My Instructional Reality
I’m a dying teacher. Metaphorically and professionally. I feel it. I am not old enough to have experienced the Golden Age of teachers instructing merely on reading, writing, and arithmetic. I can only imagine the innate pleasure in being able to truly instruct students. Nowadays, teachers are secretly fighting to provide basic instruction in the classroom. I personally am tired of the secrecy. So, I want one rant, cry, and written statement to say goodbye to my career of wonder.
For me to provide quality education, students need to be educated, guided, and motivated IN- and OUT-side of school. That is whole learning. That is how education is successful. I do not teach the privileged students who have access to whole learning. My area of teaching is for students with limited or no access to whole learning. My students often are labeled (e.g., EH, SLD, LD, EMH, etc.) or have a history of conduct problems. To provide quality education to my students, I have to maneuver around administrative, political, and community mumbo jumbo. It feels like I have to fight to perform my job at the best interest of the students. It’s exhausting and somewhat counterproductive.
Annually, new requirements are enacted for the purpose of increasing learning in students. Annually, funding is reallocated to meet these new requirements. To teach means to adhere to the requirements. These requirements stem from non-instructional constituents of state, county, community, or parent groups with little or no practical experience in teaching or background in instruction. Principals are simply supervisors who make sure teachers conform to the requirements. The current structure of the school system is inadequate to meet the needs of the nation, parents, and students. The system’s counterproductive ruse sugarcoats the actual learning achieved by students.
This is — WAS my instructional reality.
Teaching
It was hard to teach to EVERY child. Yet, I enjoyed it. My specialty was the “struggling” students. Those students near jail time, no family life, or considered time- or effort-wasters due to attitude issues. To me, instructing them made being a teacher fun, exciting; and made those summer months off well deserved.
I became a teacher to provide instructional tools that help student learn not merely for one grade, but for all grades: elementary through post-secondary. Basic math skills learned in fifth grade helped in learning algebraic functions in ninth grade. Reading skills learned in third grade helped in understanding Caesar in tenth grade. Each grade built knowledge upon what was taught. That’s how my teachers taught me, and that is how I learned.
I am tired of teaching for scores. Teaching for the tests or socioeconomic class equality. I am tired of teaching for the parents and so-called-parents. I am tired of teaching for the bureaucrat, politician, and highly educated researcher. All who spent less time instructing students than attaining status.
Each year, fourth quarter is my quarter for “secret” teaching. I secretly have to teach my students how to write in cursive. I have also taught my students how to budget and balance a checkbook. It teaches them to align number and decimals when performing a mathematical operation. I secretly have taught my students responsibility to teach them how to organize their schedule and understand how actions affect consequences. Secretly I have taught my students sportsmanship using basketball. It teaches them how to not fight with fists and guns and how to use appropriate language and actions. Secretly I have taught my students football positions. It teaches students about physics momentum and center of gravity.
Students
I have had students with barely the minimum knowledge of the reading, writing and arithmetic; which are the cornerstones of an education in America. By the third grade each student should know the basics of reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. By fifth grade each student should know the basics of mathematics: multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Why did I encounter so many students lacking these basics in secondary and post-secondary settings?
I have had students who do not know where Japan, China, or England is because they do not even know what states abut their own state. I have had high school students who wish they knew their multiplication table beyond the sevens. I have had middle grade students who struggle with addition and subtraction because the basics of place value placement was not taught to them. And, yes, my students were the ones who were problematic in other class like social studies, science, math, etc. because their ability to comprehend the words was below the grade level of the textbook.
My students were ones who proudly decided to put off pregnancy until the tenth grade; yet do not know that a baby grows in the uterus. A few have repeated grades thrice. A couple regularly came to school the next day after spending the night in jail. Some helped their family make money by working until 3 a.m. or 5 a.m. Though there were various home-life environments, all I needed to remember was that I had students. What happened outside of my classroom did not waylay instructional time.
I have been a professional Language Arts, English, and Reading Teacher for middle, secondary and post-secondary students. Nearly all of my students were 2-7 years behind in their reading grade level learning. They were considered “struggling”. A bit of an understatement especially, when a student is in the eighth or ninth grade and reads on a second or third grade level. So for my “struggling” students, I utilized three rules in class; there was no need for more. I discovered that the one item all my students wanted was respect. Intellectual respect for what they knew and what they did not know.
