The Faith that was handed down to you (Part 1)

    I came to faith in Christ in the late 1940's.  My grandpa, John Murphy, had fought in the Eastern theater of World War II.  He was in the movie Sands of Iwo Jima, I think he might have been a part of the real thing too.  But I came to faith when he was back home going to Abilene Christian College.  He was using some Veteran's Affairs money?  But he also had a job.  He was working campus security.  Funny, When I went to college in the same place, now Abilene Christian University, 59 years later I don't remember them having any ex-military security guards.  

    Why did they have security then?  Was it because of the post war boom?  Full employment and the only hemisphere that didn't get blown the smithereens?  Were Americans worried about Japanese or German reprisals in the homeland on a back water Christian college?  Was Grandpa armed?

    I suspect that there was security because the college and the parents specifically that sent their kids to the college cared a lot more about the morality of the students.  Grandpa's job was to keep the kids from doing anything their parents wouldn't like.  No sneaking out of your dorm after hours, I suspect 9 pm.  No going to get a coke with your best guy or your best gal.  I bet they had 'lights out' back then.  Now they have curfew only for freshmen and then you can stay up and watch whatever you want whenever you want.

    Grandpa was patrolling the grounds; probably a lot less grounds to patrol.  They should have started building a bunch of dorms that decade.  He was patrolling with no gun, no badge, just a sense of moral clarity and stern expectations on loan from that generation's parents, our great-grandparents.  They fought World War I and fought modernity like girls and boys bathing (swimming) together and girls wearing pants, and even, sadly, black people getting educations.  But they fought tooth and nail to keep their kids on the straight and narrow.  

    There is John walking his beat.  And what's that?  There is a girl sneaking out her window to get a coke after curfew.  The girl is Lois Williams.  My grandmother.  She is 16 he is 23.  John writes her a citation and turns her into the dean.  He gets her 'campused' for two weeks, it's euphemism for grounded.  Her foray into a life of crime started with a trip to get a coke after hours has now ended in a complete and utter loss of freedom.  Grandpa visits the young girl everyday for the next two weeks.  I bet he even brought her a coke or two.  By the time she's 20 she has 3 babies with him.  

That was how my faith was handed down to me.  From a warrior saving the world from the aggression of a maniacal dictator, to a mall cop making sure the truly religious stayed truly moral.  From a man enforcing the dictates of some real and some imagined pharisaical rule book to a man starting a life with the wayward wayfaring 100th sheep.  It was a beginning of Christ calling me not the beginning.

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 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. 

My Charter School - Part 2 (Music School)

    I haven't decided if I'm going to make my son read this.  Actually, I haven't decided if I'm going to ask my son to read this and have him tell me no.  He is awesome.  He plays multiple instruments.  He plays violin, harp, marimba, and piano.  The fact that he plays so many sometimes makes it hard for him to excel in any, but I think his skills and talents are amazing.  But I think Band sucks. 

    In my opinion Band sucks, but he loves it.  It does though, it sucks so bad.  First, band costs too much.  I'm not talking about the musical instruments, but the program.  The competition that the students are going to be involved in is too much damn money.  My son's school's band program cost a million dollars and 500 ish students also ponied up $600 dollars a piece and there are multiple fundraisers.  That's too much damn money.

    I know that there are people who sort of shmack talk about whether it's more difficult to be in band than in say football, for me they're both too difficult.  But football get more praise.  So the band spends hundreds of hours putting together this really expensive show.  It takes too long.  They used to do it for the football team only.  Now they have massive competitions that cost too much money no one but the band knows who won unless it's was your team.  Band has taken on a mind of its own which is good, because they shouldn't serve the football team, but they still kind of do.  

    Band is art, it makes you smarter, attention to detail, discipline in skill building, some athleticism; these are all reasons why band should be practiced in school.  But in my charter school things will be much different than they are at your normal 5A or 6A school band program.

    These days Band lives for marching season.  Marching season is the program that they do at halftime.  The band is practicing at the game and usually only doing part of their program.  The real competition is the multiple competitions they do on Saturdays after the game.  12 hour long competitions.  They're trying to make their program perfect by about the end of the football regular season where they'll probably go to state band competitions.  During the week, the students practice in double blocks, that means an hour and a half everyday.  Then they have multiple after school practices.  Then they have Friday morning before the game and they're at the game 5-10:00 or later.  It takes as much time as a part time job.  20-30 hours.  It takes too much time.  And the program they're perfecting, is usually only three or four songs.  This is why I hate it.

