I happened to see an email from a teacher designating a list of students as those who would be assigned an “alternative” final project.
Alternative in this case meant easier.
Evidently, this group of students failed to meet a series of benchmarks leading up to the due date, which was in mere days.
Setting aside for the moment whether or not you agree with even allowing an alternative so late in the game, the teacher included in their missive that the students didn’t meet the requirements “because of no fault of their own.”
No fault of their own.
My immediate thought was “Well then whose fault was it?” If the students’ failed—and let’s be honest, they did—then who dropped the ball? And how were the rest of students able to fulfill the requirements over the weeks and months leading up to the final project?
In other words, who is responsible? This is an important question because without someone taking responsibility, then it’s all a ruse. It’s window dressing over failure. It’s fakery to avoid the like-it-or-not truth that the students didn’t put in the work.
Honestly, this makes me feel as if I spent a day whale watching in the Pacific. Absolutely sick.
Maybe that seems harsh to you. But what we’re doing to students, and to the entire American educational system, which is spiraling into depths unseen, is propping them (and it) up with a magnificently gargantuan lie.
There is so much fear of looking bad (or worse than we already do) that we would rather sacrifice our students and their future by ignoring their pitiful academic skills and passing them along until they’re out of the system and no more our problem.
Reading and math scores are terrible and misbehavior is beyond the pale because ever since they were in kindergarten our students have . . .
Not been allowed to fail.
Given excuse after excuse.
Never really been expected to do their work.
Received way too much individual “help.”
Had little if any responsibility on their shoulders.
Been treated as if they can’t do it.
Had every excuse indulged and encouraged.
Had their grades inflated.
Been treated as if any offense to their tender psyche will ruin them forever.
Been getting never-ending chance after chance.
No, not every student. A small minority are self-motivated, come from a family culture of hard work, or see the light through an exceptional teacher or role model and thus don’t need any of the above.
Yet tens of thousands of teachers and administrators, brainwashed by the idea that high standards of behavior and demanding applied study are mean and/or discriminatory, will deny this is happening to your face while continuing to do it every single day.
I’m not denying that there are students with true learning disabilities that can benefit from alternative methods of teaching. Though small in number, they exist. However, they too often fall under the descriptions above.
The larger point is that when we lighten the weight of responsibility to listen, learn, and behave students do much worse in all three. They must feel healthy burden from morning bell to dismissal in order to succeed.
This weight, in the form of responsibility they cannot shirk or have others shirk for them, also feels good.
It fills them with purpose and pride in excellence and in work done well. It empowers them with belief in themselves, true self-worth, and confidence that they can overcome obstacles and prove wrong the silent naysayers—who sadly are often many adults on campus.
Real responsibility enables them to see what hard work looks and feels like. Most students in this day and age have no idea. Not even close. Yet, we send them out into the world like lambs to the slaughter.
No skills. No work ethic. And no will to do anything about it.
Sadly, the very students who need it the most—from broken homes, poverty, and gang violence—are given the least amount of responsibility.
Letting them off the hook may feel good. It may feel like the right thing to do in the moment. It may be something that they want and beg for, which is why it’s epidemic in nearly every public school.
But it crushes them in the end.
While students must take responsibility for their job—which is to listen, learn, and behave—we as teachers must take responsibility for ours—which is to hold them accountable for behavior that is required for success in school and teach great lessons expecting/demanding that they do the assigned work all on their own.
This is the answer. It’s how teachers, one by one, and then schools and districts can right the sinking ship diving fast for the bottom.
It’s a model which undergirds all of our strategies here at SCM and that ironically results in far fewer students failing and far more legitimately succeeding.
It’s also the only way.
But to get there you have to throw away the excuses, stop all the lies and coverups, and refuse to take part in the charade of fake grades and do-nothing credit that damages kids beyond repair.
PS – There are a lot great teachers and schools fighting the good fight. There is also a growing legion of SCM teachers infiltrating every school district.