So I used my three rules of respect and the class environment changed. If a new student or even a visitor broke a rule my students readily corrected the person and gave explanations to support why the rule exist. My “struggling” students did not resist learning or informing others of what they have learned.
Teaching was not solely instruction by me and learning by the students. The environment thrived on everyone believing that they learned from students of all academic (A, B, C, D, and F) levels. Everyone was respected as being smart according to how they learned. By the end of the year it was norm that my students would increase their grade level learning by two years. Students with a second grade or lower level in learning would increase by one year. Not bad when the student is still required to use at grade level material. Teaching Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, and other classics using original verbiage takes strategic instruction and patience. My students always made me proud.
Education Promoting Repetition
This is America. Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Choice. Freedom of Equality. But not in our educational system. Teachers, students, principals, paraprofessionals, and all other specially trained professionals who live to provide instruction to our future leaders lack these freedoms. None of these professionals have the freedom to communicate what is right for the education of our future generation. Communication means to speaks and be heard. Professional educators are not being heard.
Since there is a constitutional law to keep religion separate from government. There needs to be a constitutional law to keep non-educational professionals from tampering with the institution of education. By non-educational professionals, I am including everyone who had not had training AND actual experience in teaching. So that includes communities, churches, senators, republicans, democrats, immigrants, most parents, and other educationally uncertified and inexperienced individuals.
Students during 1950s – 1980s were America’s last generation of diversity. Students graduated high school and college with a sense of self.
Self- compassion,
Self- empathy,
Self- respect.
Those students learned of other cultures, traditions, and beliefs because school was still basically about the 3R’s. Those decades were filled with innovative inventions because diversity existed education. Even with religious undertones, racism, inequalities and other social unrest present in the school, education was not stifled by the selfish needs of a few.
Education today is ignorant with safety. Wording is changed or removed in books across all subjects. Entire novels are stricken from the curriculum due to the fear of being insulting or prejudice. Suddenly Mark Twain’s language choice is offensive. Teaching about the body parts is vulgar. Historical facts are omitted. Cursive writing is a useless skill. Really. How can the same education that has brought America this far be insulting, offensive and insignificant? America has been told over and over that it is the leader of the world. America has gained a big head. Now it wants to rewrite how it came to be by rewording its history.
Think back in history. Most misconceptions on race or cultural relations were based on ignorance. These misconceptions have led to internal strife, economic challenges, environmental disasters, and questionable opinions of political factions. Students are not allowed to justly form opinions because “offensive” history is not being taught resulting in generational confusion of truth. Student education is being relegated to what and how they learn; thereby, preparing our future Americans to repeat history because of their ignorance. There are many historical events in America that need not to be repeated.
* The Civil War occurred from differences between North the South.
* Causes of The Great Depression are similar to the current economic climate.
* The Dust Bowls of the 1930s are reminiscent of the present dust storms.
* Ideas of the Know-Nothing Party are comparable to certain political ideas today.
Labeling Education
Remember when the country and educational system expected from the student? You know, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” type of expectation. From that belief we went to the moon; affected civil rights; developed and influenced supercomputers and United Nations; increased global communications using internet sites like Facebook, Tweeter, and MySpace; and affected international incidents like the Berlin Wall, Russian Democracy, Libya, and Egyptian protests.
Maybe there has been too much inspiration from music television of MTV, VH1 or BET. Because our society now is filled with “What have you done for me lately?” There is no sense of accountability, but plenty of culpability.
Slowly, the ideas of America are being killed through the misuse of the educational system. Students feel entitled because the current educational system degrades the learning being provided. The system belittles the intellectual possibilities of the students’ minds. So pieces of learning are provided. Whole learning is not taken place in the classrooms. This explains why our students are unable to function well in society. Even students appearing normal, smart and well adjusted have an increased chance of being a maladjusted adult. We are training our students that if they misbehaved, it is because of a particular disorder, not because of their refusal to mature. This is due to intellectual and behavioral OVER-labeling. Students use labels just so they can say there is a reason why they cannot spell, deduce, research, infer, trace, differentiate, or grow up. The labels empower and entitle the student.