    Band stopped being about being really good at music and started being about the competition.  Band members devote so much memory their marching and aren't spending enough time learning the notes to more songs.  Some band members do band only for marching band season.  I think that is a problem and so far I haven't seen any limiting principle.  How much practicing for these competitions is too much.  There are rules and laws about how much time should be utilized, but it doesn't seem that many top notch schools follow these rules.  I know my son's school doesn't.  Sometimes, the rules are purposefully vague.  

    I think those rules should be clear and concise.  I think there should be an hour long class in school everyday.  I think there should be no more than five hours outside of school for that.  There would be no reason to get ready for football games.  There should be no marching competitions because there isn't enough time.  Band could produce shows but not buy them.  Schools could have simple uniforms, but cheap.  And emphasis should be placed on exceptional play and music library rather than expert steps.  One goes with the musician after school one doesn't.  

    Band after marching season and after football season is for competitions and shows.  So it should be still.  

    Band can play at smaller sporting events that are intramural, but they should create these halftime shows themselves and with the help of faculty.  They don't have to be professional productions.  Why should they be.  They AREN'T professionals.

    Orchestra should be the same as band.  Learning a large library of songs, pressed to play with greater talent and skill on a limited basis in school and some out of school.  

ANTS SPECIALIZE

    Athletes who are good enough to play intramurally for the school should have enough time to play in either band or orchestra.  Band members should have enough time to do band and orchestra.  Or they could be part of a musical club/class and another club instead of athletics.  If students are in two things outside of school they should be able to do them both in 10 hours.  NO more.  Limiting principles.  If the students and their parents want the student to achieve some sort of professional grade athleticism or musical talent then they should do that at home.  Their parents are responsible for that schools are not.  Schools shouldn't be.  

MISSION CREEP

Schools all over the US are getting confused thinking that there purpose is to produce students who are professional grade in high school and starting them on the path in middle school.  NO.  Schools are preparing students for LIFE.  The talents that they achieve should be introductory.  If they're doing something seven years of secondary education I think they should be good enough to go to any college music program because they're more focused without competitions.  If not, their parents should be the ones who have stronger expectations at home, not at school.  I think athletes in my school can do the same a varied capability in many sports may make them a more all-around athlete.  If the parent thinks the student needs more time in basketball or tennis, or whatever, they can see to those needs themselves or go to a school with bad priorities.   

My Charter School - Part 1 (Athletics)

    My future charter school needs a lot of work and planning.  What makes up a school what makes it good and what makes it bad?  I know very few people read this blog, but one day maybe I make a charter school and people read this in order to understand it.  First, I'm going to spend a significant amount of digital ink on EXTRA curriculars.

    The first football game was between Yale and Harvard.  It wasn't nigh unto professional sports.  I cannot imagine those students spending more than a couple of hours a week practicing and they were the only teams that filled out a team that year.  Soon many others would join.  Other schools in the last century and a half have had football teams much faster.  Yale and Harvard were open over a hundred years a piece before they started playing intramural sports.  But even colleges that were started between 1850 and 1950 started small, a college, that focused and grew and changed and added sports over time.  Now new schools race to have athletic programs.  

   And high school follow along the same trajectory.  They had no programs in small towns, then they had small programs, then they had large programs.  Now, middle schools have programs that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.  The costs are in some ways hidden by the labor.  Four coaches in athletics means $200,000+ but they also teach.  Well, some of them.  They use trainors from the high school, their gear is nike, or under armour, the kids bring in some money, they fund raise.  Middle school programs now I would guess cost more even with inflation than college programs did say 75 years ago.  Sounds like a long time?  High school programs I believe cost more than college did 35 years ago, is my guess.  There are exceptions.  Big college verses little high school might not be close, but the point is there is an unquestionable gradual growth.  And there doesn't seem to be a limiting principle.  

    Why would there be a limiting principle.  The more colleges spend on athletics, the more they get from advertising dollars for being on TV.  The more they're on TV the more students that matriculate.  The more students the more money, the more money the more athletic potential.  The more they get from donors.  High schools and middle schools get a great deal of prestige from Athletics for some unknown reason.  The average person cannot name which school was last years high school state champ unless it was your school.  The kids care so much about winning district in middle school, but who cares.  It is no great predictor of Division 1 success or professional potential.  Who cares?  Almost everyone does.  If the money is to indicate interest then teachers, parents, students, voters, and everyone else cares who wins.