If you too are sick and tired of the sham and dishonesty, and ineffective teaching and classroom management methods, please join us. Everything you need to have the class and school community you’ve always wanted can be found right here on our website.
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Thank you for this. So absolutely true. Very frustrating and unhealthy for all. 😰
How can students be motivated to learn?
Jill,
That is the million dollar question. My tool box is empty. My partner and I keep asking our students this question…they simply don’t care about learning if it involves more than a click or a swipe. Our expository writing unit is going to have the research how their life might look without a high school diploma and or some kind of higher education or trade school. They simply are not aware that education opens doors of opportunity. Student apathy on a daily basis is overwhelming and soul crushing for me as a teacher.
Sadly true
This is exactly why I’m leaving at the end of the school year.
Storytelling. Relevance. Love. Humor. Firmness to your standards and rules.
It’s not perfect of course, but choice, challenge, collaboration, and control can be included in lessons. For example, Robert Marzano said, “When given a choice by teachers, students perceive classroom activities as more important. Choice in the classroom has also been linked to increases in student effort, task performance, and subsequent learning.” Perhaps something like giving a choice between two books for a book study and report. Nothing outlandish. I would encourage you to read about the 4 C’s of Motivation within the classroom. It helps in my classroom.
I have found that making my lessons engaging in a way that invites them to to see the value and application of what we are teaching them. How do we see the lesson used/displayed in real life? Assign a special interest assignment where they get to be the expert with something they choose and are passionate about. Find current events or examples from history where the topic shifted a culture’s thinking and way of life. When I am excited about these things and take them into account in my lessons, my students are more apt to want to join in. Curiosity is in the heart of all of us. How can we awaken and encourage it?
Be clear the system is failing NOT the teachers….and be clear too that attitudes towards education begins out of the control of a teacher!
I agree! Many many teachers WANT to hold students accountable for their grades, assignments and even behavior BUT, they have their hands tied. We are NOT allowed to take anything away, give consequences, and for heavens sake- hold the parents responsible. Also, when a student(s) do almost absolutely NOTHING all year and even have failing grades, they (school district) STILL do not make them repeat a grade-as they say, “this is more detrimental to them than passing them on.” It is all a bunch of crap in my opinion. And to make it personal, this is what I had to fight with for my own children. They are given an assignment, due date is Friday, but in reality they have until the end of the grading period to get it turned in WITH full credit! This is ridiculous and it does not teach our kids anything about responsibility and accountability!!
Sorry, I’m going to have to stop because this topic just infuriates me. I could go on and on!!!!
This article is SPOT ON!! But, the question is, “HOW DO WE GET SCHOOL DISTRICTS, ADMINISTRATION, and PATENTS all on board?” I feel for kids today! This is not ALL their fault! It is the adults who have done this to them! And it all started with given EVERYONE a trophy for just showing up and sometimes they don’t even have to show up to still get that trophy!!
Or for giving them a piece of candy for doing everything they do! It saddens me to the core!!
Not all teachers are good at or qualified to teach. If they were good at their jobs we wouldn’t have kids graduating high school and reading at a 6th grade level.
Check out Dave Stuart Jr.’s student motivation course! It’s awesome! A simple Google search should take you right to it.
I LOVE DSJ so very much!
A motivated and organized teacher. Who can be firm but kind combined with support at home? ☺️
Personally, I think it’s a societal issue. It all starts with attitudes and values towards education. If it isn’t valued within families and students, no amount of money, legislation, or fancy textbooks are going to motivate students to do well. Cultures that value education are the most successful. Just my opinion.
I agree completely especially with your last sentence. I have had the PARENTS of a student who is very low academically take a off to vacation in Disneyland instead of coming to school, PARENTS who leave for holidays to another country and stay longer than the holiday period, Parents who if it’s “too cold” in the low 40’s won’t bring their child to school, but if it were to snow, they would be the first ones out there romping around in it. When we have awards assemblies in the morning, they take the students home as if we were just going to color all day instead of continuing instruction. If we are strict with our high expectations, the parents request that their child be moved to another class (and that teacher becomes upset with me). Your response is spot-on; I couldn’t agree with you more.
