School anti-bullying policies too weak, report says - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Latest News
Posted using ShareThis
Great sentiment!... but you cannot legislate kindness. Every teacher will tell you how they actively discourage taunting and bullying whenever it rears its head. Every administrator worth their salt will make it clear that bullying and harassment is against the rules for student conduct, and they will make deliberate efforts to arrest it. However, as children lurch into maturity, they will insist on having their own standards for interacting with each other; and adults cannot manage peer interactions all day. As a middle school administrator and parent of "tweens" I can verify that students have a host of socio-political identity groups where they retreat for affirmation. Not all of them are equal. Some groups are structured around what is most popular. Others -- thank heaven -- are based around academic achievement, while still others are misfit groups who sometime draw scorn from the majority of their peers. Nevertheless, not every cold stare, rebuff or round of name calling spells doom for an adolescence's self-worth. Kids seem to survive it all... They all ways have.
Instead, using character education and present school law, adminstrators must continue to set the proper tone in schools, encourage staff to be vigilant about blatant taunting and bullying, and judiciously assign consequences for the more serious infractions of intimidation, harassment and fighting. I beg your pardon, but this [initiative] sounds like more appeasement. And I smell grant money, staff hires and more monitoring of local public schools at the root of it.
Showing posts with label public school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public school. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Paying for Grades
The latest gimmick for duping black people into a handout mentality, further undermining our genuine brilliance and drive, is to pay for better grades. This is a farce, and it will not work. As long as education is not pursued for the sake of building basic learning skills, satisfying wonder, and gaining the immense self-confidence that comes from completing an ardous task, there is no reward.
There are many reasons why a public education should stay "free." Compensating children now will undermine their ambition, not increase it. And if you think there is a bullying problem in public schools now...Wait until the science nerd starts hauling in a bigger "pay check" than the woodshop student.
Then again, spending a few million dollars paying the children of the poor for a marginal improvement on their report cards, could muzzle the cry for spending hundreds of millions on job creation for their parents...Hmmmmmm?
There are many reasons why a public education should stay "free." Compensating children now will undermine their ambition, not increase it. And if you think there is a bullying problem in public schools now...Wait until the science nerd starts hauling in a bigger "pay check" than the woodshop student.
Then again, spending a few million dollars paying the children of the poor for a marginal improvement on their report cards, could muzzle the cry for spending hundreds of millions on job creation for their parents...Hmmmmmm?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Schooling IV: Defiance
This installment of 'Schooling' was prompted by a teacher at the middle school where I am vice principal. She was compelled to rant after being faced with yet another bout of in-your-face student defiance that occurred during her lunch duty. Willfull disobedience disobedience best describes it. My collegue was justly exasperated from it. This problem can be so pervasive in some schools that it takes on a subculture of its own and it can be difficult to discern. It occurs all over the public school landscape, but it is a particularly a troublesome phenomenon on the middle school level when adolescent children began to assert their will more stridently. Teachers are mostly caught off guard despite the lessons on adolescent development we should know. Now let me not approach this topic sheepishly.
If it is true that public schools in general get a bad rap, then it is especially true that "urban" schools get maligned for the failures they manifest. Dozens of movies have been made with the theme that goes..."Predominatly Black and Hispanic schools are out of control." Dangerous Minds and Lean On Me are two of the most memorable examples of cinema depicting urban schools that are all but unsalvagable. Recent documentaries on Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore Maryland, and Little Rock High School in Arkansas remind us that the problem is not purely ficticious. In fact the issues are prevalent and real. At the core of problems in most of these schools, weather they are large metro schools in Los Angelos or Chicago, or small urban villages such as the middle school where I am assistant principal, is an entrenched subculture of apathy and disrespect for authority connected to poverty.
Sometime we conveniently refer to a variety of societal factors in order to obsolve students for not engaging opportunities that public schools still hold for them. However, few people discuss the impact of individual will on a student's achievement or failure in school. I contend that the law of attraction manifests in school frequently. Just as water and dust find their own levels and collect to create a dominant environment, so to do poverty and apathy. People often over look, or disregard the fact the public school districts are the major employers -- if not the only employers in many low income communities. Consequently, the contrast between community norms and common middle class expectations of most America schools becomes blurred.