    So...everyone is wrong.  Especially in the school setting.  Athletic programs were invented between the world wars and especially after WWII to teach discipline and athletic ability to a large swath of society.  Our schools are failing in this.  Football is failing in this.  Football creates prima donnas who don't listen or respect, do not achieve in the classroom.  Coaches are trying to get players to play whether they pass or not.  Coaches are leaning on admin and teachers to pass students so they can play.  There are reasons for kids to play, to learn discipline and respect, to work off some excess energy, to have an outlet for aggression and even corporal punishment.  But it should always be subservient to education.  Students who cannot read and do math on level shouldn't be double blocking athletics, but reading and math.  

    Athletics are therefore beneficial, but must serve the school.  Athletics must prepare boys and girls for all futures rather than a future in professional sports.  So in my charter school there will be no sports against other schools.  I think organizing games within the school will be much cheaper, will tamp down any fame that students may achieve for a couple of touchdowns on Friday night.  Basketball played within a single school will allow many students of varying skill levels to make an impact.  It is terrible that so many students don't play any sports and then they don't have any athletic activity in their boring PE class.  The Gym teacher doesn't push this class, many times because they cannot be useful to them on a team.  

    I know there are some students who come to school for sports.  I know there are some students who achieve in the classroom in order to play on the team although that number is shrinking.  To them, I think this could be even better than the system we have now.  If games are played daily at school among students then there is always the opportunity to achieve and play.  Because many students also practice in order to play.  Let them practice for half a class and then play everyday, there are too many, most schools, who are so business, they rarely scrimmage.  That is also bad for kids.  But what if a scrimmage isn't good enough, and what if two or three students dominate the games?  Play a bigger game after school.  Have a blue team and a red team within your school.  Trade players to resist factions.  And believe it or not, there are a lot of dominate players in intermural sports.

NO PASS NO PLAY

    I have a student named E.  He's tall, like 6'1 which is tall for an 8th grader.  I've never seen him play basketball, but he seems like he'd be good at least on defense with his size and apparent agility.  First day of school he said, he wanted to be a coach, a player, or a soldier.  He never talks out of turn, but he doesn't work.  He doesn't seem to care to turn work in.  The young boy would benefit from failing in class, because he needs to realize why he needs to perform in well in class.  But I truly wish he could figure that out without failing a nine weeks.  If he would play outside of UIL and on the school team, then he could sit out a day or a week, because faculty told him he couldn't play for a short period of time.  Not three weeks, or six weeks, or a unfigurable term that no one can figure out in UIL which is arbitrary.  The punishment, the consequences, should fit the crime.  E and others should receive swifter, simpler, more direct consequences for misbehavior, or lack of effort in the classroom.

COACHES

    In many middle schools there are 9 coaches.  Four for the boys, four for the girls, and one more for tennis or golf.  When I was a kid, 2 coaches coached 7th grade football, and 2 coached 8th grade football.  Now four coach 7th in the morning and the same four coach the 8th in the afternoon.  This is unwise.  Our coaches are becoming less educators and more coaches.  When these programs started 60 and 70 years ago there was a single coach for all the intramural sports and PE.  That is also unwise, coaches can't have impact on too many students.  That is why there should be more teacher coaches not less.  How many teachers could be utilized to coach a single class?  Two teacher coaches per period one man, one woman now there are 14 to 16 teacher coaches.  Who has the most authority in the classroom?  Teacher coaches.  Who are the most beloved after leaving school typically?  Teacher coaches.  When I have a behavior problem with an athlete who do we call?  Teacher coaches.  Now there are no stipends which are trash anyway for coaches.  There are no students who are receiving special treatment because they're 'taking us to state.'  There are students who practice a wide range of athletic pursuits, with a wide range of skill and interest levels, taught by a wide variety of teachers who cannot help, but keep their main focus on education, because they only coach an hour, but also dole out some consequences, and positive rewarding activities to students who're achieving in the classroom.

READY FOR WHATEVER

    I think football is wrong for students.  It does hurt too much.  There is brain damage with every hit.  The linemen aren't getting exercise.  Concussions and broken bones are too common.  One of my favorite movies is Necessary Roughness.  Scott Bacula is a college Quarterback and he's 40.  There are two antagonists for the football team.  One is the Texas State, the other is their own dean.  He doesn't think that college's hard earned money should be used on the barbarity of football.  I watched it when I was young and hated that guy, but I agree with him as I get old enough to be the arm of the armadillos.  No football, yes basketball, yes track, yes soccer, no hockey, yes relays and cross training, yes hiking, yes boxing with gear and hitting bags more than each other, yes field events including javelin.  Yes tag and wall ball, yes ping pong and cross country.  Yes gymnastics maybe swimming.  Yes wrestling yes volleyball.