I teach a CTE class. I had several complaints from students and parents. I got called into the office and my principal was very kind. He said I had some honors students who were complaining and crying to get out of my classroom. I do what is asked of me. I hold them accountable and I get called into the office. I’m not teaching academics. I’m preparing them for the job force. When they go out in the field to get a job, my name is on their back. I’m proud of my work ethic and try to instill some professionalism and respect in my students. We just lowered our grading level. They still can’t meet the standards. Very disappointing and concerning.
Dee, So well said. Every example you provided is so true to life. I must comment on the problem of pulling kids out for vacations; When I was a in middle school – high school, pre-flu vaccines, I would inevitably get the flu every year, would miss a week of school, and then spent the rest of the trimester trying to catch up and was never quite successful. Over time, I gave up on myself as a student and postponed college until I was in my thirties. Fast forward to today, as a teacher, when I see parents pull their kids out of school for a week to go to Disney, I consider it as borderline abusive. Do they have an inkling about the anxiety they are causing their kids who return to school totally lost? Why don’t they get that their kids could be getting 80s instead of 7os?? Plus, I truly believe think teachers can magically double time and give these kids all the instruction they missed, while at the same time delivering instruction in current lessons.
I got caught up in this recently i am a career switcher and have one final semester till i finish my credential requirements. I am having work avoidance issues in my advanced class and when i sought to resolve it, the parents flipped the script on me, and i was removed from the classroom. I have swapped roles to become a specialist at my administration’s demand and very likely will not have my contact renewed. Sack the teacher. It’s a terrible way to enter teaching.
I agree, parents seem to be the culprits. They do not support teachers, and they don’t believe their children need to be respectful.
Yes, so true. Parents do not support teachers, but blame us for EVERYTHING! I am so tired of that. I have an ODD child in my room who disrupts class daily. The social worker gives me strategies that haven’t been working. Because the student says he doesn’t like me, the social worker seems to think I can fix this by having lunch with him and and rebuilding our relationship. Have tried that and his behavior has gotten worse. Also, his pre-K teacher, first grade teacher (who quit after her year with him-left teaching), aides who couldn’t handle him, second grade teacher who couldn’t handle him seem to not mean anything. They all struggled with him too. It seems to be all about me. I try daily to be patient and help this child. The aide in my room does too, however she is an aid for another student, and isn’t always with us and feels like she can’t help him either because he doesn’t listen to her. I call for security and no one comes. His mom blames me for his behavior as well as for her other son’s behavior (I had her other son three years ago- he constantly gets in trouble). She has also blamed every other teacher each of her sons have had in the past. I am near retirement age and don’t want to quit but I really don’t know how much I can take without support. I don’t want to have a stroke because of this child but he drives me there. My blood pressure sky rockets. He is nonstop with drama, babbling and repeated rantings. He doesn’t follow any of the norms we’ve had since the beginning of the year. He isn’t completing work and we are pressured to give nothing less than C’s. We have to reteach and reassign work to get the kids to be successful and not have failing grades. The accountability is on us, not the students. His mom doesn’t want me to get in touch with her unless it’s an emergency. She doesn’t seem to think this behavior is an emergency. She thinks it’s my fault. I’m so done.
IMO, motivation to succeed has to come from the inside. But, until they get there, they can be motivated externally. I teach 5th grade and we are limited to what we can do, but I can, and have, plan a fun day, but if you owe me work, you don’t participate. I am not allowed to take recess or give more than 20 minutes of homework a night, so I have to be creative. Eventually, my kids are motivated to keep up so they get to have a fun day!
Agreed! As a 3rd grade teacher and currently teaching 1st grade, ending Fridays with free choice has been a way to hold students accountable to completing classwork. They know they have to complete unfinished work during this time, so it places the responsibility on them. Some get upset and cry, but they understand it’s a consequence of their own making. They look forward to this time, which is highly motivating.
