Oh Captain, My Captain

If you work at a traditional school of any kind, elementary school, jr. high school, or high school  there is an alternative program that takes your highly dysfnctional students off your hand.  Community Day programs, Opportunity rooms, continuation schools all exist to act as a holding place for these students who for whatever reason cannot function in a “normal” school setting.

These places make YOUR job easier. 

Bare in mind many of us working in these facilities are not here by choice.  I never ASKED to come here.  I never applied for a job HERE.  I’m forced to take on other people’s cast aways out of necessity.   I make your job easier.

We already deal with admin who rarely values what we do or try to do and constantly wants to change us and make our system like the ones they are used to at their traditional school.  Teachers at these other school think we have an easier job because we don’t deal with the homework and all the paper work that “traditional” schools deal with.  We’re not seen as being “real” teachers by many of the other educators in our own districts.  I know because I was on the other side once, and I know what was said, quite often by the other teachers.

The public has some odd idea that we’re all here because we suck as educators.  I’ve heard them talk too.  We GET the rumors here, we KNOW what is said about us.

Funny, but  like I said….not many of us EVER asked to be here.  A few have a high pain threshold or felt a special calling to work with troubled youth…but not a lot of us.  Many are going to live their lives here essentially taking a bullet to their career for the good of education, and get paid below what this job should be paid.

This job has some nice moments, don’t get me wrong, but they nowhere come close to making up for the majority of the days and the feeling of knowing you’re NOT doing what you set out to do.  I tried to leave 3x, and because of the mentality of most of our district…I’m labled and stuck here, and if I use this job on a resume for most other schools I won’t be getting jobs there either.

Believe it or not, I actually chose to go into education.  Wanted to.  I had dreams and ideas on a career and what that was going to shape up to be once I had done this job for 20-30 years and retired.  Nothing I planned on doing is possible in this location.  I tried. I’ve put programs in place to have them not supported or funded and then have the kids even capable of handling the assignments with the necessary maturity.  Everything I want to do needs to be dummed down by 85% to 85% of the kids.   I’m more police officer and fire fighter than I am educator.

I’m constantly putting out little fires (not LITERAL fires, but you get the idea) so that they don’t explode and cause everyone here MORE stress.   Each class “lecture” is 60% telling k ids to stop texting, stop talking, stop sleeping, start writing, stop putting on make-up, stop sitting on the desk, stop sneaking out early, etc.   Yes some of this happens at normal schools but it’s all usually curtailed by 5 minutes into class and then things progress normally.  If it continues it’s usually by one of the kids bound for this type of school.

I remember the feeling while working at the traditional school of knowing that once the session ended, and I failed these types of kids they’d be shipped out to HERE and I’d have my classroom back and be able to again work for the masses and get things done.   I took for granted these teachers and what they really did for me.  They made my job possible.  Without continuation teachers high school would be miserable for so many more people teachers and students alike.

Having been here for many years now, I’ve changed my opinions of those that work in places like this.  If you want my honest opinion I think every teacher in the district should be required to put $150 a year into a fund that goes directly to these teachers in the “alternative” programs JUST for making your jobs easier.

afterall, we could always send the kids back.

Th

Had this interaction.

“why did I get detention?”

“You had too many tardies.”

“No I didn’t…”

“Yes…you did.  you had over five.  You were tardy yesterday, the day before, and the day before…and so on…”

“I wasn’t tardy….I was just late.”

…

It’s a bad feeling to realize you’ve completely wasted your college existence.  I spent 6 years in college paid a lot of money, and sat through an amazing number of hours of coursework to be HERE.

I went into education with goals, and dreams, and ideals.  Those are all crushed now.   I was moved to this location, and for the lack of any other job in the district I had to come here, or risk raising a family without a job.   I tried 2 different times to go back to a school where I felt like I would be better matched.    They wouldn’t let me.   I’m now stuck here trying to overcome 80% of the kids who don’t want to be here in order to try and reach the 20% who do (sort of) just try getting your point across to 4 kids in a room of 20 where 16 of them are trying to avoid paying attention any way possible.

