After watching the news on TV, which repeatedly highlighted the cell phone video & snippets of the teacher's interview, I had some serious reservations about the circumstances surrounding the attack and the legitimacy of the teacher's explanation. Now, don't get me wrong, under no circumstances do I believe that a physical response is the appropriate one for a student to have. And I do whole-heartedly understand the fact that there are fantastic teachers who are attacked with non-existent repurcussions. However, I have to ask whether or not this issue brings to light not only the issue of the failure of certain administrations to report violent incidents, but also the role of building relationships between teachers & students, as well as between administrators & students.
This past Monday, Dr. Alonso was in my classroom for about an hour. As a part of his lesson with my class, he highlighted the relationship between suspensions & student achievement data. His information was well presented, and my students picked up on the correlation that he was drawing between higher suspensions and lower test scores. In fact, when he asked my students to raise their hand if they had ever been suspended... nearly 75% of them did so. This definitely resonated with them. The most interesting thing that I took away from his entire hour-long visit though, was when Dr. Alonso asked my students for suggestions about what the policy should be to thwart would-be violent incidents, and even suspension-worthy incidents overall. My students responded that a) they did not believe that the student attack was appropriate in any way, but that b) building relationships between students and teachers is the best preventative measure to something like this happening. To be quite blunt, one of my students said that if a teacher disrespects him, that he will disrespect them back. To this, a saw a room full of bobbing heads. It's the Golden Rule, with a teenage twist.
So, I have to ask: are we spending too much time focusing on the reactive measures, as opposed to the proactive measures? Relationship building, counseling, and extracurricular activities that students are actually interested & engaged in are a must. If students don't have an outlet, or are in a classroom where the teacher continuously yells at them, belittles them, or quite simply doesn't give a damn... will suspending them or revoking other privileges make a difference? I'd argue that as soon as they are placed back into that toxic environment, that they would revert to their original behaviors.
There are certainly students that I have had adversarial relationships with in the past. Admittedly, I also feel that the vast majority of these relationships could have been "flipped" if I had given a little with my own classroom rules and expectations. Is it important to hold high expectations? Absolutely. Is it acceptable for students to come into class day after day, put their head down, and refuse to work because they worked late the night before? Absolutely not. Is it acceptable for students to curse at the teacher? Absolutely not. Is it necessary for a teacher to issue detention every time a student utters a curse? I'd argue not... This was not the teacher that I was last year, though. I thought that I was being principled... and I'd venture to say that I was being obstinate some of the time. I understood the concept of holding my students to high expectations - but was doing so, withouth exception, having the desired outcome?I don't want to come off as being "soft" or making excuses. I think that what occurred, and the decision that the student made to attack the teacher was inexcusable. On the other hand, I do think that it brought to light important issues that we have in our schools (and as Dr. Alonso has recently pointed out via use of the media & bcpss website: http://www.bcpss.org/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp) for community involvement and relationship building. Is what occurred the student's "fault"? I'm not so sure how to answer that... in my heart of hearts, I believe that at some point, that child was failed. Her actions were inappropriate, but I have to wonder what was going on inside of her head that led her to make that decision. If she had the support services that she quite possibly needs, or had more supportive relationships with teachers in her school (which she very well may have with some teachers), could this have been prevented? I seriously doubt that a long-term suspension or expulsion is going to change her outlook on life... which, to me, is troubling. So, while I absolutely believe that high expectations are essential... I have to question whether or not we need to let our "softer" side show more often than many of us do (myself included). Can we do this, while still setting our students up for success and working to bring them up to par with their more affluent peers? I believe that we absolutely can...
3 comments:
In response to Teacherlady,
I'm appalled that you would even suggest that the reason Jolita Berry got beat up in her classroom for asking a student to sit down is because the she hadn't built a relationship with her students.
This is tantamount to saying she wouldn't have been beat up if she had been more chummy. Or-- to take it a step further-- popular kids don't get bullied.
Jolita Berry might be a bad teacher (who isn't in their second year of teaching?) but that is no excuse for someone who is only a year or two away from adulthood for attacking her in class.
I had plenty of bad teachers growing up, and I never dreamed of beating one of them up. That girl did that because the climate in that school allowed her to think it was a line she could cross. By that I mean that if small things-- cursing in class, walking the halls, disrespecting other students, showing up without materials-- were being addressed, then those would be the lines this girl would be crossing, and attacking a teacher over a simple request would be on the same distant unimaginable horizon as it was for me growing up.
I am tired of hearing about how we teachers have "failed" poor at-risk students who are simply disrespectful and need to be made to understand this.
Helen Keller was a monster before Annie Sullivan gave her some sharp discipline. Our students, as "needy" as they may be, are perfectly intelligent, and perfectly capable of acting appropriately. The failure here is in a far too permissive school system unwilling to call them out on their inappropriate behavior because it is easier to feel sorry for them than to expect greatness.
I usually lurk and try not to respond, but I had to here. I think the two points missed by nibor2000 in the comment were clear in the original post:
(1) "Under no circumstances do I believe that a physical response is the appropriate one for a student to have."
(2) "I think that what occurred, and the decision that the student made to attack the teacher was inexcusable."
Both of these premises give the rest of the post context. We can't be happy with a system that focuses just on obedience and punishment (VERY LOW on a scale of moral development ). There are interesting ideas here on how to how to encourage moral development through relationships. We want kids doing the right thing because they are empathetic and because they have internalized what is right and what is wrong - not just because they are going to get punished.
I'd like to clarify a point or two (or three):
1. I tried really hard to make sure that I clarified my belief that the student's action was by no means appropriate. However, I suppose that didn't come off as such in my stream-of-consciousness diatribe. So... it was entirely inappropriate. Not appropriate at all. Never appropriate.
2. I'd agree with your point, Nibor, that there need to be consequences. In fact, I prefaced my explanation by saying: "However, I have to ask whether or not this issue brings to light NOT ONLY THE FAILURE OF CERTAIN ADMINISTRATIONS to report violent incidents, but also the role of building relationships between teachers & students, as well as between administrators & students." I suppose that I should have highlighted my assumedly implicit thought that administrations drop the ball when they don't implement appropriate consequences. However, I stand by my thought that so much of the actions that call for consequences could be prevented by "relationship-building" or "resource-providing" actions by schools' staff (teachers, administrators, community members, support staff, etc).
3. I also had some pretty horrific teachers. I also never dreamed of beating them up. However, I also never went to school hungry, failed to receive counseling resources, lacked adequate medical/emotional care, etc... had I been pushed to that point, and lacked those important, fundamental, physiological components to a healthy life... I just might have snapped.
So, I'd just like to close by saying that, like I said in my post, I'm ALL FOR structure & consequences. However, I don't think that they can ever be the be-all-end-all of school reform as it pertains to student behavior. I truly believe that we are doing a disservice to our students if we fail to provide them the support that they need, and then condemn them when they make horrible choices. We, as a society, need to take some responsibility as well.
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