In as much as I am an adminstrator of public schools, and a Black person, I am not given over to apathy on the subject, nor am I motivated by self-loathing. Instead I feel compelled to explore answers to these all too familiar phenomenon, and address myself to their installation when I can. That brings me back to my collegue. When there exists in schools an unbridled inclanation by many students to do as they please, without regard to authority, your school has been seriously undermined by social norms that make educational success a virtual impossibility for the school's majority.
When aggregated, student defiance of routine direction from teachers, and their antipathy for rules constitute the majority of infractions in most schools. However, when schools are sizable and obstinance is so frequent that it demoralizes teachers, it can create a stagnant pool for negative norms to culture and grow. Norms that burden a school with the invisible pull of their gravity. In affect, it becomes likely that only a fraction of your most fortuitous students will succeed on par with pupils in schools where a traditional learning environment prevails. Until administrators hold truely high expectations for both the routine and infrequent conduct of pupils, and stand against the enabling behavior of some parents and staff, more lofty aims for academic achievement will be weighted under by a culture that works against them. Novel prescriptions like school uniforms and affirming speeches will never be more affective then a persistent expectation for mutual consideration and respect.
If it is true that public schools in general get a bad rap, then it is especially true that "urban" schools get maligned for the failures they manifest. Dozens of movies have been made with the theme that goes..."Predominatly Black and Hispanic schools are out of control." Dangerous Minds and Lean On Me are two of the most memorable examples of cinema depicting urban schools that are all but unsalvagable. Recent documentaries on Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore Maryland, and Little Rock High School in Arkansas remind us that the problem is not purely ficticious. In fact the issues are prevalent and real. At the core of problems in most of these schools, weather they are large metro schools in Los Angelos or Chicago, or small urban villages such as the middle school where I am assistant principal, is an entrenched subculture of apathy and disrespect for authority connected to poverty.
Sometime we conveniently refer to a variety of societal factors in order to obsolve students for not engaging opportunities that public schools still hold for them. However, few people discuss the impact of individual will on a student's achievement or failure in school. I contend that the law of attraction manifests in school frequently. Just as water and dust find their own levels and collect to create a dominant environment, so to do poverty and apathy. People often over look, or disregard the fact the public school districts are the major employers -- if not the only employers in many low income communities. Consequently, the contrast between community norms and common middle class expectations of most America schools becomes blurred.
In as much as I am an adminstrator of public schools, and a Black person, I am not given over to apathy on the subject, nor am I motivated by self-loathing. Instead I feel compelled to explore answers to these all too familiar phenomenon, and address myself to their installation when I can. That brings me back to my collegue. When there exists in schools an unbridled inclanation by many students to do as they please, without regard to authority, your school has been seriously undermined by social norms that make educational success a virtual impossibility for the school's majority.
When aggregated, student defiance of routine direction from teachers, and their antipathy for rules constitute the majority of infractions in most schools. However, when schools are sizable and obstinance is so frequent that it demoralizes teachers, it can create a stagnant pool for negative norms to culture and grow. Norms that burden a school with the invisible pull of their gravity. In affect, it becomes likely that only a fraction of your most fortuitous students will succeed on par with pupils in schools where a traditional learning environment prevails. Until administrators hold truely high expectations for both the routine and infrequent conduct of pupils, and stand against the enabling behavior of some parents and staff, more lofty aims for academic achievement will be weighted under by a culture that works against them. Novel prescriptions like school uniforms and affirming speeches will never be more affective then a persistent expectation for mutual consideration and respect.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Schooling III: Ten Reasons Why Public Schools Are Needed
I so often hear people, from all walks of life, rail against the failures of public education...Sometimes for very good reason, but often as a result of misplaced expectations. Initially, public education was to act as a bulwark against widespread ignorance over universal truths, like science and math. And as a hedge against insurrection fomented against a fledgling nation and, later, in opposition to those who would operate against a world power. It would prepare the masses to succeed as leaders of the republic, and as captains of industry.
The right to an education is not expressly mentioned in the Articles of the Constitution. Instead, it was interpreted as a right by the U.S. Supreme Court, by virtue of the 'pursuit of happiness' clause. That is about all the agreement that exists in this country over public education. As with many other laws, the Constitution leaves it to her individual States to implement its civil liberties. Most people know the history of uneven allocation of educational resources practiced by this nation manifesting from its 'separate but equal' laws. Even before that legal imposition, wealthy people, routinely pursued a private education whenever they could. That brings us to now, when after decades of miseducation, neglect and widespread criticism, and sometimes unfair mischaracterizations, public education -- particularly urban and rural education -- is seen as the least desirable option for children by many quarters of our society.