Each year I avoid writing referrals on students as long as possible.   In the beginning of the year I’m usually in a better mood (usually) and have more patience.  I’m also never pleased with the results in discipline, so I just avoid writing them.  Each year, at some point, my limits reach critical mass, and I snap….then I write referrals at every opportunity possible.   Not only do I want to punish the kids for being disrespectful, and hold them accountable for their poor choices, I also want to bury the admin with paperwork.    This is a problem directly resulting in the way things are run, and because of such….the issues will be dealt with.

I refuse to show up to work and be disrespected.  Therefore, I bring the hammer down from the point I’ve had enough until the end of the year.

I wrote 18 referrals in the past 2 days, and aim to do as many as it takes until my classroom is peaceful.

The ultimate point is that I never went to school for this.    I run a holding pen for the kids that disrupt the “traditional” high schools.  They are sent here to make learning possible for others both student and teacher.    I’m a warden.  Not what I went to school for

If I spent all 30 years here, I will have sacrificed almost 40,000 hours of life doing something that caused me grief.

I hate that public education has come to this point for me.  I really did go into public education system because I wanted to help.  I had good teachers growing up, I liked to teach, and I felt like it was a perfect place for me to have a career.  Now it has turned into my own private hell.   I know it’s bad to complain about a job in this current economic situation, but hey….it is what it is.

When you know you were sent here by your district in hopes that you would quit, it’s even harder to care.  I did for a while.  I did partly to prove the people who sent me here that I WOULDN’T quit, because that’s what they wanted.  I actually do, and always will care and put forth effort into those kids who try.  We have about 20% of our students who do care, and will try, and want to succeed at something in the future.   The rest are in a holding pattern until they have more free time to commit crimes and go to jail.  School totally screws up the amount of time they can go get their criminal on. 

When you have 70% of a class any given period that isn’t going to put forth effort, and doesn’t care, then it makes educating the 3 or 4 students who DO want to learn almost impossible.  I gave atest the other day.  AN OPEN NOTE test.  I had over half the class fail it.  I had half of the remainder get a D- on it.  I had 2 B’s…neither very high, those were the highest marks.

OPEN NOTE.

If you can’t get your shit together to pass an OPEN NOTE test, really life is ALWAYS going to be a struggle for you.

on these notes, I GAVE THEM ALL THE ANSWERS…they only had to copy them down off the board.  When this happens for several years in a row, you lose the motivation to give it much of a try.  You know what is going to be the result.  The admin. will swear it’s a lack of engagement on the teacher’s part that leads to this.  I’ll agree to a point, although it never starts out that way.  Teachers always try in the beginning….they can keep up the effort for some time before the lack of response and effort returned to them from th students wears them out and they lose the drive.   That point of wearing out comes earlier and earlier the longer you work here.

Throw in a few things like lack of discipline, lack of funding to do anything fun, more pressure by the top of the line to get test scores up, and you basically have a very unfun place to work.

I think the entire staff here feels the same way.  I’ve hit the end of my rope here.  I really don’t care at all.  If I could go do another gig full time for similar pay, I would in a heart beat.  If I had other meidcal insurance or somewhere to get that, I’d rather be a substitute. 

We just had a kid here who threatened to BLOW UP my car a year ago.  He got expelled, because, well, you just can’t threaten to blow up a teachers car.  It was me and another teacher.   Well his expulsion contract expired, so they let him back in.  AND they put him in my class.

That’s safe.  That makes me feel good.  That makes me want to care MORE.

What it does is make me second guess every decision that I make regarding his behavior.  If Imake him angry will he take offense and seek revenge?  I’ve had 11 flat tires since I worked here, I’m guessing 10 of them were out of some kind of revenge.