Life includes the insulting, offensive, and slanderous parts. It is a part of growing up. American students are not prepared to live, much less, compete with citizens of other countries, beliefs, or cultures. Other countries experience war, famine, inequalities, and other injustices far worse than America. From those variant difficulties come great people and ideals of potential greatness. Our students are not being prepared to operate or live with the upcoming generation of the world.
Misbehaviors are labeled or reasoned to be from rearing. A child tantrums repeatedly and he/she is labeled. A child bullies repeatedly and he/she is labeled. A child steals repeatedly – labeled. A child kills repeatedly and he/she is condemned; and then later – labeled. The labels provide the child with a reason to forego maturity. Just like in education. Labels absolve students of intellectual inequalities and behavior wrongdoings. Parents, guardians, child advocates, and the educational system accept these labels and excuse the student of working harder and maturing.
Politics of Education
The educational system needs to diversify the learning intelligence of the student. That is the only way America can compete with other countries. I blame the judicial system for my inability to teach today.
I think that the court judgment of McCollum versus Board of Education District 7 concretely introduced the judicial system into the deconstruction of the educational system. (Not Brown versus Board of Education, which was a judgment for civil rights and equality; and had no bearing on WHAT is taught in the public educational system. It was focused on the WHO was taught.) Anyway, I think that the judicial branch overstepped its bounds by dictating what can and cannot be taught in schools. I am stating that education needs to function separate from the compulsive secular viewpoints of persons with no actual instructional training and experience.
Seriously, how much religion was taught in school before McCollum versus the Board of Education District 7? I mean really. I do not recall there being a class on the Bible. There were no mandatory – as in you had to attend – class period on the Bible. Nor were there classes on how to pray. Those are courses taught at churches for those persons choosing a religious connotative life.
I do recall seeing kids saying grace at lunch. It did not bother me. I do recall students going to religious clubs – still, I elected not to join; so, the club did not bother me. I joined my own clubs: band, credit union, track, riflery, SADD, etc.
What bothered me was that those who wanted the religious organizations would simply give up and not contest the value of their club. They would simply complain to each other, but do nothing. (Much like the society of the America today.) The clubs would disband. With the disbanding of clubs, removal of subjects, and rewriting of topics comes the removal of diversity.
If religion cannot be in public schools, then how long until science is banned from school? Scientology is a religious faction based on science. So it stands to reason that eventually a group will reason that sense science is a religion; then it should not be taught in public education.
I am not stating that religion should be a part of education. Yet, I am stating that education needs to include diversification. Students are competing with various ethnicities and cultures from around the world. Our businesses thrive on imports and exports to various countries. America is no longer an island unto itself. No country is. The world may be compromised of various continents and countries, but with the advancement of technological communications the world basically is one international, intercultural, country.
Communistic Education – It’s an Idea
I do not think education should not be regulated. It does. In a communistic form. The government should mandate the basic learning of Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Science, History, and Physical Education up to Grade 5. The Supreme Court should uphold these basics. Since these courses will act as the basis for further student knowledge, each student will have the opportunity to gain a solid academic grounding. No one group or sect can contest a course or activity at the school since only the required basics will be taught.
The Superintendents of Education from each state, with a general doctorate in education, will maintain an international awareness of what other countries are learning and innovating in education. Every three years, the superintendents will create a national list of standards up to Grades 5 for usage by all states. This will keep America’s education on a competitive level. The state will then require each county to submit five forms of Order of Instructions, which lists when each State Standard is taught.
Each school can select which Order of Instructions will be used based on the testing scores of the upcoming student population along with a statement reasoning the choice. If the upcoming student population scored low in last year’s assessment for Main Idea, then more time and classroom instruction can be coordinated to instruct on Main Idea. Instruction then can be coordinated to best increase the learning gains of each student, even in a whole class environment. Periodic state approved assessments along with a professional summary can alert principals and counties if modifications are needed.
Education for Grades 6-12 becomes a state level issue. Each specific state should require courses in State History, U.S. History, Geography, Foreign Languages, and History in International Relationship. Courses in mathematics should also include a quarter or semester in metric or international measurements. Other courses in international affairs to promote student comprehension; thus, competitiveness, should also be included in the curriculum. Multicultural languages should be offered no later than sixth grade and students should be required to take four years of one non-English or home language.
