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Teach (and Treat) Our Children Well
As a society, we adhere to the basic premise that, in the proper setting, children will learn what they are taught. And it follows that in learning to become positive and involved adults, children need to be encouraged and supported in their school environments.
We should all be alarmed, then, at some of the lessons we're teaching children in schools today. In this age of metal detectors, police in schools, and overly punitive zero-tolerance policies, our children are learning that any small infraction, even writing on a desk, can subject them to expulsion or possibly even a criminal record. Perhaps worst of all, today's schoolchildren are seeing their peers of color and peers with disabilities subjected to punishment at starkly disproportionate rates, perpetuating a lifetime of inequities.
Here are a few facts about punishment in schools today. American students are suspended and expelled at almost double the rate documented in 1974. Suspensions, expulsions, and arrests have resulted from misbehavior as minor as breaking a pencil or throwing a basketball at another child. Research suggests that experiencing overly punitive discipline in school increases the likelihood of a student dropping out of school — a phenomenon known as "school pushout." Research also indicates that punitive zero tolerance policies have increased referrals to the juvenile justice system for infractions once handled in the schools. These increased referrals produce an increased number of young adults with records, which make it hard to secure everything from student loans to housing.
Moreover, there is a shockingly high level of discrimination in the application of these harsh punishments. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, African-American students are three times more likely to be suspended and 3.5 times more likely to be expelled than white students, and Latino students are 1.5 times more likely to be suspended and twice as likely to be expelled than white students. Students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended and expelled as students without disabilities.
The ACLU is working at the state and federal levels to implement more effective, evidence-based disciplinary policies that will make our schools safer and keep kids in the classroom. Recently, the ACLU signed on to the Dignity in Schools Campaign's national resolution (PDF) for ending school pushout. This resolution, which is being released today, is intended to confront the factors that contribute to pushing youth out of schools. The resolution also provides recommendations to promote positive school climates and alternative approaches to discipline as essential elements for ending this crisis in our schools.
One such solution to the crisis lies in a federal bill pending in the House of Representatives. The ACLU, in conjunction with other civil rights and educational organizations, has been working to support H.R. 2597, the Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act (PBSESA). The bill, introduced by Representative Phil Hare (D-Ill.) would give schools the tools they need to improve learning environments. The PBSESA would enable schools to use federal funds to implement evidence-based approaches, such as positive behavior supports (PBS) — a process proven to reduce discipline referrals, support improved academic outcomes, and improve school safety.
Over 9,000 U.S. schools are currently implementing PBS and seeing improved academics and reduced misbehavior as a result. For example, an elementary school in Illinois decreased its suspensions by 85 percent and improved its students' test scores after just two years of implementing PBS. This paradigm has successfully reduced misbehavior, suspensions and expulsions in schools around the country by communicating expectations of students, teaching better decision-making skills, and rewarding good behavior.
There is a valuable lesson here. Far too many students — especially students of color and children with disabilities — are being denied educational opportunities because they are pushed out of school by overly negative environments and harsh disciplinary measures that undermine their learning. Evidence shows that there is, and can be, another way to promote positive school climates. It's time to teach and treat our children well.
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Show AllBut then we have PBS (The Broadcast) perping the corporatocacy's propaganda on 'em in inimical opposition to our peace preaching!
For years now, children have been subjected to metal detectors, campus pigs, drug sniffing dogs doing random searches of their lockers and persons, and of course, they are required by the state education code to recite the Pledge of Allegence (or take a moment of silence to pray to whatever God they prefer.) This is supposed to be a free country but students MUST recite the Pledge of Allegence? The school systems here all have zero tolerance policies towards weapons and all drugs, even OTC (a Fort Worth honor student was suspended from school several years ago for possessing a butterknife. The knife accidently fell out of a box as he was helping his brother move over the previous weekend and was seen laying in the bed of his pickup truck by a "concerned passerby." He was eventually sent to an alternative school and stripped of his honor student status.) Corporal punishment is still allowed with parental permission (they use a big wooden paddle.)
I have three children, two daughters and a son. All three commentted following graduation that they are basically taught what their designated places in society are expected to be. Our children are being indoctrinated from ages K-12 to be good follower worker bees and to never question the "authorities." Classes stress memorization over thinking (calculators are now REQUIRED for classes such as algebra, calculus, and trigonmetry. Instead of classes in civics, geography, or foreign languages they have classes on computer technology or spend time learning to pass standardized tests.