I caught a few kids smoking pot ON campus the other day. ON CAMPUS.  Within arms reach of the school.  I saw three of them doing it.  Only 2 got suspended.  I get leaving the one I didn’t see off, but still…he should be guilty by association right?!?!?  I mean he was WITH kids who were smoking a freaking DOOBIE. ON. CAMPUS.  One girl managed to sweet talk her way into a shorter punishment…not sure how, but it’s not my decision.  THe worst part about the whole bust is that while I felt GOOD to catch them, I wondered for a few minutes if I should say anything, out of fear of revenge by the students.  NOT a good feeling to have.

I really seriously try NOT to write any discipline referrals. Ever.  I just don’t know if the punishment (or lack there of) that they will get is worth the potential retribution that may be taken out on me or my car.

We have a principal who wants to come across as the good guy. No matter if it means throwing his teachers under the bus.  He’ll take away detention hours for no reason other than he likes the kid.

“Well…your teacher suggested you get 2 hours detention for this, but I’m going to let you off with 30 minutes…”  Or sometimes none at all.  He make it look like WE were the bad guy punishing the kid, and then he, by his wonderous grace let them go.

The kid leaves loving him, and hating us for trying to get them detention hours.

Rumor has it he’s leaving this year.  Everyone hopes so. Whether they verbalize it or not.  The only issue is that we’ve been l eft badly beaten here.  I’m not sure the person who takes over this job can help bring us back to where we were a few years ago.  I tried to think of how I would change this place, if someone asked….and I don’t know.

My lack of faith in this school, the way its been run, and the education system in general have left me really with no way to think of how to make it better.

Coming here on a daily basis makes me want to gouge my eyes out with escargot forks.

“Just be happy you HAVE a job.”

I hear that shit one more time I’m gouging their eyes out with mine.

Look.   I appreciate having a steady income and medical insurance.  I do.  I fully freakin’ realize that portions of the world most people have neither.   HOWEVER….

I’m literally a salve for this place for the foreseeable future.   I can’t leave.   Trust me mightily when I say I want to, and am trying to…I just CAN’T. 

Once you have a family If you’re any kind of respectable person you have to provide for them.  Walking home and saying, “well my job pissed me off for the last damn time.  I quit today.”

If I were single, that’s EXACTLY what I would do.  If I were single I’d make more, because I wouldn’t be paying a grand each month so we can have medicine.   That would mean I wouldn’t need to work more on weekends so I could have more free time to relax and enjoy.  I can’t, nor do I want to get rid of my family…so that means I get to endure.   I have to provide for them no matter how much I get dumped on here.

I’ve said this a lot, NOBODY goes into a career they want to hate.   I never went into education thinking, “Man with any luck this will suck so bad I’ll hate my job and my life in 15 years.”   I went into a career I WANTED to enjoy and that would provide me a decent retirement.  I planned on teaching high school for 30-35 years. 

When the alarm goes off each morning my first thought is….”OH *$%$… This is happening.”

I listen to the radio hoping some kind of natural disaster has befallen my building.  We’re in forest fire country….DAMN IT LIGHTNING DO YOUR JOB!  I usually just get the occasional news blurb that one of our ex-students is now in jail for doing something retarded, which we already knew was going to happen.

I kind of envy those dumb bastards.  Jail is kind of like reject retirement.  They don’t’ have to work, they get fed, a place to sleep, some exercise…and maybe some  not so sweet lovin.’ Granted it’s not ideal sleep, food, or lovin’….but they don’t have to go to work.    They kind of won.

I spend the rest of the drive forcing my hands to make the correct turns to get to work.   I have to FIGHT my urge to keep driving by the exit.   When I’m at work I get to deal with a 20% group of kids who ARE decent, but I can’t really deal with them because I don’t have any budget for adequate materials, and I have the other 80% of the kids waiting on their early retirement plan to kick in by making my life worse.

It takes me at least 3 hours to unwind after work and be relaxed…but those hours can’t start until at least 10pm and all the family obligations take place.   When I can finally start to decompress it’s late, and I don’t want to go to sleep…because that mean the next thing I hear is the alarm jolting me back here again.

