My Charter School - Part 6 (Administering Education)

    I have a simple idea for my future charter school.  One that I think will make every teacher ever agree wholeheartedly.  One that I think many will think or say is implausible in administration.  I know little about administration of a school.  One day, maybe someone who is an administrator will read these and tell me where I've gone off the rails.  Most of this idea is for secondary, but may be able to be applied to elementary.

Idea: All admin have to teach one class.  

    Before pulling out a stack of reasons why this can't work, let's go through a little mountain of values that this provides.  Sometimes, not everyday, but a lot of the time the admin of a school gets an idea that most teachers know won't work in the classroom.  Now it is not a bad thing for admin to innovate, but if they aren't in the classroom then they do not know how best to innovate.  Yeah, all admin are former teachers.  It doesn't matter.  Since Covid all former skill in the classroom are obsolete.  An admin from the campus trying to innovate for the teachers is like engineering fixes without input.  Surely, the way to improve on an existing invention or process is to take feedback from those using it in the field.  And the admin may get some input from teachers, but it would be naïve to assume they get the input from their teachers that they would get if they were teachers.

    If the admin is teaching it is an opportunity to try all the innovations.  Louis Brandeis Supreme Court Justice popularized the phrase laboratories of democracy when he extolled the worth of federalism.  Principals and Assistant Principals could be trying things out with their classrooms.  If you want to have stations in all classes; try it out.  You may find stations works better in Math than History.  You want versatile seating?  Try it out.  You may find that some classes are mature enough for it and others aren't.  You may find that it is a bit dangerous in Science labs.  A while ago, writing down definitions of new vocab and using them in a sentence fell out of fashion.  I think that was a terrible failure of modern education.  I wish that more people were trying these innovations in the classroom.  My first two years in education we were getting a new innovation called Strategic Instructional Models.  The admin, including the SIM Coach (also an admin) kept teaching us how to use the models.  They didn't always think about whether they should be used.  What if they're teachers, they no how to model all innovations to the faculty.

    If the admin is teaching a class everyday then there is tons of time for modeling correct behavior.  I'm getting pretty good at teaching in my estimation.  I see a couple of new teachers every year who have no idea what good teaching is.  It is a balance of finding your own personality and rhythm and enfolding that into a lot of learned best practices.  It can be daunting.  If they're not quite getting it, a strong solution is to send them to observe a seasoned teacher.   Last year's teacher of the year?  How about the principal's math class?  How about the Assistant Principals Geography class?  What about the art class that is taught by some administrator who...you're not really sure what they do.   The number of options for that teacher to observe can only be a good thing.  

    If the admin is teaching everyday, they know what needs discipline in the class room and what needs discipline as an admin.  Teachers know that there are teachers who send kids to the admin too much.  We are not surprised when that teacher's write ups come back with less consequences than the teacher would like.  But many teachers have had admin that lose their sense for what needs to be given consequences and what doesn't.  Teachers are trying to create an orderly classroom and if admin is failing to offer consequences then the classroom atmosphere can severely deteriorate.  If admin is teaching the kids we all teach then they have a better sense for what is good behavior, what the students are capable of.  I don't want my admin to only spend time with the bad apples.  They'll spoil the whole bunch of admin.  I want my admin to meet the honors students, to have them in their classes, to have them passing their tests, so they know what they can expect from any of them.  

    If admin is teaching a class then their criticism will be more adroit or expert.  Some teachers really hate sitting down with admin to talk about data.  The students all scored a 60 on the benchmark science test.  They need a 70 to pass.  What did you do wrong?  How are you going to fix it?  Better yet, 'here's what you did wrong and here's how you're going to fix it.'  Number one, I would love to see some teachers held up for improvement, but more than that I'm going to say that without a cultural shift of excellence some teachers cannot fix the problems in some schools.  You go into a high school in an urban area and the kids aren't studying. Why would they, they have a job waiting for them.  They're not planning on college.  They have no objective reason to get their degree.  Go in that school and the average last year was maybe a 30% on the standardized tests and you raised it to a 45%.  Now the admin want you on a growth plan because passing rate wasn't achieved.  Well, can the admin do it?  

