My Charter School - Part 5 (Foundational Behavior)

    Something is wrong with schools.  Here are some stories that I will try to weave together and guess what they have in common and some ways to fix or at least fight against. 

    The thing for me is the disconnect between what admin wants and what they're doing to get it.  School level admin wants students that are successful on State mandated tests.  It is sad to reduce it to something so simple, but isn't that the most basic thing that admin wants?  If the students perform well on tests then admin higher up won't be angry with them and won't bother them.  You can make the case that if they are performing on the state mandated tests it is because the knowledge of the students is also high.  Grades and scores go together to placate parents, school boards, superintendents, and government.

    My confusion is that admin doesn't seem to be doing those things that will ensure that scores on report cards and standardized tests are high.  

    This is a non-exhaustive list, but it is designed to show the simplicity of the things that admin has to do to ensure performance of the students.

1. Students must be well behaved in class.  If there is class chaos then there can be very little learning.  In a well behaved class, teachers hardly need to be there at all.  When the students listen they hear and are more likely to understand.  If they are not well behaved they will not listen.  Students who are well behaved cannot listen because the teacher is dealing with the students who are misbehaved.

2.  Students should be afraid to fail in school.  This is a parent issue.  Parents, by and large, are not doing their jobs.  I know that sounds accusatory or aggressive.  If you want to know if you're doing a good job of parenting school age children this is a good test.  If a student gets in trouble at school and begs the teacher not to tell their parents then that is a good parent.  But this is also a school administration issue.  Students should be afraid to fail in school.  This means that your disciplinary actions must hurt.  NO PADDLING.  I'm not talking about corporal punishment, and yet wall sits, laps, bear crawls, sprints, push ups towel pushes, all have an underutilized place in the pantheon of punishment.  But even without that, detentions should be boring, lines should be written, hands should cramp, students should have extra assessed if they weren't behaved.  ISS must be utilized.  Silence must be adhered to.  Lines must be written; busy, superfluous work should be assigned.  Saturday detention should be utilized.  Summer School must be utilized.  Failures must be utilized.  This is a simple obvious conclusion.  Students must be afraid to literally fail in school.  The fear is to have to retake.  The fear is to waste the first year.  The fear is drudgery and it must be real.   

There is the list.  Remember it isn't exhaustive.  But here are some disconnects between what the admin wants and what they're doing to get it.  

• One student who attended Tippit MS the year before I taught there was never in school.  According to teachers who were there before me, she had been in school 17 times the year before and was still passed along into high school.  
• One teacher assigned a detention to a student who disrespected a substitute.  The student was supposed to go to a teacher-assigned detention and write lines.  The student incorporated his mother to get him out of it.  The parent called the admin and the admin directed the teacher to tutor the student and let them out of detention.  
• One teacher has not failed a single student all year.  Her lesson plans are not dynamic, but stale.  She has no class management, but has great relationships with her students.  She doesn't ask difficult things of them and she underperforms on state assessments.  Her expectations are low.  The students always meet her expectations, but not the state's expectations.  She wears a onesie to class, but doesn't teach well.  
• One School stopped counting tardies.  Students acted as you'd expect, they stopped getting to class on time.  Now when the situation get really bad an announcement gets made that there will be a tardy sweep, and this is the time students really need to get to class on time or risk punishment.  The students behave the way you'd expect, they only get to class on time when the announcement is made.
• One school has had over a dozen bathroom vandalisms.  They have video evidence so after a bit of sleuthing they punish the offenders with detention and the custodian cleans it up.  The punishments aren't ramping up, but surprisingly the vandalisms are.
• One teacher has the worst classroom management I've ever seen.  Anything the students want she gives to them.  They are constantly leaving her class with her permission when they aren't supposed to, their noise is cacophonous, they horseplay in the room of the school with more technology value than any other.  
• One student was in seven fights in the first 9 weeks of school.  Some of those against SPED students.  The admin of the district wouldn't allow the school to remove him to alternative school or DAEP until he had 10 fights which is negligence, but he acquiesced and soon filled out his punch card.
• One district rid itself of the dangers of dress codes.  The old rule wasn't enforced.  The new code, much simpler, easier to enforce.  Thankfully the admin who didn't enforce the old dress code won't have to spend so much time enforcing.  Now the students break the much simpler, much more libertine dress code with impunity and the admin can spend its time NOT enforcing this dress code. 