The advantage once you’ve worked somewhere where you feel respected, appreciated, and valued financially is you definately know when you’re not.   I feel sorry for the people I work with here who get beat down all day and school year long and have nothing positive to balance it out.   I guess really it’s more of a double edge sword.  On the one hand getting beat down each day over and over with nothing else puts you in a mode of acceptance where you just numbly deal with things.  When you KNOW there are better ways to be treated and a more civil way of working you have a much harder time putting up with the B.S. 

I go from a place where the students WANT to learn, ask questions, say thank you and appreciate you, even TIP me on occassion, buy me dinner or lunch and keep in contact to show me what they learned and are learning.  It’s why people go into education.  It FEELS good to be appreciated.  Here I have to tell kids they can’t make out in class, and that I’d rather not know about the security system they have for their pot garden.   It makes me a more depressed for the future of our country.  The prison population isn’t going to dwindle any time soon…there are PLENTY of future criminals out there.  It’s not all their fault, but we’re not allowed to blame their parents for it…it’s our  fault.

If we were more engaging, and interesting the kids would learn.  I’m sorry but that’s not the case.  I know with a good degree of certainty I’m a pretty engaging personality.  I speak at colleges, and for different groups all over the place.  I had over 80 people show up to listen to a slide talk I put on.  The problem here isn’t me, it’s that the kids would rather listen to rapping clowns and talk about how many drugs and shots they can ingest on a weekend.   I can’t compete with rapping clowns. 

half this school is deeply invested mentally in some kind of world ending conspiracy theory.   They really believe the world is out to get them.  I think their severe low mental abilitites are far more to blame for their place in life as opposed to a deep level governement conspiracy trying to keep down the apathetic and ignorant.

It appears things here are unravelling.  Not just for me but for all of us.  This place is turning ugly.  Not that it was ever pretty, but I foresee things here could end up like that sketch on SNL where the teleprompter broke…only not funny.

Two sides have emerged here.  Teachers and Admin.  It’s very clear to the teachers we’re not on the same page as them, and from what we’ve heard from others, they see themselves as a distinct side as well.  I used to like going in the office here.  I considered the administrators we had here (only one is really an administrator by dgree) actually friends.  No longer.  I’m pretty convinced that I wasn’t ever in their circle of trust.

It feels a lot like everything we say can and will be used against us in the future.  It feels like if we try to work with them, it will be thrown back at us with a devious twist.  I feel like the people that reside in those two offices do NOT have my back nor any of my colleagues backs if things were to go down.  It feels bad.  It’s not how any orgnanization should operate.    

Start checking the rearview….if there’s a bus, we’re getting thrown under it.

I’m kind of angry at myself personally.  I feel like I should’ve seen it coming.  To start the documentation of this whole battle I’m going to give you, ideally what the situation here should/could be, and what it is…and then we’ll proceed with details of the battles as the year progresses

I think in any situation a TEAM is vital to the success of the organization.  A team means that the leaders aren’t better or worse than their teammates, their goal is to provide direction, focus, and bring out the best in the people who they have on their team…no matter what circumstances. 

I’m lucky that I’m able to have a life away from this place and be a part of a true team environment.  I’ve got an organization/business that I helped to start.  The team started as two of us, and has grown to almost 10 people.   It would be really easy for me to boss people around, throw some authority on people.  I have more experience than the rest of my teammates, and I have a higher level of skills than they do, because I’ve been at it longer.  If I put myself in that position…I’d lose their trust, respect, and ultimately the performance I depend on. 

Granted they don’t always do things the way I  would, and sometimes they make mistakes…but I think part of what GOOD leadership is is taking people where they are that day, or that situation and finding out a way to get the most out of what they can give, and then backing them should anyone question them.  In return, they’ll give me more and hopefully things progress.

It’s that simple.  If I got a complaint about a instructor I worked with, my first goal is to talk to the instructor get their side of things, and the back that.  I can empathize with the complainer and if my employee is a good teammate they’ll do what it takes to help remedy the situation and make it better.

