The Beginning of the End?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, today is the last day of school for the public school system here in town. Children of all ages, races, classes, will be screaming in jubilee as they walk, rather run from their school building for the summer. Ahhh, the good ‘ole days when you felt that freedom as you realized that you had a couple months off with no responsibilities unless your parents crossed the line and made you get a job. Personally, I think a child working during the summer builds character, responsibility, and their bank account. However, by making children work are we robbing them of their precious youth? Nonetheless, I am getting off on a tangent and that is not the point of this specific post. I would rather dwell on those last days of school when teachers are faced with the dilemma of scoring their pupils grades. I’ve always had this notion that your final grade reflected either your diligent studying and hard work or your idiocy and lack of concern for the all important passing grade. Recently, I have had the opportunity to learn exactly what happens in this public school system at the end of the year. Let me give you a little background before I tell you about that though. My informant (sounds so “Watergate”) is a woman (who we’ll call Sally) teaches the sixth grade in an urban school system. Throughout the year she teaches, tests, grades, teaches, tests, grades and so on and so on. She has been attacked, verbally abused and cussed at, all by her children who range in age from 11-16. Now let me remind you this is the SIXTH grade. When I was in sixth grade I was eleven and when I was sixteen, I was entering my junior year in HIGH SCHOOL. I understand that times have changed and blah blah blah. The reality that we all choose to ignore is that obviously a large number of children are flunking the sixth grade and are now labeled “the repeaters.” Naturally, we as a society would want to blame the teachers for what we perceive as inadequate teaching skills; especially if our child flunked three years in a row. Would it be inappropriate to place blame on the parents or even GOD forbid on the students? The truth I am confident lies somewhere in the middle of this cluster of failure. And it’s not just about blame it’s about the quality of life for our society as these students who would rather beat up their teacher than learn to read and write (because they themselves were beaten at home?). Oh I forget to tell you that at least 75% of her students cannot write and can barely read. Some girls are pregnant, some boys and girls are in gangs and some children are actually almost adults, etc. Sally has gathered at least 200 write ups for several of her children over the course of a couple of months. As instructed by her principle, she hands these in with confidence that these matters will be handled. For example, when a student called her a mother >expletive< and threatened her. The boy was sent to the principle and the write-up was turned in. The result? Expulsion? Detention? How about “if you would learn to control your class then you wouldn’t have a lot of these problems.” I guess when you are a teacher standing tall at 5’5” and at least half of the MEN in your class range from 5’10” to 6’ tall you have a tendency to feel slightly overwhelmed; especially if your children are flashing gang signs back and forth or threatening to blow up the school or slapping the teacher in the class next door. Is this when you are supposed to “control” their behavior? Is this before or after you’ve come to the realization that most of these kids’ parents have ignored them for most of their life and have given up trying to “control” their behavior? If the administration does not support the teachers’ then it is sending a very clear message to the students (oh by the way, the student that threatened her? sent back to class) that their behavior is condoned. What about calling the parents you ask? What if the response you got is, “look I can’t control my son and it’s your job to teach him” Would you feel hopeful at this point? On top of all this, Sally is still trying to maintain a teaching environment for those students that want to learn in spite of the actions of many. Sally has shown me the final grades her children should REALLY be getting and the final grades the school board has ASSIGNED her to give. The board gave her a handout that said, “Regardless if a child was out due to illness/pregnancy, you are to ensure that no child gets BELOW a 60% and that all children shall be passed.” At first I thought that this must be illegal, “fixing” the grades to pass children that shouldn’t be passed. What about those kids that worked extremely hard to overcome the odds only to watch the idiots next to them pass? What kind of message is that? Do nothing, assault, cuss, harm, threaten and you will pass because we don’t want to deal with you for another year. Let’s pass these kids and let the seventh grade teacher help them learn to read. Possibly, is it that the school has flunked so many children because of their true grades that they now have too many repeaters who are now MEN and WOMEN? Is it the system that educates the teachers to act like prison guards instead of teachers? Is it the parents or lack thereof that is too blame for their child’s behavior? Is it the children that have been trained to not care about their future or to have an ounce of respect for an adult? Or simply is it a combination of all of these things or none of these things? Is it because we are in Mississippi or does this happen in all states? What will become of these children who are almost adults? Will they be forced to work at Krystal or Wendy’s drive thru because they cannot read or write or will they have children and go on welfare as their sister, mother, and grandmother did? What will happen to this state over time? Will there be enough children who want to learn and who are supported at home to lead Mississippi into our future? What kind of future will this state have? Mississippi is already ranked 47th out of 50 states in education. Perhaps I should have mentioned this at the beginning of this post. However, I wanted to explain what I have seen and heard being an outsider and just how utterly sad it is for all involved in this school system. My heart goes out to the teachers for risking their own well-being to better a child’s future. Also, to the children who really care about their future and learning and are forced to be grouped with those children that do not.