Public education is a mess.
Toxic coddling has destroyed it. There is no “rigor” or accountability. Standards are staggeringly low and students have few boundaries.
If you speak up on campus, you’re either ignored or gaslighted.
Every approved and accepted method of classroom management by the powers that be only makes behavior worse—PBIS, SEL, MTSS, and restorative justice practices to name a few.
Nowadays, you have to hide effective methods like Smart Classroom Management (SCM) for fear you might get called into the principal’s office and told that time-out or grades below 50 percent are too harsh.
So what can you do?
Well, this past fall more often than any other time since SCM was founded, I’ve been contacted by schools and districts to help train every teacher in our approach.
In nearly every case, the movement away from these disastrous, permissive methods and toward what actually works and is best for students was started by a single teacher.
They first spoke to a trusted colleague. They slowly brought others in and built strength in numbers. Then they brought their concerns and the solution up with the principal.
This last part is key.
Complaining will get you nowhere. Your principal, however, or superintendent would love to hear solutions. With a promise to make their job easier and bring peace and higher test scores to your community, they’ll listen.
Please understand, I’m not soliciting for business. I only work with schools and districts that are committed. Moreover, I’m busier than ever.
Besides, you don’t need me personally.
Our books are written for any teacher to take any group of students of any grade, no matter how chaotic or out of control, and transform them into a hardworking, motivated class that loves coming to school.
They’re also not part of any publishing company scheme to siphon millions of taxpayer dollars from school districts and state governments.
So if you’re sick of it, then do something about it. Speak to your closest teacher confidant first. Then reach out to a few more. Build a small coalition of like-minded warriors and then bring your solution to the boss.
Forgive me, but too many teachers, and people for that matter, let life happen to them.
They wallow. They complain. They watch their health deteriorate from the daily stress of teaching while an entire generation wastes away, unprepared for a challenging future.
The truth is, all those bureaucrats in district and union offices and government buildings don’t know a whit about what’s happening on the ground and in classrooms. They also make their decisions based on virtue signaling and personal politics instead of what really works.
But you know better.
You see it everyday. You live it and have experienced the plunging decay of behavior, social norms, politeness, and motivation and the strategic lowering of standards to try to conceal it all from the public.
You know that this current crop of students is unprepared and nearly illiterate, with little understanding of work ethic. Many are lost to their electronic devices and destined to be cared for by the state.
It’s tragic and getting worse. And we have yet to see rock bottom. But the power is with you to change it.
It starts with a single conversation.
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