For the last 22 years I have taught in a public school district that has transitioned from suburban to inner city. This is the school I attended as a child and grew up in. It was a great place back then. Today that is far from the case. Say what you want about socio-economics and its relationship to schools. I'm here to tell you folks, the two are directly related. There are a number of reasons for this (which I will refrain from discussing), but suffice it to say it makes a difference. I'm not saying rich people=good schools and poverty stricken people=bad schools. I'm not saying that at all, but there are correlations. I think the state of public education in the U.S. is not as good as it used to be. I think the reason for this is fairly simple (simple to identify, but not simple to fix). It's the breakdown of the American family. This breakdown has affected every aspect of our society, but I think it is especially evident in public schools (generally speaking, of course).
This brings me to the main thing on my mind today. The complete and utter disrespect shown to me on a daily basis by the majority of my students. I'm not talking about kids having a little bit of an attitude problem or just causing a little bit of mischief. All kids have an attitude problem from time to time. Heck, as wonderful as my own children are, they are not immune to having a cruddy attitude occasionally. I'm talking about overt, blatant, in-your-face disrespect. To cite too many examples would make this post too lengthy and would probably shock you. Most people tend to envision schools today as the same schools they attended 20, 30 and 40 years ago. They're not. In today's schools children talk back, shout at and ignore the instructions of teachers. Imagine giving a child a specific (and polite) instruction and having that child look at you and then turn back to what they were doing, thus completely ignoring what they were asked to do. Imagine a second request with a little more force behind it only to have the child turn, look at you and then ignore you again. I ask you, would you have ever done this? Would you accept this from your own children? I'm guessing your answer would be no. What about this one? My students were recently standing in line and they were supposed to be quiet. One student was turned around and talking loudly. I politely and respectfully asked the student to stop talking and turn around. The student looked directly into my eyes and said, "YOU turn around!". These are only a few small (and relatively mild) examples of what I deal with daily. What makes it worse is there are no consequences that can be imposed when such behaviors occur. We can take away recess. Most kids don't really care about that and sometimes even laugh about it. We are not permitted to keep kids after school without contacting parents first. Most parents screen their calls and will not answer when they see the school calling. A suspension is a vacation from school. That's not a negative consequence. Essentially my hands are tied where any type of discipline is concerned. To compound the problem, most parents are not supportive of the teacher. If their child is in trouble, they want to blame the teacher and claim their child is innocent and would never do what they have been accused of. These are the same parents who wear a shirt into the school that says, "If you think I'm a B****, you should meet my daughter". Or a really tight fitting shirt that says, "Shakin' It!". Keep in mind I teach at an elementary school. Now you may know why I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.
Well... I said I didn't want this to be a rant. Maybe it kind of was. I'm sorry for going on and on. You all can probably hear the stress and frustration in my words. I'm not a complainer by nature. I am generally even keeled and not quick to anger. However I am human and sometimes life gets to me. Tomorrow's Friday. I'll get happy again soon.
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