That leads me to the following list of ten reasons why public school is still an important civil right, and to why, despite its shortcomings, it remains the best proposition for the American public, especially the urban and rural poor.
1. Education is not free, or even a right, for people in many nations around the world.
2. Public schools are still a viable means of providing a basic education for the masses.
3. Schools provide a place of custody for millions of children in the country while their guardians try to access the labor market -- keeping them safe from neglect or exploitation.
4. Schools provide a free or reduced cost meal for children who might otherwise go without nutritional food.
5. Public schools provide an efficient means for rendering other essential services such as health care and information that might not otherwise reach needy families.
6. Public schooling holds possibilities for inspiring youth and families to exceed limited expectations and improve their standard of living.
7. Most schools are connected to other non-academic opportunities for youth such as athletics, music and the arts.
8. Public education encourages diversity and tolerance, directly or indirectly.
9. Schools are businesses. They provide employment and recreational opportunities for neighborhood residents that help stabilize otherwise blighted communities.
10. Public education is a means of perpetuating the best American ideals of opportunity for all.
Why doesn't this enumeration include the lofty notions of academic excellence, ingenuity, or a free range for young American minds that most educators are trained to espoused? Because that is simply not a reality for all school.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Schooling, Part II
An unusually interesting presentation was given at our middle school during a teacher inservice day last week. There are about four such days scheduled during the school year -- when students have the entire day off while educational staff come into to work on issues in the field. I say that the presentation was unusual because it was successful at engaging everyone while staying relevant. This is rare. Mostly, topics address mundane issues such as data, that have been addressed many times prior. The result being that experienced staff act disinterested and new teachers become glazed.
The presentation given by the Foundation for Educational Administration (FEA) was entitled "Brainworks." It focused upon the class status of people, and the typical attitudes and norms that inhibit, or aid their transition from one socio-economic position to the other. The focus here was decidedly on the conflicting norms and expectations faced by teachers with largely middle class values and their -- often poverty class -- student body. Now this is an interesting dynamic to start with because despite how apparent this convergence is, most public schooling attempts to avoid such an examination in a (futile) effort to appear egalitarian. It's not that the topic has escaped examination, however. It has been broadly tackled by social scientists and school consultants as diverse as Jonathan Kozol (Savage Inequalities) and Jawanzaa Kunjufu (Motivating and Preparing Black Youth) to name just two. However, their work tends to have more currency in academic halls, on lecture circuits, and during keynote addresses. Once the schoolhouse opens in September, teachers and administrators do all they can to avoid discussions of racial, ethnic or economic realities that almost always impact the results of student achievement by June.
That is why our rare bout of professional introspection last week was a refreshing change. In my role as administrator, I hear too often from disaffected students, and their parents too, how "'ya'll aint't teaching nuthin' or ya'll ain't doing nuthin'." This is mostly a reference to consistent failures among a certain segment of the student body to graduate high school on time, or to pass a standardized test. Sometime they refer to the indifference this same subgroup has for complying school rules -- be they discipline or persevering through support (basic skills) programs intended to help them. My experience has been that despite the best rhetoric on instructional diversity, academic inclusion and student-centered teaching, rank and file educators are thoroughly moded in an arcane approach to instruction that has the student conveniently anchored at their desk, pencil in hand, and cooperating with the teacher's every directive.
Few teachers, and to be fair, their administrators, insist on applying the best practices for today's learners -- especially those from diverse backgrounds, or diagnosed with certain modern afflictions. For examples, I refer to certain tendencies among (some) students in the following subgroups. There is an increasing number of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, or even Hyper ADD. Yet, despite being afforded a classroom with a second teacher -- ostensibly to help them focus -- class instruction stays as routine as if they were all a group of teenage science cadets. [And Referrals for discipline of classified students are rarely more tolerant that for regular education students]. What of poor students? Often indigent students must maintain a double-consciousness if they are to persevere through school. They have to balance middle class expectations for performance and decorum with a casual disregard, or even intolerance for these values, at home in the 'hood, the barrio, or some inhospitable rural setting. When you combine this psychic duality, and the pressing need to compete for social recognition among their more privileged peers, indigent children trod uneven corridors.