Same here in Germany… 🙁
A truly timely article and so very true. The problem is, this message needs to be read by admin and boards. Many of us our handcuffed and not able to make the necessary changes without losing our jobs. Government policies that state we cannot fail children, cannot ask them to hand in assignments on a certain deadline date (that’s an actual policy in my province for high school students!) and cannot be held accountable for trashing classrooms means that our ability to make significant change are truly hindered. Still, we cannot give up trying do our best with what little changes we are allowed.
Finally! Thank you for speaking the truth!
Excellent article. Nothing but the truth!
I love this. I believe this. I embody it in my classroom. But everything happening around me (including the college where I taught an education course) is beating me down in favor of grade inflation, alternative assessments, grading for completion alone. I am exhausted and demoralized after a thirty year career to have to fight for what I know is right. In my opinion, we need a massive, whole system reset where we simply don’t pass students along if they have not mastered the skills for the grade (and that’s just step one).
I agree, Michael, but your plan is not enough.
I have been saying the same thing–that we need a whole system reset!! The behavior, the apathy, combined with lack of accountability is destroying public education. I can’t wait to leave at the end of the year.
How do we reverse the situation we are in in public education?
Thanks for this truth. It is not late and can be done. No Child Left Behind policy needs to be revisited.
I feel like because I’m age 52, others make it a “age” issue…oh, she’s old school. I don’t believe so. People need to stop with the excuses and see what is happening for what it truly is.
I was holding standards as the article discusses, but administration argued. I am failing too many kids. The school district eventually got rid of me because I wouldn’t lower the grading bar and pass many of the students who put in little to no effort. I teach math, arguably, the most difficult subject, and many kids struggle with math. I find myself lowering the bar so much just to keep my job.
I totally agree with this article. But doing this can have repercussions on a career. I began teaching at the age of 47 after a career in business. Students had to earn and weren’t given a grade in my classes. Students were given the only thing that they should have been given – an opportunity. I gave students more chances than any other math teacher to improve their grades by making the effort. What was the reward that I was given because of this? I had the worst math classes in the school dumped on me. The teacher who curved his tests and quizzes so the high score was 100%? He got the better classes. Until administrators end inflating graduation rates by giving students who are functionally illiterate diplomas, this won’t change.
I agree with everything you said! I love your articles. I’ve been teaching more than 20 years. I switched to a Catholic school 10 years ago because it uses more traditional educational methods and I am allowed to hold students accountable and the parents accept it.
Yes, every issue becomes the teacher’s fault. No one is holding the students accountable for anything.
Students destroying the bathroom. Teachers you must monitor more closely. Check before and after they go in (even for middle school students).
Students decide they don’t want to pick up a pencil and even write their name on the paper. Teachers, you must allow them to do the assignment later (when they feel like it). You must accept it 9 weeks later if they decide to do it.
Student (in middle school) decides to leave the building. Teacher, it’s your fault for not watching that student more closely (even if there has never been any reason whatsoever to assume the student would ever do that).
Student (regular ed) failed a benchmark assessment because she finished it in 15 minutes. Teacher, you must remediate. You must offer tutoring.
Yes, I agree completely with this. This is exactly what is happening in schools. No accountability for students, extra accountability for teachers. The pressure on teachers is greater than ever. It’s no wonder they are leaving the profession in droves.
I have been teaching for 35 years in California and have watched what you are describing destroy public education here. They are throwing around the new catchphrase “equity” to devalue everything that builds character in students. In the name of equity grading, students at my school get 50% while not even attempting to do an assignment. Teachers are encouraged to have no due dates, change their grading system to only reflect what a student can do on a test, not grade homework, and make classwork or practice a very small part of the grade. Behavior expectations – what behavior expectations? Kids go to the office and get a counseling session, and are asked to come back to class and apologize with no other consequence – the admin thinks they are using “restorative justice.” I started out as a very enthusiastic, compassionate, dedicated teacher and at 60 years old am fighting for respect, fighting with unsupportive parents, fighting with the admin, and fighting with my students more than I ever had to in my career. Who would want to go into teaching right now? What will happen as a result of all of the lowered expectations? I’m in fight or flight mode every day at school, and at 60, I am exhausted from having to fight. Because I’m one of the last hold outs for having high expectations, many of my students and their parents think I’m mean and too demanding. Of course, some reading this would say – why don’t you retire? Sadly, I can’t financially make it because the cost of insurance would make my retirement income so small that I couldn’t afford to live.
