Test scores are looked at as the primary focus of education today and much time, effort, and money is expended trying to find ways to improve those scores. Curriculums have been revised, benchmarks have been established, and rigorous attention is given to teaching the material on the test.

What the general public is probably not aware of and doesn’t appreciate is the amount of time teachers and other school employees spend on discipline and behavior issues. The single most frustrating thing teachers tell me is not their low pay. It is not conditions of the building itself. It isn’t lack of supplies. It isn’t the textbooks. It isn’t the lack of technology. Although all these things are important, the most frustrating and challenging issue for today’s teachers is the amount of time they spend on discipline and managing student behavior.

We feel the same way in the office too. I start the day with a grant proposal on my desk, trying to do some research and write a grant that would benefit our students. That work is constantly interrupted by student discipline issues. From the mundane to the serious, student behavior issues dominate our day. It extends to our bus drivers and even the custodians and cafeteria workers.

“But Brian”, you might say, “you work in a high challenge school. It isn’t that way everywhere.” I submit that it is and that in schools across the state and the country teachers spend an incredible amount of time dealing with discipline issues that suck up very valuable class time. Teachers are under the gun as never before to raise their students to an expected standard, and every time they spend ten minutes trying to get Joe to sit down in his seat and stop doing impromptu rap performances, they feel that time slipping away. At the end of the day no one in the public will care that they did a good job in this area. They will look at those test scores in the newspaper and make a judgment about how well the school and its staff performed.

I look back to my own school experience and think why (except for those err..few unfortunate incidents) I behaved in school.

I both feared my teachers and also wanted their approval.

I feared my principal as a god-like figure in the office.

I knew that if I misbehaved at school there were going to be consequences at home that I seriously wanted to avoid.

I was intrinsically motivated to do well in school because I wanted to succeed. I was also quietly competitive and wanted to do better than my classmates.

I didn’t want to disappoint my teachers or my parents.

I generally liked school and found it interesting.

A great many of today’s kids lack many, if not all, of these motivators. I can tell you right now that by middle school the fear is mostly gone. They know that there really isn’t much that the school can do to them if they fail to obey the rules. Some of them fear the administration slightly more because they know the administrators can suspend them, but a lot of them view that as a vacation. Many of our parents work very hard to try and control their kids, but so many have lost control long ago. I can tell within two minutes of the start of a parent conference if the parent has any sway over the child. Sometimes they are worse with the parent than they are with the teacher.

So we are left trying to be consistent and creative with kids, trying to have order in the classroom and in the school. We try and keep all the kids in the classroom without damaging the ability of the teacher to work with the kids who aren’t misbehaving. It is easy to see why it would be frustrating to the teacher. Some teachers are more effective in classroom management than others, but virtually all of them have to deal with problem behavior on an almost daily basis. I am sincere when I wish some of the critics of public education would come spend a week substituting in class. You have no idea if you’re not there.

School is a reflection of problems in the larger society. Ignore this problem and they won’t suddenly turn into well-behaved tax paying citizens when they turn 18. Kick the worst ones out? Then they are roaming the streets and getting in even more trouble. Get parents more involved? Absolutely, but as previously stated many parents have lost their influence over their children. I know of several middle school aged boys who have been physically abusive to their mothers. More counseling services to deal with anger management and behavioral issues? My school has two full time therapists and a social worker. They are working hard with kids and I hope it will make a difference over time. Mentors? Sure thing. There are some excellent mentoring programs that need to be expanded and need more volunteers. Alternative schools? Yes, these schools can be helpful with some students but some have behaviors that even alternative schools cannot deal with.

One of my teachers is a retired sheriff’s deputy. He teaches and coaches during the day and often goes and knocks on doors in the evening, talking to parents about their kid’s behavior, attendance, and grades. He doesn’t get paid for this. He does it because he cares about the kids and wants to help them. When he points his finger at a kid and says, “do that again and I’ll be sitting on your momma’s couch tonight”, he means it. He is doing the Lord’s work, unnoticed and generally unappreciated except by those who know him. He does all of this for a salary that a 20 year old assistant manager at McDonald’s would sniff at. No, they aren’t all like him, but there are more of them than you think.

So……anyone want a teaching job? We’re hiring!

Labels: Education and Schools

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