How do African-American and Hispanic children fair? Whether educators want to admit it -- or are even conscious of it -- they too often enter the urban schoolhouse with preconceived notions about the real possibilities these children might have. Sometimes, even teachers with the best intentions attribute the much promulgated underachievement of Black and Latino students on standardized tests directly to their cultural habits, and not to the inequities of the system: archaic testing modalities, under-resourced schools, or inept leadership at many levels. I have observed that too often "loud" Black girls and street-fashionable Latino boys are immediately heaped into a corner of low expectations and administrative referrals. Young Black men, who would not harm a hamster, are immediately perceived as menacing for their attitude, or for loosing their temper with a teacher even once. Now consider the delima faced by an indigent special needs ethnic student. One who enters a school where he is in the minority, and faced with all the expectations of a 20Th-century learning paradigm and little if any family advocacy.
To be fair, teachers often have the best intentions, and most do a laudable job with multiple classes of two dozen pupils or more; each with their own personality to unpuzzle. Indeed educators have the task of dispensing a homogenized state-driven curriculum intended for consumption by a locally grown heterogeneous student population. The task is daunting if taken seriously. And it must be. All the more reason why we need to take the gloves of the discussion -- just the way we did last week.
The presentation given by the Foundation for Educational Administration (FEA) was entitled "Brainworks." It focused upon the class status of people, and the typical attitudes and norms that inhibit, or aid their transition from one socio-economic position to the other. The focus here was decidedly on the conflicting norms and expectations faced by teachers with largely middle class values and their -- often poverty class -- student body. Now this is an interesting dynamic to start with because despite how apparent this convergence is, most public schooling attempts to avoid such an examination in a (futile) effort to appear egalitarian. It's not that the topic has escaped examination, however. It has been broadly tackled by social scientists and school consultants as diverse as Jonathan Kozol (Savage Inequalities) and Jawanzaa Kunjufu (Motivating and Preparing Black Youth) to name just two. However, their work tends to have more currency in academic halls, on lecture circuits, and during keynote addresses. Once the schoolhouse opens in September, teachers and administrators do all they can to avoid discussions of racial, ethnic or economic realities that almost always impact the results of student achievement by June.
That is why our rare bout of professional introspection last week was a refreshing change. In my role as administrator, I hear too often from disaffected students, and their parents too, how "'ya'll aint't teaching nuthin' or ya'll ain't doing nuthin'." This is mostly a reference to consistent failures among a certain segment of the student body to graduate high school on time, or to pass a standardized test. Sometime they refer to the indifference this same subgroup has for complying school rules -- be they discipline or persevering through support (basic skills) programs intended to help them. My experience has been that despite the best rhetoric on instructional diversity, academic inclusion and student-centered teaching, rank and file educators are thoroughly moded in an arcane approach to instruction that has the student conveniently anchored at their desk, pencil in hand, and cooperating with the teacher's every directive.
Few teachers, and to be fair, their administrators, insist on applying the best practices for today's learners -- especially those from diverse backgrounds, or diagnosed with certain modern afflictions. For examples, I refer to certain tendencies among (some) students in the following subgroups. There is an increasing number of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, or even Hyper ADD. Yet, despite being afforded a classroom with a second teacher -- ostensibly to help them focus -- class instruction stays as routine as if they were all a group of teenage science cadets. [And Referrals for discipline of classified students are rarely more tolerant that for regular education students]. What of poor students? Often indigent students must maintain a double-consciousness if they are to persevere through school. They have to balance middle class expectations for performance and decorum with a casual disregard, or even intolerance for these values, at home in the 'hood, the barrio, or some inhospitable rural setting. When you combine this psychic duality, and the pressing need to compete for social recognition among their more privileged peers, indigent children trod uneven corridors.