In comparison, we had a foreign exchange student from Hamberg, Germany who attended our local high school for one year. At the end of the year, he was asked to compare school here to what he experienced in Germany. In Germany, his classes ran from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with one hour of physical education. His other classes included government, gegraphy, mathematics, physical sciences, and a foreign language course. All of the teachers in the school system in Germany must have a minimum of a Masters Degree in the subject they teach. When asked what he saw as the biggest difference between life here and at his home he said that he was amazed at the amount of time peple here spend going to church.
And we wonder why we cannot compete!
Great post. Thanks.
Yea I think the schools are turning out compliant little worker bees that will already be used to unwarranted and unconstitutional searches and seizures, which will only get worse as this country slides further into a Fascist police state.
When you spend years in school as a kid with surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and searches it won't be that much of a shock when it happens to you as an adult. Kind of makes one wonder if there isn't some grand plan to all this. But I supposed if you did you would be labeled as paranoid...
"Classes stress memorization over thinking (calculators are now REQUIRED for classes such as algebra, calculus, and trigonmetry. Instead of classes in civics, geography, or foreign languages they have classes on computer technology or spend time learning to pass standardized tests.
In comparison, we had a foreign exchange student from Hamberg, Germany who attended our local high school for one year. At the end of the year, he was asked to compare school here to what he experienced in Germany. In Germany, his classes ran from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with one hour of physical education. His other classes included government, gegraphy, mathematics, physical sciences, and a foreign language course. All of the teachers in the school system in Germany must have a minimum of a Masters Degree in the subject they teach. When asked what he saw as the biggest difference between life here and at his home he said that he was amazed at the amount of time peple here spend going to church."
May I ask what state you live in? I can assure you what you wrote is not true of public schools in New England. In fact it is the opposite of everything you say here.
I'm not saying you are not telling the truth about where you live. Perhaps the New England schools are not far behind the trend in your schools because of the powerful agenda to dismantle the public school "entitlement."
It's also not fair to bash all public schooling because that undermines the many wonderful students in our society.
"Evidence shows that there is, and can be, another way to promote positive school climates." And that way starts with the primary care givers: the parents. This is not a new problem, it's just escalating to a highly unacceptable point. I think Dorothy Law Nolte Ph.D. summed it up nicely, back in 1954 with her poem,
Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
I posted the above two years ago or so, on OpEdNews. It should also be posted in every home in the world, as far as I can see (I got my copy from my mother, who had it posted somewhere, after my siblings had moved out, and I was the one teaching).
The unthoughtout, now mandatory curriculum in most schools is appalling, going back to origins of over a hundred years ago, when the goal was to train cogs for the industrial revolution. It remains designed (consciously or otherwise) to turn off children's minds to their own natural curiosity, enthusiasm, and love of learning. It teaches authoritarian values, tests meaningless nonsense, labels accordingly, and stiffles human growth. Changing the system is critical, though next to impossible, since when you push it in one place, it simply passes the pressure along to other bureaucrats--there is rarely anyone in charge, and the NEA (though nice at articulating ideas) is little more than a money making machine.
At least such were my conclusions after teaching in both private and public elementary schools for twenty years. What I recommend to parents, in addition to the above, is to unplug the tv (save for a few limited, preselected shows), read to your kids regularly, and communicate with teachers (praising and complaining civilly, as called for).
Meanwhile, blessed be the good teachers, who play the game, yet shut their door and do good things with kids--there are actually many, though generally unsung (also, blessed be the few good principals who encourage such good teachers).
Sorry for the rant, but this one touches a sensitive nerve.
What if we made the far out supposition that a school system might be part of a perpetual warfare state that wants the children to learn to condemn and fight and envy? Wouldn't it want to inculcate the values and practices of criticism, hostility and jealousy in such a situation?
It might.
Deborah J. Vagins should look in the mirror first. Idiotic zero tolerance policies were instituted because of her ilk (lawyers). There was a time where the teacher had discretion in doling out punishment or allowing/disallowing certain behavior in class. I guess after several law suits everybody decided they don't want that responsibility any more so here we go zero tolerance where second graders get suspended for bringing boyscout sporks to school.
Added to that, when parents get called to school today cuz their brat screwed something up, guess what the parent does?
Your society created this environment so stop whining. Should have thought about this years ago when the downward spiral started.