TITLE NINE

    Girls will train with boys and will play in PE with boys.  When preparing for afterschool, more competitive games, there should be girls, boys, and co-ed.  

ANTS SPECIALIZE

    One hard fast rule for me is that I don't think kids should have to choose.  When I was part of a high school program as a student in the late 90's there was time to be an athlete and a nerd in the band or orchestra.  I think that is essential to the cultivation of students and societal members.  When I was part of a high school program as a coach (admittedly supporting role) in 2018 the time to be engaged in multiple activities was dead and dying out.  When I was in high school there were football players who pulled off their pads at halftime and marched with the band.  That is highly irregular these days.  Band members and football players both think they should specialize more to be ready for the next level.  This is a bad practice of our educational system.  It is tragic.  I think it should be reversed and it will be in my charter school.  Time will be alloted to make sure students can participate in multiple extracurriculars.  Will students be as competitive in state competitions?  No, thank God.

Cashing in on Education

"Why can't I just quit school and go to work?"

Ever hear that from your high schooler?  Maybe your 3rd grader?  

The national average price paid per pupil across the US is $12,612.  That means each kid costs that much every year.  This starts out at the upper end where New York spends $24,000 per pupil including a ton of money for pensions.  Utah is in last place, or is it first place?  They spend $7,628 per student.  *Stats from educationdata.org

America is not getting its money's worth.  Nope.  In large cities like New York, New York where students are costing $24,000 per student per year 80% are graduating and 80% of those can read.  Wow.  You know I'm actually surprised it's that high.  Maybe there is some statistical...creativity.  Maybe there are affluent schools bringing the average up.  Maybe there are some really good charter and private schools that just get it done.  Then again, exclusive private schools shouldn't even effect those statistics.  Maybe if the US used vouchers and we SHOULD use vouchers.  

Heck, maybe the numbers are fudged.  I'd believe that.  I just read 13 Ways of Going on a Field Trip.  Seems like there are some heroic and idealistic teachers in New York fighting a tsunami, but the tsunami is winning.  I've heard horror stories from people who work at Title 1 schools, and movies, and articles, and my own experiences these past five years at Title 1 schools.  

My personal assessment is that students and parents lack motivation.  Some students will do well for themselves.  Some students will do well for their parents.  Some students will do well to play sports or do the arts.  All of that adds up to maybe 50% and still few of those have an intrinsic motivation to retain knowledge rather than to score well on the test and dump their knowledge.  Still even that doesn't deal with the other 50% ish who aren't motivated by parents, sports, or anything else. 

Here's one idea.  Let's pay the students $500 a year to get A's and B's and good attendance.  Say $80 bucks per six weeks if they get A's and B's and only 2 absences, no more than 5 tardies.  They can lose out one or two Marking Periods and fix it in the others.  What about paying parents the same amount?  Now moms and dads are motivated to send their kids to bed on time, and get to school on time, and encourage them to do homework each night.  Maybe parents could even sit down with the kids regularly and look at their grades to hold them accountable.  

There does seem to be something perverse about paying students and parents to succeed.  After all we're already giving them something that has the ability to really do amazing things. Just go look up quotes about the value of education and you'll see Erasmus said, "The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth."  "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. -Fredrick Douglas.  "A child without an education is like a bird without wings."  "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."   So should America pay its people to take this great thing?  Yeah.  

We already pay kids the price of the school building, team sports, pensions, teacher's salaries, counselors, and admin. We pay too much to try to grow their motivations instead of just trying to pay them to be motivated.  Let's buy their motivations.  

I often think, 'I could teach 40 students at a time in all of my classes IF each student was as good as HN, MI, or DS (initials used to protect identities).  You've had students like that, right?  What if they all were?  What if they were pressing you for all they might incidentally need to know instead of asking if they'll really need all this?  What if they self-regulated class and other student's behavior so that they could all hear and succeed?  What if they tried to butter you up, but were also conscientiously trying to not look like they were?  What if they all vied to be the teacher's pet?  Would teachers need as much pay and as much support staff?  Nope.

Could this lead to cheating?  For example, a teacher offers a good grade for part of the cash?  Yes.  But would you want to trust a student to keep quiet about that?  I wouldn't.  Could students and parents make a scene and argue?  Could rotating teachers and standardized testing be used to back up all teacher data?  Yes.  

It wouldn't have to be every school or even every school in one state.  It would just have to be a couple of charters to create the experiment.  I know there would be tons of teachers, parents, and students titillated by the opportunity. Then again, I didn't even ask Google if it was legal.