The situation HERE for me, and a lot of other people I work with is that, shock….we’re not making enough money right now to live off of.  The cost of living has gone up a lot, and we’re not keeping up with the COLA.   While I was able to work one job and be fine 4 years ago…it was getting close…int the last 6 years I would estimate the cost of living has risen at LEAST 15%-20%  for me.  My check has gone up 4% (maybe) If you add in health insurance rate increases and other union due increases….that 4% is virtually wiped out. 

I had to get another job.  H-A-D to.  I’m lucky that I have options to do so.  Other teachers I know are on public assistance because they have too many kids, and no wife working to help out.   I know teachers who ran out of money during the summer just trying to live…and they make more than ME here. 

It’s F”ing ridiculous.

I have to work on weekends…which means sometimes I have to take a day or two off work.  I understand it’s not an ideal situation for any one.  I always leave good plans and plenty of assignments for the students though.  It’s not an issue.  in the years I’ve been in education, I’ve never seen a change in this type of kids production from when I’m here to when a sub is here…it’s pretty paltry effort regardless of who is in the driver’s chair. 

I get 10 personal days a year to take off.  I use them ALL.  I would use them ALL regardless of whether I had to go work or not.  When I pass that time…it costs me pay.  I still need to take a few days however, and in my book it’s worth losing $100 for a sub payment to make $1000 working on the weekend.  It’s a sacrifice that makes sense.

Granted it’s not ideal.  Iwish I could make enough money HERE where my weekends were free to relax and recover…as it stands now, I’m gone 95% of the month working.  Not fun. 

I”m lucky that my 2nd job pays well, and being that it’s also education related, I’m able to apply my profession there.  it’s in the private sector which means, not only do I get paid WAY better for a day of work…I also get treated like a human being…..which is SO NICE.

Now, here’s where the war has begun.  One of my Admin’ came in and said someone had complained last year about me missing too much time.  I missed 11 days last year…one over the limit.  I had built up 5 comp days over the course of the year filling in for colleagues when they missed a period…or working my lunch to supervise when the principal was off campus.    I felt like I HELPED out to offset my inconveniences.

Now, I know it wasn’t one of our teachers who complained.  Me missing 11 days doesn’t effect them in the slightest.  One it gives them comp time…which is a good thing…secondly at least 3 of the 7 other teachers missed more time than I did.   Funny, but the admin who told me I had a complaint filed against me actually missed more time off campus than I did.  He has to be places at least 2 days a week, which means he’s not here…add that time up it’s WAY more time away than me. 

When I asked my fellow teachers if they thought anyone had complained…they chuckled and welcomed me to the club of people who had been flat out lied to by the admin.  It seems that when they have an issue with you, they just make up random complaints “filed by other teachers” so that they can

a) let you know you’re in trouble

b) start dissention between the ranks, while still looking like the good guy.

The second one pisses me off the most.  The whole tone of the ‘meeting’ we had was that “I’m just trying to get your back…beacause someone complained on you…and I totally understand your situation…but some OTHERS are pissed at you.”

Basically he wants me to think he’s doing me a favor…and I should be wary of my coworkers…

If he had appraoched me and said, “Hey I get it, and if you’re comfortable with the hits on your paycheck to help get bills paid…then i’m going to let you go ahead, but let’s figure out a way to maximize your time here and try to see if we can work your class schedule to minimize the effects.”

I tried, in summer to have them schedule me a 5th or 6th period prep so I could leave early and not miss as much instructional time…did I get it?  NOPE.

Now I thought at one time I had a friend in the office that worked as the VP/counselor type.   I should’ve seen the changes coming…because it appears that it’s just another person driving the bus, ready to roll over me. 

I figured they would understand where I was, and at least get my back in this situation and go to bat for me.  I’d have done it for them.   It seems from what I hear, that they were right there complaining.  I guess if you have the office right next to the outhouse, you’ll start to smell like it at some point. 