    If the admin can, then that means we all can.  Admin teaching 10th grade algebra might really have a profound impact on the campus.  If that admin can come into an on-level class and get them all to succeed in an underperforming school then there can be a cultural shift.  The leaders are leading not just describing where the rest of us should go.  They aren't describing the map, they're leading us where they've been themselves.  There is a culture of excellence among the faculty because the admin are our advocates.  They are our teammates and not just the coach.  They act like they've been there because they have been.  

    If the admin is in the classroom then the students are getting advanced degree teaching.  The admin are the best trained, highest qualified, highest motivated teachers in the school.  Their skills as teachers are wasted.  The connection to students that they may have is non existent.  Think of the opportunities to reach the students that the admin have in the classroom.  This is another opportunity to change the culture of the school from mediocre to excellent.  Because if the admin really are master teachers then they're helping create that atmosphere hands on with all the students in their care.  The students also get a sense of continuity from the class to the administration.  This device would ensure that the students are treated the same way by admin that they are by the teachers because they are the same.  

If the admin teach then they are cognizant of the teachers' feelings.  Have you ever sent a student to the admin and had the admin send them back with no consequences AND some candy?  If that hasn't happened to you, you haven't been teaching very long.  Teachers know what that feels like.  Give the admin a taste, or make it never happen to anyone ever again.  Admin teaching helps them to know how much time it takes to prepare, they know what it means to ask extra of their faculty.  They know how much prep goes into class plans.  They know how much anxiety can come from being observed or going over their plans in a Planned Learning Community.  All of these are reasons to get admin back in the classroom.

But wait...Admin literally doesn't have enough time for this.  That is because they do too much.  I've had over 10 admin.  They are over worked.  The amount of work is unethical, unGodly, and unwise.  The district usually has so many things for them to do, so many trainings to take that they're hoping will trickle down to the teachers.  It is idiotic.  They need to cut the number of things they do.  That means if the district, state, or federal government is asking too much they need to cut it back.  Admin should be finishing their work in 50-55 hours max.   If they can't do the work in that time they need to have more help.  Our society should demand that our admin does no more, no less.  We have an interest in our admin having families so we have an interest in asking only that which is possible based on time constraints that make sense.    

My Charter School - Part 4 (Reading and Writing)

    In a perfect world I would be writing this blog and hundreds of teachers and former students would be reading it and responding to it.  I would ask this question:  How much do you read in each of your classes in school?  I'm going to write this entire essay, I wish that if people read it they would respond with the answers.  If you're a teacher you may answer different than I answer.  That may be because you are a teacher at a better school than I am.  You might teach at an affluent school that isn't Title 1.  You may work at a Public charter or Private school and the story might be different there.  I hope the story is different at your school.  People who read this and only experience of  school is there own school from years ago, will, no doubt, be surprised by what I am saying.  I am not trying to write with hyperbole or exaggeration. 

      You can go to school in America today without reading.  A student should have English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies in almost all grades.  Math may be the one that gets a pass.  The teacher instructs.  The math problems aren't always text, although there is tons of word problems that are over emphasized all through school to make math seem more relevant.  There is no excuse when it comes to the other classes.  Science and Social Studies Content comes through text and ELA the text IS the content.  I have been a part of my own class and have sat in, walked through, observed, heard about enough classes to know that there isn't significant reading going on in any of the classes.  

    Do children need to learn to read?  Yes.  It is the most essential building block of education from which all knowledge and understanding must spring.  Literacy however, and vocabulary fluency is waning in this country.  Expectations to read are going down.  I am confessing and lamenting this problem in my class, in my school.  In all the schools I have been a part of.  In every conversation I have had about this topic.  And it must be attacked and beachheads must be made. 

