learnteach | Somedays, I get it.

Somedays, I get it.

Little lost lambs, straying...what could be stupider than a sheep? A willful High School student. I spend more time on basic discipline than on teaching here, and it's worn me down to where I understand why the Lord would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and why you can't find a good man there--"Good" is relative; in the land of the goof off, the one working is the one who gets their stuff stolen or pilfered or stuffed full of paper, and verbally ridiculed, and physically abused.

So, in short, I haven't defeated the prevailing culture of violence and stupidity completely enough. And if you are not part of the problem, you better duck and cover. And...wow.

School should use computers. No, really, we're in Silicon Valley; the students are all carrying machines (cell phones, music players, game systems) that can literally give them all the answers, but the State Requirements (derived from the Federal Requirements) is that they close the books, sit in a room, and pass a test--a form of test used no where else in life, and a set of skills they don't really need.

Education Reform Now! What do we want?

It's Amerika. We want more money.

I don't think modern schooling is serving us well, just as I don't think modern government is serving us well. But I don't really have an answer. Just some up close and personal observations.

The scary thing? According to the population figures, soon the majority of youth in California will be immigrants (more or less.) And they're not doing well in these schools.

Just one set of thoughts...

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It's just incredibly tiring to spend so much time fighting. We've thrown out the worst kids...and now I'm on the discipline committee.

It's not unending pain, but the amount of bullshit amazes me. I can earn enough in a year of Sales Engineering to travel a year; here, I make enough to get by. Hmmm.

And....it's daunting, how many hoops they want you to jump through. More every time I look.

And...the standard is SO HIGH. Look around at what is expected of teachers, both in erudition and in behaviour control, and in social justice.

blah blah blah

As an immigrant, I'm not sure your last statement is true. The kids in my ESL class (Rogers Middle School in SJ) were mostly bright and motivated kids. Most of us got out of ESL in 6-9 months. Well, I got out in 2, but I had some English knowledge going in. The problem isn't immigrants, it's immigrants from cultures that do not value education. And that is a much harder to fix problem.

of any kind, are coming in at a much lower socioeconomic class that you were. I'm not seeing that sort of motivation here.

On the other hand, when we did a question about the students and how many people worked in their houses, the majority answer was "everyone."

With the stupid policies we have in place now, the likelyhood is that we'll get less legal and more illegal immigration. SIN, anyone?

So let me get this straight: the students are dumber than sheep? And the system is completely broken? Again, I invite you to see the positive in the kids. No matter what, I know it's there (remember I also worked in a gang infested school district and in a correctional facility). I never met anyone who didn't have any potential. It can be a challenge, but isn't unlocking potential the point of doing what we do? How sad to have given up on that.

As for the system?....Well, yeah. It's F***ed.

but where and how can time be taken to 'unlock potential' when all your time is spent disciplining?
Though my passion for education and system reform has grown, I still hate spending all my time on discipline and no time on teaching.

actually, after numerous class discussions and some reading, I've started to wonder how much America (and thus the bulk of Americans, obviously not you or I, else we wouldn't be posting here!) value education. If American policies can't reflect education as a priority value, how can we say immigrants coming here don't? I have to think they do value a better life and more opportunity for their children and thus education would seem to follow.

I see the hard problem to fix being one of communication and culture. Beyond the mere language gap that, in theory, can be fixed by ESL (which is called by a different acronym now, but I'm blanking on it..) there is constant communication that needs to happen between teacher-family-community for true education to be completely successful. Different cultural communication styles, ignorence on both sides, make this incredibly difficult in the diverse school system of today.

and on a totally personal, and possibly biased note as I'm not an immigrant just a native of San Jose, I see many immigrant families living within their own little bubble of a commnuity, rather than taking part and sharing with the whole and that bothers me. If I went to another country I would want to communicate with my kids teachers and thus would be forced to learn how.

of course JT already made the counter point to that: who has time to learn how when you have to work two jobs just to get by/ feed your family?

Sorry, I don't even know you! I hope you don't think I'm too forward! I'm just super passionate about this subject right now. :)

Effective discipline would help to unlock potential, would it not? But you can't have effective discipline if you have already decided those you are working with are beyond help.

This is one of my big subjects too. I quite agree that American culture as a whole does not value education. "Egg heads" are looked down on even in our culture, and it's much worse in the culture of those who did not get an education. I remember an African friend of mine being called an "Oreo" for getting good grades. Apparently it's a sign of being white. It's frightening. Teachers in Hungary (where I spent part of my childhood) were not paid all that well, but they were respected by the school structure, by the parents, and therefore by the kids. It's that lack of respect that makes teaching such a difficult job today. I was a mouthy kid and challenged teachers occasionally, but I would've been in big trouble if I had physically challenged them, or not listened to them.

