Entry #28 - March 29, 1999
"Many of our parents, too, simply don't understand why we don't
take a stick and whack the kid! 'He be bad -- you beat him!' some say, in
all seriousness. These culture clashes are not easy to overcome."
It's great to have our support staff back! Already the floors shine like
mirrors again, and depleted supplies like paper and band-aids are reappearing.
Best of all, these wonderful people who are so much a part of our school
family are back on the job. Naturally everything is less than rosy, since
some problems have merely been put on hold, not solved, but at least we
are in business again for now.
After mulling over various strategies to deal with my "mutineers"
from one particular homeroom, I decided the best approach was to speak to
their teacher directly and ask if, as a bit of change of pace, he would
like us to work on some math topics? Since he had previously asked me to
review this material with his students on occasion, I thought that request
would raise no suspicions and just come across as a how-can-I-help overture.
Oops. I was wrong.
He was immediately suspicious. Why did I (or they) want to do math? Their
language skills were the main concern, etc. etc. True, I allowed, but several
are failing math, and I mentioned, generously, that he allocated a great
deal of his homeroom time to language skills (I couldn't bring myself to
say he TAUGHT them!) and perhaps the kids needed a change of pace?
Mercifully the whole conversation stayed friendly and matter-of-fact, but
he got very emphatic about meeting the standards for the grade (Hah! I thought)
and how this is what the students should be working on. I smiled to myself,
and when he mentioned his class would be doing "novel studies"
(meaning he will tell them to read a novel) I suggested I read one with
this group and have them prepare their final assignment (whatever it is
to be) for him to mark for credit towards their term report. This seemed
to meet with approval -- at least for now.
I'll see if I can find something that's really interesting, even if a little
difficult for them to read independently... Our problem is the scarcity
of anything more recent than 20 years old in the way of books. Most kids
are not at all interested in some of the battered classics from the 60's
like "Lost In The Barrens" and "White Fang" -- and those
are too difficult for them, anyway!
Meanwhile, our whole staff has been sobered to learn that an extremely violent,
disturbed student who had been terrorizing other kids, stalking a young
new teacher (threatening sexual assault) and who had finally been suspended
after trashing the office, will be returning at the end of the week. We
had been given to understand some other placement would be found for this
young man who, although he is 14, could easily pass for 21 or older in the
company of adults -- tall, burly, physically well-developed.
Our schools have been cutting programs for disturbed and difficult students,
while at the same time support systems in the community -- child welfare
agencies, mental health services and so forth -- have been pared past the
breaking point. It turns out there IS nowhere for this student to go --
we HAVE to take him back. The teacher who was being stalked is beside herself.
Apparently she has been told nothing can be done until he physically assaults
her. Other students who are afraid of this particular malefactor are easily
led into negative behaviors by him out of fear and a certain amount of admiration
of his outlaw-style chutzpah.
On the Middle-L listserve
there's been an interesting discussion of what to do with seriously disruptive
students. In most schools I've been in, keeping after the parents usually
had a positive effect. But that rarely works in our school, because teachers
cannot speak to parents directly -- nor can the principal, for that matter.
Few of our parents speak or understand English, and some of the 20 or so
language groups in our school community speak relatively exotic languages
which are hard to find translators for. Of course, translators have been
cut back along with everything else (to the point that for Special Education
IEP meetings we have occasionally been reduced to using mentally challenged
students as "interpreters" for parents -- a legally dubious procedure,
in my view).
Many teachers report that persistently keeping the parents on top of their
children's lapses from acceptable behavior is the best solution. But what
do you do when you cannot communicate with them, and have to book a translator
for Farsi or Yoruba weeks in advance? The immediacy of regular contact is
lost. Many of our parents, too, simply don't understand why we don't take
a stick and whack the kid! "He be bad -- you beat him!" some say,
in all seriousness. These culture clashes are not easy to overcome.
I mentioned to our principal that some places require parents to accompany
their misbehaving offspring in school -- a consequence I imagine most middle-school
kids find DISTINCTLY un-cool! She loved the idea -- but said we could never
do such a thing here unless the laws are changed. Indeed, many of our problems
stem from our inability to develop local solutions: the recent trend has
been towards a homogenized, one-size-fits all approach to curriculum, evaluation,
behavior codes and everything else, and most regulations are centrally dictated.
Perhaps that could work in a more homogeneous district, but ours, with almost
350,000 students, needs more school-based autonomy and power to develop
solutions and programs for local needs and conditions.
Of course, no one asks us teachers what is needed, what might work, or even
for any input into the new curriculum and secondary school reforms! The
bureaucrats I spoke with who are responsible for most of these initiatives
seem to be very well-intentioned but certainly far from having a front-line
understanding of problems and solutions.
So here we go again, off to reinvent the wheel -- and when this attempt
doesn't work as planned, instead of analyzing our mistakes and building
on successes, no doubt we'll be told to throw everything out and start over
with some OTHER new scheme! Ah, Education! The bandwagons just keep "comin'
around again!"
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