    It is my opinion that children should read and write everyday in class.  The only way to make sure of this is to require it in all classes everyday.  There must be overt, specific, concrete, and clear expectations to read in every core class.  No ifs ands or buts.  

    In Social Studies and History their should be content read from the book and from notes.  Every student doesn't need to copy notes everyday, but every student should read text and notes everyday.  Simple expectation.  Some schools and ages can require reading at home.  I think a middle school students should be expected to read 1-2 pages in their text book each night.  If there is no text book or if the teacher doesn't like the specific selection in the book then the teacher should assign something else of equal amount.  All of this should not be concurrent to the information in class.  However, there should also be reading done in class.  Maybe 1-2 pages.  Quietly or one student at a time.  One paragraph at a time.  In groups, to the class, one student take a turn each day.  All of these are options so that each student is practicing this essential skill regularly.  Students would be getting so much more content than teachers can teach in class.  Teachers may also legitimately hope that students have the ability to read and the skill to do it without barriers to understanding outside of school.  In high school the expectation should be increased.  2-5 pages out of class, for purposes of time you may have to limit in class reading, but there should be in class reading.  Students refuse to read in middle school.  They cannot read.  There is an epidemic of teachers not expecting this, not teaching not, not practicing this.  But isn't it our sacred duty to help them learn this and to never let them slip through the crack without this.  Imagine if you will a student graduating high school with a diploma that reads at a 5th grade level.  What if that was the average.  A compilation of the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school shows that the average reading level of that list is 5.3 -- barely above the fifth grade.  -HuffPost

    In Science I think the same thing should be expected.  1-2 Pages outside of class and 1-2 pages inside of class daily.  Both should be expecting a short response to a pertinent question of 4-6 sentences three to four times a week.  Both should write a response to the unit they are in that encapsulates most of the information within the unit because synthesis is the best proof of understanding.  If someone told me that I had to do this, I would freak out.  Teachers used to grade essay questions.  But, by and large, we don't anymore.  Teachers love multiple choice because it's easy to grade or computer graded is even better.  We love drag and drops because they can be visually checked.  But this isn't education.  We need to ask what is proof of knowledge and what is the intake of knowledge.  That is reading and writing.  The hope would be that if this became more endemic then Social Studies and Science teachers would be able to spend less time correcting grammar and punctuation, and basic stupidity.  Them more that students practice this skill the easier it would be to grade them.  Write now it is so difficult.  Administration would flip out if this was suggested especially at a title 1 school.  I am rarely able to expect any or any significant homework, let alone everyday.

    If the Science and Social Studies are reading and writing everyday then ELA must be doing even more.  Now after the primary years are finished with a fanatic study of phonics students are going to have to read more and more and more.  There needs to be reading, call and response, choral, rhyming, and more all throughout elementary.  I have heard of Public Charter schools with more emphasis on reading the classics.  I am sympathetic to that, but I also believe in reading books self selected.  But the principle needs to be promoting not limiting. 

    In secondary education students should be reading 1-2 pages in class and outside class in Science and Social Studies for a total of 10-20 pages/week.  School is 36 weeks long for a total of 360-720 pages /year.  Double that for ELA takes us to 720-1440 pages of text per year.  Students who read, lead.  Students who are voracious readers will be prepared for college.  Students cannot slip through without essential knowledge and skills when the emphasis is on the knowledge and skills that they need to get the information.

 

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. 

Substituting as a Civic Duty

You know those blogs that you see on the internet sometimes and they’re really pretentious.  They think they know everything about anything and they have very few facts, studies, and statistics to prove their points.  You read the blog and you know all the stuff in it is more or less true, but the writer acts as if they’ve discovered the wheel.  You know a thing or two.  You have lived in two centuries.  You got a lot going for you and you even read blogs and articles about education and parenting on the internet so how on earth does this writer think they’re telling you anything?