Here's my question:  These stories are the tip of the iceberg, but they beg the question, if you want good scores why are you doing these things?  

    I genuinely do not understand the motivations of the administrations both district and campus level. If you don't enforce order, scores will go down.  If the scores go down you will get attacked by parents and higher ups.  But if you create order, then you don't have to put out so many figurative fires.  If you promote discipline because students are afraid to fail then students will succeed.  The parents will approve of any sensible solutions that cause success.  The district level admin won't bother you if you have order and a healthy fear of failure.  District leadership, you should be promoting this too.  If you don't want to be in the news, if you don't want to have bad ratings, then you have to create an atmosphere where success is possible. 

    Finally, what is the solution.  I think there are some obvious ideas.  The success and knowledge of students must be the number one priority.  This must be drilled into the heads of our teachers often.  They must be reminded oft that their mission is not to create relationships, but to create knowledge and understanding.  In Professional Development teachers are taught too often about the importance of relationships and not often enough about the importance of knowledge for knowledge sake.  

    I know that relationship is important, but we are wrong to assume it is a necessity.  Good behavior and a healthy fear of failure are necessities.  I think schools should focus on mission statements if they want to have success beyond their socioeconomic standings.  Every semester admin and teachers should read, reread, and dissect a mission statement with stipulations like...

1. We will teach the students all the information they need to know. 
2. We will cultivate a safe and orderly atmosphere so that all students can learn.
3. We will discourage behavior that limits our students ability to learn.
4. We will teach the students that misbehavior has consequences.  
5. We will give clear and fair consequences to students who do not succeed.
6. We will always try to challenge our students and never make success easy.
7. Knowing that students cannot succeed without character, we will encourage character.
8. We will aggressively build up the capabilities of our coworkers, because our students deserve it.

My Charter School - Part 3 (Uniforms)

    In my charter school there will be uniforms.  These uniforms will be polos and khakis.  These khakis will be knee length skirts, shorts, or actual pants.  There will be an expectation that these will be buttoned at least once and three times if they want.

    Parents, if you have kids in school you should be looking for a school with a uniform or a drastic dress code policy.  Students should cover everything from their knees to their neck and covering their entire shoulders.  I have students in my class daily with buttocks and bellies showing.  I have boys wearing muscle shirts.  I have kids with holes in their jean that would be covered by bathing suits.  I have girls in spaghetti straps that show off more cleavage than I think is appropriate for Walmart.  Now of course, there are crazy people everywhere that think Walmart is a perfect place to wear anything.  Fine, but that is NOT school.  School should be a place where students and their parents work to succeed and achieve.  School success should be earned not given.  Student success should be based on struggle not ease.  

    Parents, if your school ends the dress code as did the Round Rock ISD school board you should vote them out.  If your school district was dumb enough to follow the pattern of other schools like RRISD did by following the no dress code policy of Austin ISD which scores lower than them on State Standardized Tests then vote them out because they are idiots.  

    Let's say you're on the best team in a professional sport league.  Maybe you're on the top five.  Does it make sense to follow the failed policy of the worst team.  Round Rock ISD and Leander ISD are performing better in every measurable way than Austin ISD and yet the district school boards of both ISDs have decided to mirror AISD's failed policy.  That is lunacy.  

    Parents, whatever the school, charter or private, that you have the ability to get your child into; get them into it, if and only if, the student has a severe dress code or they have a uniform.  

    This comes from a teacher.  The student needs to see school as different than the park/mall/house.  The student needs to have expectations on them at school.  If they come in pajamas they are not ready to work.  If they are not fully clothed then they are not fully prepared to learn.  If they are dressed halfway, they will only go halfway in life.  