How do African-American and Hispanic children fair? Whether educators want to admit it -- or are even conscious of it -- they too often enter the urban schoolhouse with preconceived notions about the real possibilities these children might have. Sometimes, even teachers with the best intentions attribute the much promulgated underachievement of Black and Latino students on standardized tests directly to their cultural habits, and not to the inequities of the system: archaic testing modalities, under-resourced schools, or inept leadership at many levels. I have observed that too often "loud" Black girls and street-fashionable Latino boys are immediately heaped into a corner of low expectations and administrative referrals. Young Black men, who would not harm a hamster, are immediately perceived as menacing for their attitude, or for loosing their temper with a teacher even once. Now consider the delima faced by an indigent special needs ethnic student. One who enters a school where he is in the minority, and faced with all the expectations of a 20Th-century learning paradigm and little if any family advocacy.
To be fair, teachers often have the best intentions, and most do a laudable job with multiple classes of two dozen pupils or more; each with their own personality to unpuzzle. Indeed educators have the task of dispensing a homogenized state-driven curriculum intended for consumption by a locally grown heterogeneous student population. The task is daunting if taken seriously. And it must be. All the more reason why we need to take the gloves of the discussion -- just the way we did last week.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Education
There is much to say on this topic. In fact, because the term is so broad, it implies an almost unlimited number of possible subjects. For my purposes I am referring, specifically, to the subject of formal (public) education. And, generally, to the subject of education derived from individual, self-driven study. I make a life for myself as a public school administrator. So naturally, I have a perspective on education that manifests in a number of opinions on how our schools work for, or against, the pursuit of education. However, I thrive in this life as a result of my own self-driven pursuit of "true knowledge of self," and the peace and understanding that comes from that pursuit.
I must admit that I came into public education aimlessly. After a prior "career" on the fringes of public administration, I decided to cash in my certificate of eligibility from the New Jersey Department of Education and 'go into the classroom.' I was motivated by a latent activist spirit and the need to create a stable lifestyle for my yet unborn children to join in with me. The only real training I had were the models afforded me by a handful of my best teachers from elementary and secondary school. However, I was full of idealism from the charge to go forth and 'give back to your community' gotten from my HBCU experience. This, layered with a considerable survey of black nationalist literature, formed my approach to working in public education -- in the beginning.
In the past ten years, I have gone from an idealistic classroom teacher in an urban (IE., predominately black) school with almost missionary zeal, to an administrator in a suburban (predominantly white) school and back again. I now work in one of New Jersey's thirty plus "Abbott Schools." The state's supreme court ruled that Pleasantville, NJ is one of dozens of municipalities in the state that cannot provide a 'thorough and efficient' education to its residents do to economic inequalities that form the basis for school funding. Basically, the school district is on welfare so that it can educate its children to meet the state's standards. The students attending this school are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. Not surprisingly, these experiences provide me an advantageous perspective on the topic of education which I plan to expound upon in subsequent installments. However, I will close this entry with a series of guiding questions derived from the experiences I've had so far in my career.
What is an education? What is the goal of public education? Are racial factors contributing to the (comparative) underachievement among blacks and Hispanics?...or is it a red herring? What should children be learning?
I must admit that I came into public education aimlessly. After a prior "career" on the fringes of public administration, I decided to cash in my certificate of eligibility from the New Jersey Department of Education and 'go into the classroom.' I was motivated by a latent activist spirit and the need to create a stable lifestyle for my yet unborn children to join in with me. The only real training I had were the models afforded me by a handful of my best teachers from elementary and secondary school. However, I was full of idealism from the charge to go forth and 'give back to your community' gotten from my HBCU experience. This, layered with a considerable survey of black nationalist literature, formed my approach to working in public education -- in the beginning.
In the past ten years, I have gone from an idealistic classroom teacher in an urban (IE., predominately black) school with almost missionary zeal, to an administrator in a suburban (predominantly white) school and back again. I now work in one of New Jersey's thirty plus "Abbott Schools." The state's supreme court ruled that Pleasantville, NJ is one of dozens of municipalities in the state that cannot provide a 'thorough and efficient' education to its residents do to economic inequalities that form the basis for school funding. Basically, the school district is on welfare so that it can educate its children to meet the state's standards. The students attending this school are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. Not surprisingly, these experiences provide me an advantageous perspective on the topic of education which I plan to expound upon in subsequent installments. However, I will close this entry with a series of guiding questions derived from the experiences I've had so far in my career.
What is an education? What is the goal of public education? Are racial factors contributing to the (comparative) underachievement among blacks and Hispanics?...or is it a red herring? What should children be learning?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)