I shoud’ve seen the hint when the VP took all of us teachers and excluded us from soical media posts.  Not that that really MATTERS…but if we were ‘friends’ they’d have left something like that in tact.  When asked about it the response was “I’m keeping work and social life seperate”  What I get out of it is that…you’re not my friend, and not worthy of knowing anything about me.

I can play that game too.

I tried to play nice and let them all know WELL in advance (up to 5 months ahead of time) the days I wasn’t going to be here, I always set up the BEST subs for my classes to minimize distractions. I even cancelled a work weekend that would’ve paid me minimum $1000 but probably more when all was said and done to try and work with them.   Then they find something else to complain about.   

 It got me nothing but thrown under the bus.   I’ll play the game too.  From now on.  I’m not giving out my schedule.  I’m not finding substitutes  (it’s not my job anyway…it is not one of my duties).  I used to go visit in the office a lot…I haven’t been in there in 3 weeks.

Being a public educator has a few advantages…1) it’s a job…and in this economy, well that’s something.  2) There is medical insurance…even though I pay out my hind-end for it…I still have it.  I pay a lot.  However, it’s been taken out of my check so long I don’t really notice it unless I look at the number being taken out…then I get sad.  3) I get summers off.   Which, sadly, is the one thing everyone throws at me when I complain about my gig-  “You get summers OFF…be quiet.”  Having summers “off” is nice…but has setbacks…those are the subject of another post.

There are far more bad parts of being a public educator than good ones.  I’m going to take one of my favorites today.

I can’t vent…on the kids.

They need it.  So so so so so badly.

My job…when I’m on a mission and perusing the classroom to make sure the kids are on task…like I’ve been told to do is like babysitting.  The kids who don’t want to work know how NOT to work.  I know that’s a shock.  They wait until I walk by, then go right back to being off task…which means I get to put them BACK on task with a polite comment once I notice again.

“Could you please get back to work?”

“Can you keep the talking a little quieter?”

“Can you just please stop talking?”

“Can you not be on that website please?”

UGH.

Its fine the first time but the 5^th or 6^th time you ask…it’s bordering on annoying.

What I WANT to say is, “Hey #&*$#!  Stop being a moron and do your work $%*&** work!”

That’s what they need to hear.  These kids.

It’s like that ALLLLL day.  Every.  Day.

A normal person would NEVER let anyone treat them the way kids get away with treating us.  We have NO power.  

We can’t even tell them we don’t like them.

Any other job you can tell someone, “Hey I don’t like you….I just have to put up with you.”

Not here…then we’d be “picking” on students and get in trouble.  Their lackluster parents take objection that someone could possibly NOT like their child.  Hey mom and dad…I got news for you.  Your kid is a D-bag.

There’s a blame game going on with education.  It’s not fun to witness, let alone be a part of on a daily basis.  Let me explain…

The public, and government, it seems, always puts the blame on underachieving kids on teachers.    Teachers need to work harder, longer school years, we need more testing, merit pay, blah, blah, blah.

To an extent I agree that we need to keep higher standards for teachers.  We do.  However…what is wrong with under-performing, behaviorally challenged, and just plain out of it students is NOT a teacher problem it is a parent problem

My breakdown would look this way, when discussing the reasons behind why kids struggle in school.  Check out the breakdown.

50% Parents  ( I even think it’s closer to 70% this is conservative)

20% Teachers

20% peer groups

10% socio-economics

Let’s get this out of the way first.  I’ve BEEN in a school setting of some sort my whole life; In the Education end of it for about 17 years (counting student teaching, summer school work, etc.)

I SEE what goes on.   I also have the curse/privilege of working in a situation where I see nearly ALL of those kids who struggle with school for one reason or another.  I can look at their folders, and see their day-to-day interactions, I get the WHOLE picture.   There is a common theme to ALL of these kids….it’s a crap home life. 

I would guess 85% of the kids don’t have two parents.   When you call home…chances are there will never be someone home to answer, nor will there be a return to your phone call.  I’d say 50% or more have at least one parent in jail or have had at some point.  Many of these kids have attended school in numerous districts over the course of their lives….probably due to chasing the welfare system. 