I work in a private school and my two teens go to a public school (being a teacher’s kid at a small school was not a good fit for them). The difference is so vast I can’t even wrap my mind around it. My daughter, thankfully, has a desire to do her best. My son, however, would rather sleep than go to school. I have had to fight his school over and over to hold him responsible for EVERYTHING. I was finally able to get him into a behavioral school where they flat out said that the students do not rule the school, the adults do. It is truly an epidemic.
I could not agree more. We have learned at our alternative school that the key is to raise the bar, not lower it, on academic standards and on behavior standards. We’ve seen a real shift this year, thanks to following many SCM principles.
Great thoughts, insights, and challenges, Michael! Keep fighting the good fight!
Dear Michael,
You should go on CNN, and every morning talk show with this message. It is not an easy task to work with kids while they are doing hard work. But when they complete a task that challenges them, there is no amount of compliments that can feel as good as the pride and confidence that they feel within. Thank you for motivating me to keep fighting the good fight.
I think you are preaching to the choir. I 100% agree with the message but in most cases it is not the teachers’ fault. Whenever teachers try to hold kids responsible, their parents go to the principal and complain. Then the teachers are told to cave in to the parents’ demands. We are being told by the upper admin to treat education like “customer service” and keep the parents happy. We want to teach the kids responsibility and have hold high expectations. But principals will go behind our backs and change grades and throw us under the bus. I even had one principal tell us to never give zeros-give them 50%. Many principals are at the mercy of the superintendent and board members too. Parents will
Go above and contact the super and board first. Until we as a society as a whole value education things will only get worse
Thank you for speaking the truth.
Oh. My. Gosh. This is my 31st year of teaching I teach a 1/2 combo of 13 lids. I obviously love what I do since 8m still in the game, but I have seen our students change so much for a variety of reasons. What makes me more upset is when I hear the teacher below me, who also used to work above me, talk about what the students can’t do because they are so young: They can’t write because their small muscles aren’t developed. I can’t give them THAT score because they’ll feel badly about themselves. I have to give them an increase in numbers (1-4) on their report card because they need to see their growth.
Then I, yes me , hey then and they’re so low I’m having to reteach kinder to these poor little kids can’t do what they need to do, and now they cry when they fail.
How do I approach this teacher, who is in her later 60’s??? It’s AWFUL!!!!
Of course, she thinks I’m awful for having such high expectations of students, but now parents are upset with me since their kids are not performing as high as last year. 😳
I hate to see what our educational system will be like in a decade. Something needs to change.
Thank you! I love your posts!
Australian dad says, “It quite similar here, so I suspect the same could be said for many western countries”. And, so if we don’t strive to instil responsibility for actions, where are we (and AI) heading…?
While I agree that we are failing our students, I see that the failing is proper funding. When class sizes are 30-35 kids/class, it’s difficult to spend sufficient time with those who need it most. We need more funding to properly pay teachers in properly sized classrooms with proper resources. Be sure you and your community are telling your representatives to better fund our schools so we can be better educators and better learners with less distractions and more time per student.
What’s worse is the actual push against teachers who do expect their students to work and behave.
Parents tell principals teachers are harassing their child. Principals send teachers to deescalating workshops, PAR, SEL curriculum, threaten with getting written up. Students blame teachers for not just “letting it go!” I personally am sick after 23 years of teaching that this is what my career that I once loved and cherished, has come to this. Devastated at all I have invested in my expertise and pride of wanting to make a difference in this world, has come to this. Thank you for your post here.
