I visit many schools in Maryland, especially Baltimore area schools and get to see what is occurring as an outsider. I am launching this series to help the powers that be know what is occurring in the schools from an unbiased perspective as I'm not a teacher nor do I have kids attending. Hopefully, this will help them know what they should do to help restore the US to the number one spot in the world academically.
Scenario 1: School Secretary & Young Student
School Secretary: Whose book bag is this? I said whose book bag is this?
[Talking to a teacher ushering in a line of young students]
Please pull one of those kids into the office for me.
[Talking to the student that was pulled in]
School Secretary: Maisha, whose book bag is this?
Maisha: It's Levante's.
School Secretary [announcement]: Levante XXX report to the office.
[Levante, a boy who appears to be about 7 years old appears.]
Levante: You called me Ms. XXX
School Secretary: Yes, I called you, Levante. Is this your book bag?
Levante: Yes.
School Secretary: Levante, Your mother spoils you so much that you are not even responsible for your own book bag. You left it in the middle of the hall and someone brought it to me. Take your book bag and get back to your class.
Sociable Susan’s perspective: I feel her choice words and tone of voice were too harsh for a boy of that age. She should chastise him for his actions but how she did it was unneccessary.
Scenario 2: Several Teachers Lunchroom Discussion on Students’ Behaviors
Students' bad behavior starts at home. A lot of is parental. These students are not taught respect or morals and it funnels down to their interactions with all adults including teachers. Another issue is absentee parents. You'd be surprised at the number of grandparents raising grandchildren in this area.
Students don't even get suspended for what they should be anymore because it makes the school look bad. And you know that when there's no accountability so they act out because there are no consequences. Our schools are not preparing them for the future. The US used to be number one in education. Now other countries have passed us. Many of these kids don't even have school supplies but they have the latest iphone, Blackberry, clothes and shoes. Their priorities are really distorted. One particular kid asks me for supplies all the time, so one day I told him, “I’ll have to claim you on my taxes this year.”
Send them home and have them come back with their parents then they'll start acting right, but the school won't do that because the parents get upset. The parents blame the schools. They keep blaming the schools for everything. We blame the parents because it all starts at home. When I was coming up, I was scared of my parents, especially my mother. When I acted up my mother tore me up. I remember when I acted up in school one day. As soon as I saw my mother I knew she was going to whoop me, so I ran home. I was going to get the belt all right, but it wasn't going to be in front of all the students and teachers at school. That's why I ran home. I did get what was coming to me when I got home but I never acted up after that again. However, you can't touch them now. You can't even pull a belt to them. So they act up.
The parents are too busy with their own lives. When my boys were young, I would pop up each month at their school unannounced. If their teacher said they had done anything, they knew they were going to be punished. These days the parents don't want to be bothered with their own children. I don't even know why they had them.
I'm a teacher here and in this school we deal more with behavior than with education. We the staff are happy when kids behave well on any given day. We say, oh so and so is having a really good day today. That's ridiculous. All kids should be trained to be on their good or best behavior and have a good day every day at school, but that's not what's happening.
That’s why I’m a teacher’s aide. I have been one for 16 years and I will continue to be one. I don’t want to deal with the crap these teachers have to deal with here. See how they stress everyone out. Right now the Principal is stressed because it is getting close to test assessment time. Hear how he’s going on and on the PA system? He’s stressed out and he will make everyone one of these teachers stressed out too. It’s a mess that drizzles down. That’s why I don’t want to be a teacher.
Sociable Susan’s perspective: Raising children takes a village, so both parents and teachers are responsible for children’s behaviors. Blaming each other doesn’t work. Both parties should work together on behavior modification techniques to get the desired results. However, I totally understand that getting these two groups to work together is easier said than done.
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