It usually takes something as extreme as an expulsion or attendance board meeting to even get a parent to show up to a school event.  To give you an idea of how involved the parents are…we do a contest for our back to school night to see if we can get 20 parents or guardians to show up for the over 100 kids we have attending.  Over the last 5 years I think we’ve won the contest once.  We play it for open house as well as back to school night….we had to start counting kids who brought 18-year old friends as “guardians”

I’ve seen schools as well, with kids who have a very similar set of issues….the only difference is that their parents run the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum.   The theme is the same.

If parents are not ACTIVE or at very least consistently interested in the education of their kids…the kids will suffer, and there’s a good chance that the kids will do poorly.

Here’s how I know it’s not usually the teachers fault.

By the time I get these students…they’ve h ad to have had at least 15 teachers….they ALL couldn’t be bad…there’s something deeper at the core of WHY they are where they are.

It’s the parents.

Education is a tough road.  It requires work at home…and a lot of times, kids (I know it’s shocking) would RATHER not do school related work outside of school.  I know mine would.  I have to make sure they do their homework, and check it, and then make them re-do it if it’s wrong.    They don’t like it.  I also read to my kids, and they read every day…and have since they were old enough to pay attention.

Granted, maybe my role as an educator pushes me more to work with my kids at home than the normal parent….but even my own parents still cared about my homework…checked on my grades, went to back to school nights, etc…I had expectations placed on me that corresponded with certain privileges.  Even though my parents never checked my homework nightly, or proofread it much to make sure it was right…I had expectations which forced me to deliver…and if they weren’t met, there were consequences in place to see that they were.

These kids have none.

Take this example.

Kid A starts out school in kindergarten.  His parents haven’t read to him as a child…possibly due to being strung out on meth, or maybe their own lack of education led to a feeling of inadequacy with the subject, so they opted not to.

Kid A is already behind every kid who had a parent(s) that read to them.

Maybe these parents through that first year didn’t feel comfortable working with the student on their homework so they opted not to thinking, “well the teacher will do it…it’s their job to make sure that he can read and what not”

The parent conference comes…and no parent wants to come across looking douchie so they tell the teacher, when she expresses some concern,  “yeah we work with him at home all the time…’

 Maybe the parents get their act together and help some…maybe they don’t.   The kid is behind though….and if you carry this out for several years.  The parents usually become less involved, or too wrapped up in their own dysfunction to try…and the kid gets put far behind.  In many cases the parents aren’t together so it’s hard for two separate parents to enforce any kind of regularity with homework because they’re probably not speaking…and obviously communication wasn’t their strong suit anyway….because they’re DIVORCED.

It’s not the teachers fault or else the whole entire class would be behind, and facing adversity in the classroom.    These low performing kids often get bored because they’re too far behind the class  they act out, and fall farther behind…because they’re not paying attention, or are being disciplined so regularly that they’re not in class anyway.   These kids develop a bad self-esteem in regards to school work…so they don’t try because it’s easier to say, “I don’t care…” than it is “Hey, I don’t understand…I need help”

When the kids finally reach me, they’re GONE…or very close to it.   Our goal is to still try to help get them on the right path.  We do some of the time…but largely it’s not US that is the responsible party…it’s the kids realizing that they’re adults and can’t or don’t want to spend eternity in school.  Then they jump through the hoops necessary to get out.  The problem with this is that A) they’re not really learning…because they’re just trying to get done as fast as possible.  B) Teachers usually end up molding the hoops some to fit the kid.  The kids at these schools wouldn’t pass otherwise, unless the curriculum is modified for them to some degree.

Their diplomas are a lot like Barry Bonds home run record…impressive on first examination, but should have an asterisk next to it…because there was a lot of help in getting there.  Rarely do I see a kid leave here that makes me say, “There goes one that’s going to do great things.”   I’m mostly waiting for the day they greet me in Wal-Mart.

Now brings me back to the beginning.