When I was teaching I called a parent in to discuss his son's behavior. The kid was as unlikable a brat as you can imagine.
His father's advice? "Beat hell out of him."
Everybody knows or should know without being told what joanelyia posted.
School policy is just the opposite.
There are far too many 'concerned passersby', people who can't miss an opportunity to fuck somebody else over. It's no wonder Eric Prince can consider himself a devout Christian considering the mean spirited society he grew up in.
I agree that harsh punishments for very minor offenses hurt children in the long run but I don't agree with the implicit solution being provided. Simply subjecting kids to an hour or two a day of television at school does nothing to motivate young minds into learning. Instead, they end up more likely getting passive and they are far more likely to not only end up unlikely to speak out against wrong doing by the pols, wealthy, military, religious, etc... elites but the chances of more anti-social behavior amongst students also goes up. A better solution is for both parents and teachers to try to improve their efforts of better communicating with the kids. I noticed a significant difference between days I would come home watching television for the rest of the evening versus the days I would come home and communicate with my family and friends even if I did face embarrassments and humiliations simply because I was different and wanted to think truly independently and self develop. With the all evening TV watching, I would go to bed at least somewhat depressed while with the option of communicating more with my family and friends, I would go to bed less depressed and with a somewhat proud feeling that at least I expressed myself no matter what.
Teachers and students are mistreated like the slaves of old and the institution of public schools is twisted by militarism and the corporate model of factories.
However, school administrators like Colonel Thompson are failures in the "real world" of making money, otherwise they'd be making far more than only 6 times the salaries of their employees.
Superintendent Thompson probably did want to try Wall Street, insurance, and banking but couldn't learn how to play with the big boys, like Henry M. Paulson. So now Thompson's making CCPS into his own Gulag.
He seems to be a very successful fascist in this petty kingdom. Although his quarter of a million annual salary looks paltry when compared with real-world CEO's, he's not doing too bad.
Teachers have far too many students to do anything other than become martinets. That suits the local folks like upnorth just fine. They do _not_ want public school students who can think, just teachers who don't "whine."
After all, the community provides police backup for "deviant" students who refuse to submit. A little Mace and Taser goes a long way. Keep them off the street and behind the schools' barbed wire. What more can anyone want?
Slaves that don't whine, I guess.
There are too few teachers, too many students, and not enough money in the right places.
"Far too many students — especially students of color and children with disabilities — are being denied educational opportunities because they are pushed out of school by overly negative environments and harsh disciplinary measures that undermine their learning. Evidence shows that there is, and can be, another way to promote positive school climates. It's time to teach and treat our children well."
I knew a lot of white kids who skipped school because they didn't feel as if anyone wanted them there or cared that they showed up. I remember often feeling as if my suburban teachers didn't want to send their kids to school with me, even though my urban high school was very safe. Not that they did much for the black kids but pander to them. If you were of the upper economic crust though, and we did have them in my school, you got placed into advanced classes and were sheltered from the rest of the student body. You didn't dare bring that up then or now though.
I recall teachers treating me like an overintelligent primate at times, praising me if I came up with a correct answer, as if I were a "good dog."
I do however remember a first grade teacher slamming a black kid up against a locker repeatedly. I remember another teacher dragging another black kid across a floor and then throwing him over a desk.
"Yea I think the schools are turning out compliant little worker bees that will already be used to unwarranted and unconstitutional searches and seizures, which will only get worse as this country slides further into a Fascist police state."
You got it, and when I would bring that up back then and even now, I'm told that I'm "too negative" about education.
Speaking of kids with disabilities, we had a case in my city recently where a teacher physically and verbally abused an autistic kid.
Kids are taught that school is a big game in which they have to "compete" or "achieve" or get "high scores." Learning is irrelevant. Speaking of "achievement" they're trying to address the "gap" between white and black kids, as if the white kids or American kids in general are learning anything and are therefore the standard. lol. What a joke.
High school is a game, college is a racket. But it doesn't have to be that way.
"Classes stress memorization over thinking (calculators are now REQUIRED for classes such as algebra, calculus, and trigonmetry."
And my teachers and parents wondered why I had so much trouble with math in the early grades. I was almost held back in 1st grade because I had trouble memorizing tables. They never taught you WHY 2+2=4. Nowadays, I find I do math better in my head than on paper. Math imo is totally taught wrong in American schools.