This! This is the fight I fight every day. The only thing missing here IMO is parental involvement in helping their child succeed. Parents who take their kids out of school for family vacation, or allow them to stay home for “mental health” are doing more harm than good. In my class we set goals, we focus on effort, and I require the same skills from everyone. True, I may have some kids who need scaffolding, but they don’t get a pass! But if I don’t have parents as partners I may as well be talking to the wall. I refuse to take accountability for a lack of effort in the part if students or parents. The world is not going to be kind to those who don’t put in effort.
Nail. On. Head.
If graduation rates are up, it is not because our students got smarter or learned more. They are being passed through a system that, at top, cares nothing about their futures, only the numbers and the dollars they can bring in (or not). There are plenty of teachers doing their best to guide students to becoming literate, critical thinking, adult human beings with a hope of living a decent life. If we don’t hold the line on expectations, why should we expect our students to rise to meet them?
Write a part 2 on how to do all that with an administrator pushing something opposite of what’s in this installment. Write part 3 on how administrators have no choice but to hand down what the district leadership dictates. Write part 4 on how the public school is scraping for crumbs and allowing what you wrote about to happen because the opposite means fewer students, which equals less money.
I agree that the standards and expectations are generally low and are a disservice to the students. But “how you can fix it” requires more than what you offered as a solution.
I teach middle school students. I have a principal this year that is holding students accountable school wide. Students who are failing any classes are not allowed to participate in activities such as dances and field trips for FFA or FCCLA. Students who fail 2 classes will not be going to the high school. The principal has come around to each classroom and has reminded the students periodically. There are also consequences for inappropriate behavior. Teaching is so much easier this year. Students are happy to come to school and are learning. Teachers are happy and able to teach. Our theme is “Here to Learn.” Anything that hinders learning is not allowed.
If the final project is something where money and materials are required and the students can’t literally go to the store and buy it, an alternative should be offered.
Is that something that educators are putting into consideration?
Educators often provide the materials…even with elementary, kids who needed posterboard, I would get the posterboard for. All they needed to do was tell me and I wrote their name down. Now though, it’s years later. And, especially in 2024, the final project is more likely to be a google slideshow or media presentation, so lack of materials isn’t the problem. Lack of tech isn’t the problem either. Most schools are one-to-one or they have the tech at home. Lack of paying attention and realizing “oh hey maybe I should actually do something” is the problem.
I have been teaching elementary school for over 2o years.
Children have changed, so have the parents. School is not valued. As someone said above, trips to Disney world and the like taking precedent over school. I am dealing with social emotional issues. Consequently, the children cannot sit or listen. They have very few boundaries or expectations at home and I spend a lot of time parenting them. Many of the students have attachment issues and so I spend a lot time developing relationships and trust. I know I am having success and I thank you Michael for the articles that have helped guide my management plan. However, I am finished blaming myself for failing students. Society needs to change.
Thank you for being brave to say what many of us are so frustrated about. I’m personally tired of rewarding students for what’s expected of them, like what you said, “To be ready to listen, learn and behave.” This doesn’t translate nor does it prepare them for the real world.
Thank you, Michael. I look forward to reading your posts every week. I have long believed that students will succeed if they can. I teach 6th grade history and I have 4 tiers to my tests. To give everyone the same test is to set too many of my students up for failure. If a student fails again and again, they will stop trying. I know I would. By lowering the bar for those who struggle my students learn that they can get it done and they can learn and they can grow. As soon as a student does well, they get moved up. Many of them do, indeed, move up. Some are simply not capable of doing so. I do not let them do nothing. But I do provide a moveable bar. This is working for me. My students are succeeding. I wonder what you think of this.
As we say in the South, “Preach!”