You know what schools need?  No, this isn’t a trick question and it should be the most obvious answer; many times it isn’t.  It isn’t materials.  We have a lot of those.  It isn’t smaller class sizes although I’m sure that could help.  I like the idea of teachers being allowed to Taser students.  But that isn’t it either.  It's parents.  

Now before you go getting a big head and start thinking that you’re the most important person in your kid’s life, you should know, this sucks.  By the way, there are a bunch of studies that show a parents influence over the lives of their children are decreasing.  My own belief on this topic is that an orphan's parents don’t have much influence over them.  By that I mean, that parents can have as much influence as they want to have. 

Parents can know what’s going on in the lives of their kids.  Parents can pay attention.  Parents can sit down every evening and talk at the dinner table.  Parents can make it their business to know who their kid’s friends are and what music they listen to.  Parents can check their kid’s homework and help them decide where to go to school and what classes they should take in middle school and high school.  Parents can have a ton of influence over their kid’s lives.   You can be one of the most important things in the world for your kid.  And let’s face it, if you’re the kind of parent who reads blogs/articles on the internet about parenting and education you probably are.  Odds are you do some of the stuff listed above.  You might neglect some of them, but you also, probably did it consciously to teach your kids responsibility.  You’re likely, to have a bunch of things listed that I haven’t even thought of.  You’re more likely to be a helicopter parent than an easy going one.  You’re conscientious. 

So what about the people that aren’t?  What about the people that can’t tell you what grade their kid is in?  What about the people who are really mad about their kid getting suspended because they’ll have to stay home with them rather than angry because they did something bad?  What about the parents who AREN’T mad when their kid does something wrong? 

As a teacher I know there is a huge difference between a struggling student and a struggling student who has an involved parent.  The one with the involved parent is getting a B the last week of the six weeks and EMAILS to find a way their kid can get an A.  The struggling student with no parent involvement doesn’t email me and they get a C, a D or an F which isn’t even based on the child’s talent or knowledge because without effort supplied by the parent, the student’s talent and knowledge really doesn’t come into effect.  If a parent is withholding television and or a cell phone in order to get good grades and enforcing a bedtime in order to make sure the student is calm and well rested/level-headed then the student can show off their talents and capabilities.  In my class it doesn’t take much effort to get an A.  It takes even less intelligence.  Parents who are involved are fulfilling a tough job.  But how can we, you and I, those people who are engaged, invested, and adult bring along the people who forgot to take their birth control pills?  How can the upright people bring along the Darwin award recipients?  How can the white collar and blue collar workers bring along the unemployed by choice and the collarless? 

I think there should be a law that everybody has to work in a school as a substitute like Jury Duty.  I don’t think they should be the teacher of record although I’m not opposed to that.  I much more simply think that parents and even non-parents should go to school once a year and take the pulse of our future society.  Everybody, after passing a background check, could go to a school their kid goes to and go with their kid to class. 

In elementary, we’d all see how hard the teachers work.  Maybe we’d know how difficult it is to give a kid personal time even when the teacher only has 15-20 students.  Maybe we’d see how easy it could be to give our own kid fifteen minutes of personal time every night, something that would drastically improve reading and writing in the lower primary grades.  We could play tag with the kids at recess and then maybe we could advocate for longer recess than the kids are getting because kindergartners don’t need to study 6 hours a day.  We could see our kids interacting with other kids.  We could try to help them practice this at home.  We could find out which kids we’d like our kid to be friends with.  

Maybe you don’t have a kid.  Why should you have to substitute?  Our schools are sometimes understaffed and we need help.  Our schools, as the founders agreed, and as most political philosophers believe, are more than just a service or a utility.  Our schools create our future generations assisting our parents.  That’s why we pay for them with our taxes even if we don’t have kids of our own and sometimes we need to pay time with our taxes (sometimes more important than money).  By the way, what about the people who aren’t paying any money into the education system through property taxes, but are being served with their kids in schools?  They should have to serve twice a year.  Adults without kids, properly vetted, could be a valuable asset for individual help, directed encouragement, clerical or manual support. 