    There may have been a time when this wasn't the case.  There may have been a time when societal norms or fear of social ostracization would encourage a family to send students to school achieving a certain level of dress.  Now that is not the case.  We used to complain about busy-bodies.  We used to disdain ubiquitous haughtiness.  For certain, sometimes bad actors would turn their cannons of social demerits at someone who may not have deserved it, but now there are no social demerits.  And just like that, very few students and families have merit.  

*I am at Title ONE school.  My students have terrible behavior.  None of this may apply to you even at a public school with no dress code, but that may have a socioeconomic cause.  But it may be that it will apply to you if your student is in Elementary school.  When they're older it might.  My hypothesis is that with fewer expectations on behavior students have less good behavior and thus, less success in the classroom.  A few years ago it was 20% now it's 60% of my students are performing sub standard. There is no consistent standard and so their performance suffers.  Students designed to engage and test boundaries, are finding out their are no boundaries. This is bad for society and bad for these students.  They must feel restricted to feel safe.  Uniforms would help, can help.  The solutions must be stricter not more lax. 

Wardrobe Shaming your Own Child

            *Have you ever read a blog or article about education or parenting and the writer makes it sound like they have all the answers and you, the parent of a student, don’t have any?  We try to be understanding because we read articles for their authority on the topic, but the writer has a pretentiousness that we can’t just chalk up to salesmanship.  Don’t you hate those blogs/articles?  They don’t seem to realize that the only people reading blogs/articles are people who are likely to have already thought about the suggestions, adopted them, reconsidered them, refined them and either rejected them or still have them in place.  The writer doesn’t seem to know nor have even the slightest understanding that good parents read blogs and good parents already know how to be good parents.  This is one of those blogs, but I admit that you know.

            “That isn’t a battle we’re fighting.”  When I sent a picture of a kid with a shirt with a bikini girl on it to an administrator in the last two weeks of school this was the response I got.  When I told a student to go to the nurse because she was out of dress code, she did; and changed back after my class.  I’ve had arguments with girls and boys that you can’t have such and such on a shirt or that such and such a shirt is inappropriate and the administration decides this isn’t a battle they’re fighting.  Girls wear shorts too short, and shirts that plunge too low.  Boys wear shirts with girls on them that aren’t dressed enough for the pool.  They wear clothes with smokers smoking, shooters shooting, cuss words, violence, and hate.  

             If there is a code in the dress code it will be bent and if the code isn’t enforced then that code will be bent more until it breaks.  The dress code breaks.  The dress code is not like a damn.  The damn lets some of the water through to relieve pressure.  A dress code when it lets a little through, you can prepare for the breaking of the dam.  Get ready for the flood.

            But it isn’t the administrators who are the problem.  And I’m not just saying that because some of my administrators might read this.  (Wink)  No.  The truth is that a parent MUST not allow a student of theirs to go to school out of dress code.  If you do you are neglecting your responsibility.  I don’t want to tell you what we’re all going to do to you if you continue to neglect your responsibilities (it will include torture).  I just want you to start being the parent you thought you always should have been.  100 years ago 90% of parents either straight up made their kids clothes or purchased them for them in the, 'Butt Ugly Store,'(not a real place).  We didn’t want nice clothes.  We wanted our kids to look terrible because it taught them character.  You know what gives kids character these days?  It’s when they roll up to their middle school in shoes that cost more than an electric bill.  They learn to persevere because they're forced to wear clothes that they purchase at the mall rather than a boutique.  I don’t even know if that’s even a marker of wealth and privilege.  I do know that they AREN’T really learning character or values or perseverance from what they wear because they wear really expensive clothes.  Did I mention that my school is majority ‘at-risk?’  How then can their wardrobes cost much more than mine by factors.  I know it isn’t a competition, but hey spend too much money on clothes.