On the note of widespread educational failure: In my opinion, the special education legal apparatus, while created with good intentions and doing significant good for some students, has done immense damage to the education system as a whole. The number, as well as the percentage, of students in the system with IEPs has climbed relentlessly since IDEA’s passage. There are massive disparities in diagnosis rates between states: New York claims more than 1 in 5 students (20.5% as of SY21-22) are disabled while Hawaii only diagnoses 1 in 9 (11.3%). But across all states, the trend is towards a greater number of students with diagnoses.
Do people honestly believe that more than 1 in 5 people have a disability that meaningfully prevents them from accessing a typical curriculum? Or that the number of children with disabilities actually varies so widely across states? There are some disabled students who do benefit from some of these services, as you express in the article, Michael, and they are who the law was written for. As a teacher, understanding the minds of some of these kids has helped me to develop my practice (usually in these cases, the child and their family are highly motivated). But in my experience, IEPs more often than not (~60-70% of the time) function as a way to use diagnosis as an explanation or excuse for academic and/or behavioral failure in a system that, legally (NCLB), leaves no other explanation available for failure. It is a way of letting the school, the family, and the child, “off the hook,” so to speak. In many schools I have worked in, academic failure in and of itself is often considered evidence enough *on its own* to pursue an IEP for a student, especially in the younger grades. I fear we are pathologizing/medicalizing failure, with terrible consequences for kids and for society.
On another note, I have a hopeful individual anecdote. I switched schools, subjects, and grade levels this year. I moved from teaching elementary, in a school full of families with strong values, to teaching middle school social studies in a challenging neighborhood, where parents are mostly uninvolved and instability at school is the norm. The students are used to teachers who are either consistent pushovers or opaquely and indiscriminately punitive. Most of them also know (almost) nothing. The push for “critical thinking skills” and success on standardized ELA and math tests at all grade levels has come at the expense of knowledge for kids of this generation (because god forbid we should expect kids to “memorize” – AKA know – anything). 90% of my 6th-8th grade students could not locate the state in which we live on a map of the U.S. when I arrived.
Your philosophy and strategies have made all the difference for my students this year. As you point out, students in the most challenging circumstances need this approach most. It is clear to me that many of my students this year have rarely – or never – had a teacher set clear behavioral and academic expectations and hold them consistently accountable. I can tell because many of the students that are labeled “difficult” are well-behaved in my class and often are insightful contributors. Starving misbehavior of the oxygen it needs to thrive (inconsistency or lack of clarity from adults, emotional reactions and lectures from adults) has allowed academics to take center stage, and once that happens, it is only natural to continue raising the bar. Thanks for your insights, even if, as you point out here, it can often feel like doing the right thing for kids means swimming against the tide.
Unfortunately, we teachers here in West Australia can’t teach kids how to be responsible or give them a true score – fail. They tell their parents on us (somehow many students are more manipulative beyond their years) their parents believe the story, phone the principal, we are called into a meeting and forced to give them a pass.
I feel many commenters have made good points and I’m not going to rehash that responsibility and accountability should be held in high regard.
My question/comment is, where is the line/point that we do make allowances. Is it physical disability? Cognative disability? Dyslexia? English as a second language?
The answer is probably not black and white and varies from case to case, but for me it’s the grey where they neither sit clearly in one or the other.
Thoughts?
Smart Classroom Management, your blog on ‘The Failing Public Education System’ is a thought-provoking and insightful analysis. Your candid perspective sparks important conversations about reform and improvement.
Agreed! Have you read the new book by Abigail Shrier? Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up. Really good stuff.
The irony is hard work and responsibilities build a child’s self concept, not undermine it. This is the irony. Some parents are so afraid if a child gets a bad grade which they deserve from attitude and refusal to do any classwork. They want to pull the kids from the school if they earn bad marks, so scared they will dislike themselves. Hard work gives self esteem. Just ask your kids to do a few things they don’t want to, small chores to contribute to the family. Their attitude change will be wonderful and they will like themselves more. They will feel important to the family. They will also try harder in school. I have seen this in my own kids and it would be wonderful if our culture can remember this. It’s ok to do things we don’t feel like doing. It actually makes us happier.