Another Teacher Leaves Classroom Chaos

  • Sunday, December 4, 2016

We should thank Ms. Cheryl Roddy for sharing the reason for her resignation as a substitute teacher with Roy Exum. He includes her letter in his recent article entitled "Why Our Schools Stink." All should read it, because it summarizes what has happened in many failing schools. It is little wonder that young adults flout the law when they reach the age of 20 and 30. By then, they have years of middle school and high school experience learning the joys of "do your own thing" while being aided and abetted by neglectful administrators. 

There are many reasons why our schools "stink," but one serious reason is the failure to institute and maintain logic based discipline. It is nearly impossible to teach if one or two students in a classroom refuse to follow a teacher's instructions and dominate class attention. It is impossible to teach if the administrator's actions (or lack thereof) enable the entire class to follow suit. Behind every good teacher, there should be a supportive high quality administrator. Good teachers do not survive long in tough situations without the support of school administrators. A teacher should not be expected to survive and thrive if they are battered like an island in a constant storm. Rapid turnover of new teachers and early retirement of veteran teachers proves this. 

I'm sure that some will see the plight described in Ms. Roddy's letter as what naturally happens to substitute teachers. However, that pervasive and false interpretation is the very foundation of disciplinary decline that underpins the destruction of many schools today. If you don't believe it, try observing the classrooms of top performing schools. There is a difference and the difference does not occur by accident. It is because they have a disciplinary system that works. 

Most teachers go into teaching, because they love children and are called to teach. They certainly do not go because they have heard teaching is the pathway to wealth. It is demoralizing and frustrating to repeatedly carry a dream of caring leadership into a classroom and be constantly disrespected or ignored by the people one hopes to improve. Nothing is more detrimental to a career than to seek the support of an administrator and be ignored. If you want to know why the turnover is so high for new teachers, you need not look further than Ms. Roddy's experience. Prior to being a substitute teacher, Ms. Roddy was an experienced teacher. So, even years of experience was not enough to help her survive. 

Folks, it's time to wake up and examine the origin of the "stink" Mr. Exum alludes to. We live in a world where intentional repetitive bad choices should have intentional meaningful consequences. The problem is, some children have difficulty learning a good behavior concept because it is not consistently modeled at home or school. If the standard for cooperative respectful behavior cannot be witnessed at school, where will it be learned? Many of our children live in chaotic homes. Far too many of our young people receive their first real consequence correction during an arrest. 

News Flash: A productive mature standard of behavior cannot be taught to a child if schools continue to embrace non-productive behavior diversity.  Here are examples of non-productive school behavior diversity: Chatting on a cell phone during class. Talking with another student when the teacher is addressing the class.  Standing and walking around in the classroom when the student is asked to remain in a seat. Playing music in the classroom whenever the student feels like it. School behavior should not be "do your own thing" and "anything goes." Society only works well when people learn that their diverse desires must be moderated in certain public situations to enable a greater good to occur. Schools that fail to impose discipline and/or fail to deliver consequences have no value. 

Oddly enough, children naturally seek and need discipline. Perhaps those of us over the age of 50 have memories of the old action consequence world?  Fifty years ago if you disrespected a teacher, you paid dearly for that both at school and after you got home. Today, we know many students are left free to raise themselves. They get up when they want. They come home when they want. They roam the streets on school nights. Many of these neglected autopilot children seek and freely find discipline through induction into their respective gangs. They thrive in an ordered world of gang actions and consequences, until the day they are locked up or killed by the bullet of someone who taught them a serious consequence for disrespecting a fellow gang member. 

It is unrealistic to assume that schools, teachers, or school administrators can be all things to children. However, it is not too much to expect that order and discipline exist inside the classroom from first bell to the last bell. If this cannot occur, then teaching programs should be retooled to lead to degrees for more highly qualified correction and parole officers. We will surely need more of those. 

Deborah Scott

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