. 

The most problematic students come from districts where many of the parents are dysfunctional and do not know how to act themselves, let alone teach their children how to act in school.  Many of these districts are impacted by drug and alcohol abuse.

While I can give a lot of examples of some horrific experiences that I have encountered in some of the schools attended by many uncivilized students, I will relate the worst one:

Once, I taught in a middle school.  They changed classes during the day.  All of the classes were terrible but one was especially abusive.  They would not sit down, talked to the top of their lungs, and would not cooperate with me in any fashion.

I was not attempting to control them by myself.  The assistant principal was in an out all day.  Once he had to make all of them lay their heads on their desks while he admonished them with, "The way you act, all of you will be incarcerated by the time you are grown."  He had to sit in that class with me for 30 minutes.  They did as he directed but the minute he walked out of the door, they erupted into total chaos.  He returned, again and again.

They used me as a human dartboard and the whole class threw sharpened pencils at me.  They threw their textbooks all over the room and toward me, hitting me in the back once.  One boy picked up a trash can and threw the contents down the middle of the room.  I repeat...the assistant principal was coming in an out of my room during all of my classes.

I stuck it out for the entire day but will never enter the doorway of that school again.  The assistant principal understood my feelings and expressed feelings of hopelessness for the future of the students who attended that school.

I am glad that I am only a substitute teacher and can choose where I teach.  However, I am in deep sympathy for the permanent teachers who have to face these types of students everyday in order to make a living.  In my county, a teacher is not at liberty to easily quit and move to another school.  After spending at least four years of college for a degree in education and needing a job, some teachers are stuck in bad schools.

Trust me!  Life is different now than when most of us attended school.  Policemen are frequently called to many of our schools.  There is one school that I will still teach in because the students act bad but are tolerable.  One day, I saw four different policemen ushering students, with a parent in tow, and heading toward the police cars waiting to take them to juvenile hall.

Think twice before you blame a teacher.  It is my opinion that if things don't improve in our society, there will be less people wanting to attend college to obtain a teaching degree.