In secondary schools, we’d see who the kids are in our schools who are the biggest problems.  We may see how our child is part of the problem.  We may see how hard our teachers work and how much support they really can use.  We could see how the kids talk.  The vapid language of the American secondary school student is a society-wide dumpster.  Would 10-15 extra adults walking around our halls everyday help that?  Maybe.  If it was YOUR mom would it clean up YOUR language?  If it was your friend's mom sitting at your table at lunch would it clean up your table’s language even if just that day?  Could it help papers get handed out quicker, could it help adults remember some of the incredible amount of stuff we’ve forgotten from our school careers?  Could it help us with our gym classes?  Gym is incredibly unimpressive these days.  No weights, no push-ups, no hurdles, no climbing the rope.  I think back to my gym class and remember with fondness the physical intensity that children scoff at today.  Could we remind them?  Could an insurance salesman who is over 50 and completely bald encourage our kids to run an extra lap because it’s good for them?  Could a single mom convince a bunch of apathetic high school girls how lucky they are to play basketball or soccer or lift weights and that they should take full advantage because adulthood doesn't offer many of these opportunities.

This brings more adults into the lives of our kids; a good thing, in my opinion.  I know there are going to be so many laws and lawsuits along the lines of, ‘I don’t want so and so, blah blah blah, hanging out at a school, infecting kids.  Okay, in jury duty there are challenges and dismissals why not substitute/assistant challenges and dismissals?  This also helps create adults who have to be a little more involved in their kid’s lives.  They have to be better advocates for education in the public sphere, they have to be better disciplinarians of their children, and they have to be better advocates for their child’s effort in class.  They know what the districts and schools need.  They know what the parents and administrators need.  They know what their kids and the world needs.

Now, I’m not saying that everybody should do this.  Doctors don’t have to serve jury duty.  They might not need to do this either, but doctors would be really good substitutes for science classes and probably jury foremen. 

I’m not saying everyone needs to be in a classroom or everyone needs to be with their kids if they have a kid.  I’m sure district or school employees could give you a list a mile long of things parents and non-parents could do that would be valuable, effective, safe for children and adults, and tailored to different personalities, interests, and capabilities.

I’m sure some will have a problem with using the force of law to compel work (sounds like the healthcare mandate).  But systems could be devised to get out of these expectations or we could decide to fight hard to make sure that something like this happens that makes our schools AND our communities better.  Could a small town do this?  Could this be a municipal ordinance in a small town with a few thousand in population?  Yes.  Could a school board and a city council make it a referendum and have the community vote on it?  Yes.  Has this world veered too far from the good?  No. 

Without a big city-wide program to get every adult, within reason, to be a substitute at a local school can you and your church small group go through the annoying process to get certified to be a substitute and go substitute on one or two off days a year?  No.  Your church can have an initiative to have half of the members serve as a volunteer.  Your golf team can all make a pact to follow all your kids to each class they have once a year.  Your kid’s soccer team’s parents, or your drinking buddies, or your political party, your book club, the moms of your Boy Scout Troop, or Girl Scout Troop could all make a pact to go to each of your kid’s schools and ask if they need help and how.

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.   

Earning the Cell

You know those blogs that tell you how to be a good parent.  They always sound a little pretentious.  They sound like they have all the answers.  They make it sound like you don’t have any of the answers.  The sad thing is, anybody reading the blog about effective parenting is usually a self-selective group of people who have a lot of good ideas about parenting.  This isn’t a parenting blog but one about education.  It will suggest some ways to fix public schools that are habitually failing. 