FWIW, my ESL class communicated not at all with my parents. But then, I'm lucky, my parents both have graduate degrees and there was no doubt that I would go to university, and probably get a graduate degree as well. We didn't quite live in a bubble, but we did try to maintain our own culture. For the better, in my rather biased opinion. I just hope that I can impart that expectation of learning and teaching in my kids.

the message intended there was a biblical one. But, and to the point, over 30% of the students in two classes throw away the worksheets I give them, then complain about their grades. They throw things and trash the classroom if I'm not right on top of them every moment. I can't throw them out of class unless they are physically violent, and sometimes not even then.

I was intending to make a point about God's patience exceeding mine, which of course it does, but there's another point, that is perhaps more appropos: I'm not good enough at discipline to truely teach effectively here, and I don't think anyone is. The longest tenure of a teacher on this faculty is two years; same for every staff member...no one can last. The system is broken, and has been, and we are fixing it.

I do see the positive in the students (I find it hard to think of them as kids; young neo-adults is more accurate) but I find it incredibly difficult to find time to work with it.

One person (the teacher) can only do so much.

Sure. They can discipline. Too bad the parents have not done that themselves.

but originally their job was to teach.

It's so sad that teachers can no longer teach...

So what you see here in this journal are the frustrations I can reveal, and vent. Are all the students useless? Far from it, but the ones acting out are certainly very difficult. Can I handle them? Sure, one at a time, but I've got 5 to 7 of them in every class. Am I making this work?

I'm spending my own money for any sort of supplies.

In Silicon Valley, the only presentation technologies I have are a whiteboard and a photocopier. Can't find the money for an overhead projector, still working on it.

Over 20% of my students are ESL, we don't have an ESL program.

etc.
etc.
etc.

It gets old. I'm doing what I can, but it's really tiring. The system (current bitch) also has "Professional Development" days during the student vacations. I'm working at least 3 hours every weekend trying to stay on top of things.

Monday, I gave a requested review of material, so students could retake a test. The number of failing students, out of 120: 60. Number in the study session, after having it mentioned? 0.

It is the school, of course. It's also, frankly, my problem in that teaching at this level is too much discipline for me. So, to answer your question, yes, it's me.

I can walk out of this job and double my salary on a yearly basis doing network contracting. If I thought I was making a real difference, that wouldn't have a big pull--but what I'm mainly doing is discipline issues.

And then I get the stories of these students, and what's going on...well, it's easy to see why school is a minor concern, especially a science class they're not prepared for adequately but required to take.

Enough. Going to go get some sleep. Strangely enough, one of the harder things is the 6AM wakeup for this.

I agree with this. And we can all always point fingers elsewhere. But if we fail to strive to make positive differences, where does this leave us?

There is a lot to be done about promoting good parenting skills (this happens to be one of my current jobs) and there is a lot to be done in the realm of educational reform (it breaks my heart to stand in a classroom and watch kids have to sit and learn how to pass really lame standardized tests instead of learning how to think and be constructive).

But I will maintain that if one can't have positive regard for those with whom you work, there can't be any positive progress. It's precluded. And that's all I'm saying. Without hope, what's left?

I am sorry if I misunderstood. As you might guess, working with a similar population as you do, though in a different realm of their lives; I can get a little sensitive about it. I mean, society in general is rather quick to call the kids you describe as losers and give up on them. I apologize for being as touchy as all that.

I do know it's difficult and the system is overbearing. And teachers are some of the most underappreciated people in this country.

I hope you have had some good sleep by the time you read this. (:

So do you have to hold to some curriculum or do you have any latitude that way? Maybe you can make the standard tests open whatever(book, cellphone, computer, etc). Let them use the things that are going to be actual life skills for them and just make it clear that the state hasn't caught up with real life, so they can't use it on the progress tests?

No idea if that would work or not, but I think I'd be pretty happy with that if I were still a kiddo.

Last year, Buggy's English/Social Studies class burned through 5 teachers.
The class room was totally out of control. The kids chased out two of the teachers who resigned saying that they changed their minds about wanting to teach.
30+ six graders brought each of these adults to crisis through their behavior. Buggy was one of the "problem children", I'm sorry to say. At the end of the year, she 'passed" the sixth grade, but at least six others from her class did not.
I told her that, "you may have passed the grade, but you didn't learn what you needed to learn", and I made her repeat the grade. Her social life has taken a hit for it, of course, but she'll live. And she's finally learning to do homework and turn stuff in on time.
With the help of grandparents and what's left of my savings, I was able to pull her out of public school. In exchange for a heavy dose of hell fire & brimstone warnings (which may not be a bad thing right now), she has eleven kids in her class, an energetic teacher that she CAN'T push around and she's getting Bs & As.
Learnteach, you need less kids, you need more supplies, you need BACK UP from the school & the parents.
Most of all, you need to not let those kids learn through you that they have the power to chase away a teacher. I have now idea how; I'm not brave enought to take on what you have. But I saw that, once they had chased out the first teacher last year, the others didn't stand a chance - those kids together were brutal.

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Somedays, I get it.

Second Set.

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The majority of immigrants

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