Statewide, in Grades 6 -12, the individual Boards of Education (BoE) can determine what courses will be offered at what grades. Based on regional demand, the BoE can also determine which language will be offered. Certain areas in Ohio would require German; whereas, various areas in Florida would require Spanish; BoE needs to have the ability to determine which language is offered based on community factors. Other foreign languages should be offered within the BoE as an option to multilingual students.
Extracurricular activities offered should be based on the ability to compete in the community and offerings at state colleges. That is, a school should not have a football team if there are not at least five other teams to play against. Activities and clubs should coordinate with state colleges to ease student involvement at a post-secondary level and encourage student enrollment.
Teacher delegates in the subjects of math, English, science, history, foreign languages, ESOL/and physical education should manage the instruction for Grades 6-12. The delegates in each state can be selected from a pool of teachers selected for Teacher of the Year at each school or another teacher resource. These delegates need to have six or more years teaching experience in at least two of the three educational areas of elementary, middle, high school, and post-secondary. Having a doctorate degree is not necessary, but having at least one year of graduate studies in a subject in education is required. Other provisions will need to be put in place, but the restoration of America’s education needs to begin in a year not dilly-dally for a year.
Diversity
There are plenty of schemers/convicts/plagiarizers; sorry, I mean students, who are the products of this Clockwork Orange educational system. Upon entering kindergarten, students are placed on a conveyor belt towards twelfth grade. As they pass each grade, they are handed prepackaged boxed uniform knowledge.
As the belt moves, a few students open and use the contents; other students do not and move to the next grade not learning. At the end of the conveyor belt the quality of learning received is really limited in diversification. This type of knowledge is fine for elementary students in an elementary world.
By limiting diversity in students we are encouraging humanistic egocentric thinking that is found when one sect, culture or race believes it is superior to another because of its ignorance. Lack of diversity also affects a student’s ability to understand, sympathize or empathize with other humans from different backgrounds. How can we expect students to understand plights or issues when they have no awareness or knowledge of variant human conditions?
Teachers — What’s Important
I know to most, salary is important in selecting a career. I also realize that teachers are paid considerably less for all the services they provide. Teachers understand and accept their salary as part of accepting instruction as a career. Funding for kids, vacations, and other expenditures – outside of food and housing – takes planning, discount shopping, and budgeting. The only major money issue every teacher worries over, despite the best budgeting skills, is retirement funding. In being a teacher, the main importance is the instruction of the student.
Education is only successful when whole learning is provided to the student. When a teacher gives homework it is for practice. Classroom instruction has a built-in assumption that supplemental help and motivation will be provided outside of the school setting. The current educational system alleviated the teaching of basic fundamentals trusting that parents, guardians, or other child advocates would fill in the learning gaps for students to continue to receive whole learning. If a tutor or adult is not available to assist that child, the child does not receive whole learning.
With the current society of two-income or single-parent homes, whole learning cannot be provided without the student receiving additional help outside of the classroom. From my own experience, my mom was a single parent who depended on family members and educational systems such as headstart and afterschool programs to give homework help. Even with those measures, my mom still would verify that my homework was done. She still was the parent. As my grade levels increase, those programs were not available and I received help and motivation from my older brother or from friends who had my class and teacher. Without the needed support, the educational system cannot provide instruction that each student deserves. Unwisely and at the expense of student learning, goals continue to be established for testing requirements using this broken education system.
Though I am dying as a teacher, there are teachers capable of providing exceptional instruction to students. Our society has reoccurring and new hardships in all social and governmental areas. Our students are not prepared for the world or national responsibilities needed to resolve these hardships. Some will say their kids, school, or educational system is prepared. But that small population is not sufficient to manage the communities or population the size of America.
Currently we have graduating too many students of entitlement. These are students who do not know how to respect themselves or respect others. We have children maturing into immaturity.
This dying teacher’s last request is for teachers and other educational professionals to be given the right to instruct for the benefit of the students – only the students. Not for scores, not for politics. As a teacher, all I wanted was to provide academic and life instruction for each of my students. Just like my educational system provided me. As a teacher, all I wanted was to provide guidance for when a parent, guardian or mentor is not around. Just like my teachers provided me. Education encourages continuing thought. Teachers encourage continuing existence.