            Kids don’t like school.  I mean, most kids don’t like school.  It’s almost all of them right.  My wife has a son that is legally mine and he likes school.  He is such a people person that he’d gladly go to school year round.  He is like Zach Morris from, Saved By the Bell, who said, “I love school, I just don’t like the classes.”  I know I shouldn’t have quotation marks for a paraphrase, but that’s a paraphrase.  I think a lot of kids fall into this category.  They like other kids, but they don’t like classes, reading, homework, grades, or tests.  They don’t like the rules, dress codes, and discipline. 

            And when did we think that schools should be fun?  When did we decide as a society that teachers are supposed to be guides on intellectual adventures?  At what point in time was Magic School Bus’s teacher, Miss Frizzle made the teacher du jour?  I think we spend too much time worrying about whether or not kids are getting engaged and not enough time making sure that students are incentivized to achieve.  Yes, I think engagement is important, but I also believe engagement to be impossible for some kids because they have too much other stuff reaching them.  Their phones can pipe in everything in the world to them instantaneously and thus, how can teachers interest them?

            Yes, there are ways.  I think there are a lot of micro options for engagement.  You have to create a template for engagement based on your personality and demeanor.  We can’t all be Jamie Escalante, but all teachers can get better at reaching the unreachable children of the 21^st century.  But how can parent help?  Is there some incentive that almost every student will work to achieve?  Is there something, the loss of which will incite action and effort for 90% of all students?

At my school, Elgin Middle School, there are more than 50% of the students who are ‘at risk.’  This means that the majority of the students on my campus have at least some issues with money and parents that make enough of it.  Now guess in this campus how many students have cell phones.  It’s not all and I’m sure it’s much different between sixth and eighth grades but the students I had in the eighth grade had about 90 percent cell phones.  Then there was about 20% A-B honor roll. 

            If every parent told their kid that they couldn’t have a cell phone unless they got A-B Honor Roll, what percent do you think would pass?  It wouldn’t be all.  Some students might try to succeed and still fall a little bit short.  Some kids would be defiant and might make their parents enforce the rule.  But really, how many do you think would get A-B Honor Roll in order to keep their phone?  My guess is 80 percent.  I guess there would be 5% that don’t want their kids to have a phone because they aren’t mature enough.  I think 5% couldn’t afford it.  I think 5% would try and still not be able to succeed.  I think 5% would be defiant and lose access to their phones every six weeks. 

            That is my eerily accurate unscientific estimation.  We’d go from a school who has 20% A-B to one that has 80% A-B.  This might change other things.  Like, I take late work even if it’s five weeks late.  I don’t think teachers would give as many chances and might start expecting more accountability if the kids were earning incentives at home.  I think students wouldn’t come to me or other teachers and just ask, ‘what do I have to do?’  With this system they might actually try to self-govern their own responsibilities. They might self-advocate ways to boost grades.  They might do the extra credit I have posted.  If there was group work all the student would rely on each other to produce good work so they can all either achieve cell phone status or avoid cell phone confiscation.

            This idea isn’t one that I thought of on my own.  I’m sure there are tons of parents who do this.  I had two students in my class this year.  Their parents had a rule that the girls would lose their phones if they didn’t get all A’s, not all A’s and B’s.  Once, one of the girls had an 88 the last week of the semester came to me and got a lot of extra credit and I offer a lot of extra credit.  She ended the grading period with a 91.  I didn’t bump her grade because she showed me a lot of effort.  She earned it.  The other girl got a bad grade on a test and did all the extra credit I offered in the grading period and ended with a 96.  These two girls, best buddies, had parents with the simple rule that all parent ought to have.  No A’s and B’s, no phone.

            But…you say your kid needs to get in touch with you.  No, they don’t.  Your schools have rules against the use of your student using their phone and every time they call you within school hours you undermine your school's authority.  'My kid’s teachers are okay with them texting and calling when they aren’t working in class.'  Well your teacher ought to explain to you why they have so much free time.  They could do that after they explain to the administration why they aren’t enforcing the no phone policy.  My school literally told me to not confiscate phones, but to just write students up if I saw them with a phone.  Thanks, parents.  I sure that call home to ask you to bring them lunch was seriously needed.  How many times did we call home before every kid had a cell phone?  None.    