              My concern, the societies concern, isn’t how much they spend.  I’m not a curmudgeon.  The issue is that you don’t know.  Why aren’t you the parent buying their clothes with them?  Parents give their money to kids and the kids go and buy clothes that the parent doesn’t want to argue about.  STOP IT!  From now on when your kid needs clothes go with him/her.  They want to go alone; don’t let them?  They buy something that has holes in it and you say to yourself, ‘it’s the fashion.’ Don’t buy them the fashion.  Buy them the boring and sturdy.  Our children, yours and mine, need less pre-cut holes in their clothes.  ‘But my kid has a part time job and buys their own clothes.’  You’re allowed to tell them what they can and can’t buy, Parent.  

*Or tell them they can buy it if they want, but make sure they aren't wearing it before they go out, to school or anywhere else.  They must dress for the occasion and school isn't a meth-head occasion. 

            ‘My kid says he needs the new Jordans and I want them to look fresh.’  ‘My daughter won’t shut up about all the other girls at her school with these holy jeans or these rompers.’   (Notice next I’m going to write a sentence without a single quote mark to delineate something I’m going to say sarcastically in response to these last sentences.)  My kid just has to have heroin to get through difficult situations.  My daughter just wants to go and drink beers with five members of the football team without any other girls and I don’t want to listen to her complain if I say no.  Am I saying that you letting your daughter out of the house in a romper is the same as enabling heroin use?  No.  But you not acting like a parent because you are afraid of your kid whining like a kid is the same thing, but with a different degree.  Am I saying that it is bad parenting to let a student go to school in clothes that are not in line with the schools dress code?  Yes.  What if the clothes aren’t outside my value system?  Yes, still.  Your job if no one told you, is to facilitate the education of your student through their school career.  That means every day.  That means ensuring that they are dressed in line with the dictates, good or bad, decided by your school board and school administrators in order to be conducive to education, not having them look fresh so they won't get punked.  

            If they can’t follow dress code there are multiple problems.  1.  You aren’t doing your job.  This sucks for you.  You know you’ll never be a great adult until you’re a parent.  Even good adults can improve with parenting.  And bad adults can totally stay horrible if they do not choose to parent.  It is time that we had a consistent ethic of parenting our children.  Yes.  You’ll screw up, but don’t give up.  A consistent ethic of ensuring dress code compliance is the goal.   2.  It sucks for the kid.  How many jobs have dress codes?  Does yours?  Isn’t it life-training to start following a program of laws and social mores?  Finally, it sucks for the kid because if you’re too scared to enforce rules that aren’t even your rules, then the kid isn’t learning much discipline.  Your kid, your little tyke, your little princess, that girl or boy that you got choked up the first time they hugged you.  Their life will be less good if you do not enforce discipline.  So enforce it. 

            ‘But my kid changes after leaving the house.’  Confiscate the rags they change into.  ‘My kid is too old for me to change on them.’  Sure, give up.  After all if you’re telling me that you cannot enforce a dress code on your baby, a stunning admission, then I can’t really argue with you.  I believe you’re wrong, but I can’t convince of the opposite.  ‘What about uniforms? We could have uniforms and then I wouldn’t have to do anything.’  I’m pro uniform, but a kid can push the boundaries of uniforms too.  Plus, I think parents need more opportunities to parent not more opportunities to avoid parenting. 

            As per usual, I think that people who read my blogs/articles are self-selective of people who might already do what they should in the sphere of children’s fashions.  So if you think this is a valuable message please consider sharing this on your feed?  That way you can give it to people you think need it but not actually say they need it.  Or if you’re brave ask people you know, all of them, how do they purchase clothes for their kids?  How do they enforce dress code?  Do they know their school’s dress code?  Do they shop with their kids?  Do they shop for their kids?  I know it sounds nosy.  It was one of the worst things our collective conscience remembers about the fifties and small towns.  People didn’t know how to mind their own business.  Yeah, but maybe that’s swung all the way to the far end of the pendulum and social media is a way for us to practice the complete antithesis of intimacy with our fellow people.  Maybe that’s bad. 

            Also, if you want to practice self-delusion leave a comment and tell me how I’m wrong.  No language please.