The public, and the Government have to blame someone.  The public while they may agree to an extent with the bad parents churn out bad kids philosophy are reluctant to blame them…because either A) it would in theory mean they had to poke the finger at themselves to some degree, and B) they pay taxes for teachers…so they feel it entitles them to complain about them…and therefore blame.

The government blames teachers because they can control them.  They have no way to make parents stop being morons…so they blame teachers.  Studies come out where they say, ”statistics show that GOOD teaching is responsible for making kids perform better.” 

Well DUH. 

So if that’s true…then BAD teaching must be the culprit for why kids don’t do well.

I heard a principal say, “We can’t blame parents.”  Then listed some statistics…and followed it with…”We have no control over that…so we can’t use it as an excuse.”

This is not good logic. 

Sure, we have no control over parents…that part is true.  However, it’s THE PRIMARY reason we have the problems we do.

When people use the logic like the principal…they avoid the issue.  It’s like ignoring the elephant in the room.

We spend millions of dollars on in-services, trainings, testing, requirements, etc. to make teachers better at what they do…and it ALWAYS falls short, and ALWAYS will because we’re not addressing the problem.

Teachers do have some pull.  I think good teachers can take ‘C’ students and push them to getting ‘B’s’ or A’s…but consistent D and F students…and just out of it.  There are other issues there.

My thoughts today are drifting to the union…and specifically the CTA and NEA.  Big topics….The more I think about it…the less I think they’re needed in education anymore.  I know, I know, I know, at first thought it seems kind of freaky to say.  As educators we’ve always been told horror stories of teachers being abused by the admin…and their only help was having the union support to back them up.  Better safe than sorry. 
Why were unions created? 

To provide the members with better pay, benefits, and working conditions. 

I think that’s 90% of their purpose…there’s been a lot of other things they do thrown in to the bag along the way…negotiations, representation in various legal and political arenas, grievance procedures, etc.

Ask yourself?  How have the pay raises gone for you over the past 10 years?  How have the working conditions improved? Your benefits are better right? 

Probably, you’ve answered a solid no on all accounts.

You’re paying this large group of people to help you have these things…and they are NOT delivering.  I can tell you this…the people working in CTA are getting their cost of living adjustments every year…and they ALLLLLL make better benefits than you or I…even their office managers many of whom have considerably less education than you.

How is THAT possible?

Let’s take anyone who is represented by someone…most of the time those people are called agents.  Their job is to make sure their clients get paid….and in ALL of those cases those agents DON’T get raises or more money until they’ve delivered for their clients.

Has the union delivered anything to you? 

Think about this…

Could it be in the CTA and NEA’s best interest to NEVER help you? The longer the budgets stay screwy, the less money there is available…the more that “CUTS ALL ACROSS THE BOARD” loom….the more they can tell you that you need them.  

“We’re fighting for YOU….to make sure that these cuts don’t affect the classroom teachers, and jobs, and we’re making sure these laws don’t go into affect that would put 506 kids in your classrooms…..we’re protecting you from mean administrators who would fire you for just breathing wrong.”

Fear mongering is what it is. 

The way I see it is that there should NEVER be a reason teachers don’t get a simple Cost of Living adjustment EVERY year.  PERIOD.

When was the last time that teachers did ANYTHING as a group to prove a point?   There’s a whole lot of us out there…and if we ever decided to actually unify we could get what we want…I’m pretty sure of it. 

You can’t tell me that if the teachers in California said…”we’re sick of not being a priority in this state…and until you give us the same priority that AT VERY LEAST you do to prisoners….we’re not coming in.” 

How long do you think that it would take before things changed?  I say very little 3 days max.   The state of California averages 45K a year per inmate…and about 4K a year for students.   What kind of union even lets that crap happen without making a statement?

The way I see the union, and have for quite awhile is that it lacks backbone.   They NEVER do anything except run stupid phone banks close to elections so MAYBE we can elect someone who, hopefully, makes the budget more educator friendly. 

I don’t think I’m the only person who feels this way either…