            ‘My kid has some sort of disease or there might be an accident.’  Give them the phone.  Lock the phone from anything but calls to the police.  Am I saying that there is no reason to have a student have a phone?  No.  I’m saying earning all privileges should be a consistent ethic your children should learn. 

            ‘But my kid is too old, you don’t understand.  They’d get violent if I took away their phone.’  Okay give up.  My suggestion is about encouraging parents to have a more active role in the educational lives of their children.  If your response is that is, 'its too hard,' then I can’t actually argue that point.  But leave a comment about how I don’t know anything and that I cannot make blanket statements and how I don’t know everyone’s situation and how I shouldn’t try to tell you how to raise your kids. 

            And I understand there are people who don’t think their kids should have cell phones at all and some that don’t think they should earn them with good grades.  Use some other carrot so the school doesn’t have to use the stick so much.  Please leave a comment about how I’m bad for even suggesting students should sometimes have cell phones or what you use as the carrot to get achievement out of your kids other than a cell.  One of my parents had a kid who level of lack of effort was uncanny.  He improved a little second semester and I asked what she’d said or offered.  She said Jehovah deserved all the credit.  That would be awesome, I thought.  He returned to his old ways and failed the semester with less than a 40 the last six weeks. 

            Like I said, I think reading a blog self-selects the kind of parents who might already be doing these things or things like them.  So, if you agree with this blog/article, please try asking your friends if their kids have a phone and if they have achievement expectations to receive it.  Ask them if they have any achievement rewards.  The idea of creating measurable expectations for our kids’ success and some sort of payment for success in the classroom needs to be part of our societal vernacular.

Is it part of yours?

Do you need to be smarter than a fifth grader?

Schools in America are broken.  Ask anybody.  When the study countries we're like the top 25% but we spend like double what the top ten pay to educate their kids.

Didn't we invent the idea of universal education?  Kids in England were working in factories 30 years after the US wrote the Northwest Ordinance.

In America 25% of students don't graduate.  In urban settings it's normal for less than 60% of freshmen to graduate.  How many graduate without the ability to read?

I've subbed at some rough and tough schools and the expectations aren't high.  I've seen really good teachers create a fun and engaging atmosphere.  The students fought engagement.  The students couldn't be bothered to learn.  The students had reviews.  The students were coaxed and cajoled and pleaded with.  The students failed the very easy tests.

I've seen students disrespect their peers and their guides.  I've heard the "N" word more in one day than years outside.  Their leaders and school professionals do not get their attention or their interest.  They muddle through.  They are defined by apathy.  Apathy is their superpower and they are great at utilizing 

Teachers don't always use the best pedagogy.  Teachers are fighting this apathy and guess what, sometimes it's easier to fight apathy with a stick than it is to fight with the carrot.  The carrot takes a long time to prepare.  The stick doesn't.  They both take a lot of emotional energy.

Teachers don't always teach to all the modalities of learning and all of the seven different types of intelligence because they have to cover a large amount of content in their best modality and intelligence.  Guess what the students don't respond to any of them anyway.

Students sometimes couldn't be bothered to copy what the teacher writes on the board.  Look I did this.  And I analyzed their refusal based on certain premises.  First, maybe they thought that they wouldn't be graded on it.  Wrong.  I told them they would be.  Maybe they thought that that which was given freely was of little value.  Maybe, but 30% copied incorrectly.  Maybe they thought that succeeding in math was unnecessary because of social promotion that they had been experiencing several years of their school careers.

Students don't read their textbooks.  School textbooks are big business.  14 Billion dollars a year on school textbooks that aren't even read.  The teachers don't assign the students to read them.  Maybe they'll assign sections of the social studies and/or English Composition books.  A lot of schools have paid $10,000+ for class sets that are never assigned, books that aren't read cover to cover, and students who don't use technology to supplement their education.

Students have access to all the classes almost any college can offer.  They can read Wikipedia and other online materials all day everyday.  Students now have the ability to create, learn, experience, engage with, more sources of information, more teachers of skills, more experienced mentors than ever.

Students could go to school and learn four languages and three instruments and more information in one year than we used to learn in a decade before the internet, but they just don't.  They could watch teachers teach every section of knowledge imaginable from several different teachers and they can do all that without leaving bed.

Schools in America are terrible.  I know English, Aussies, South Africans, Korean, Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Pakistanis, and Thai.  Maybe a couple of other countries and they're not really much better than ours when you strip our incongruous disabled population.  But even if this is just about us.  American schools are bad.  Ask anyone.

But how good do they have to be?  What if the main thing we need to concentrate on is primary school?  Okay, lets say the the goal should be to learn and I mean MASTER a content test for all the information you should learn when you're in the 5th grade.  Now, spread the content of 5 years + Kinder out to say 8 years of schooling.

So if we concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic then you never let anyone graduate without getting that content.  Anyone doesn't want to pay attention and get that content.  They can go home.  Self-induced expulsion I call it.

What about High school?  I am well aware that there is a need for some students of every ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and gender to have the opportunity to try computer science, higher level math, chemistry, biology etc.  We must offer to find those who would make their careers in those fields, not to mention, those who would truly revolutionize those fields.  But need we offer it to everyone or just anyone?  Huge difference.  I posit that universal education is follows the proverb, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.  Education is on offer if you will but take it.  Teachers in a school with these expectations don't need to be as engaging, but still interesting and entertaining.  These educators are the people who are taking our best and brightest students and finding out if they are so.  The work should be challenging enough to see if they are passionate about the content and capable enough to succeed in the pursuit of a higher education.  Send all kids to school.  Kids get 5th grade educations by 8th grade.  Kids graduate or drop out.  Kids who graduate can attend these high schools.  High school is like college in this reality, demanding and difficult.  Maybe high school becomes collegiate, but you dabble in everything.  College becomes a place where you take 101 classes.  You take introductions.  You survey.

Students who do not graduate the 8th grade go to remedial high school.  This is a second chance to learn the content of the first 8 years.  This place has teachers that specialize in being engaging.  These teachers always follow best practices.  These teachers have small class sizes and may work with an aid for instructional.  These students are special needs(lower capabilities not severe disabilities), but aren't behavior issues.  Behavior issues don't go to school.

People who don't want preparatory college high school and didn't need remedial can begin to learn trades.  They can start working as bus boys, dishwashers, lawn mowers.  Start teaching them about compound interest in middle school and find them a job at 15 they can save $100/month doing.

Students who don't want to work or go to either kind of high school do not get welfare.  Now, here in lies a crux.  I think the welfare culture and the failing schools are connected.  I could be wrong.  I believe there are some in both industries fudging the numbers to change the perception, but this is my belief.  If the flow of benefits runs dry then I believe people, not all but most (95% is a guess), will go back to school or the work force.  Social security and SSI disability were supposed to be about 5% but now it's way higher.  I know Romney got destroyed for saying it was 47% on some sort of assistance; that seems legitimate if not precise.

Two reasons we NEED kids to graduate.  75% of crime in the US is committed by high school dropouts.  And a high school dropout will make $200,000 less over a working career than a graduate.  And a dropout is three times more likely to fall below the poverty line and be subsidized by the government.  It's in our economic interest to make them graduate.  And it's in out penal interest to make sure they earn it.

So there is my plan for a revolutionary education overhaul.  Be amazed.  It really was a lot of verbal mental diarrhea I've been thinking about since I really thought about what students needed to learn in high school.  And what they do, but don't.