in "MY" opinion.......................

i guess all posts should begin with these words....
in "MY" opinion.

so hhhhheeeeerrrrreeeee we go!!!!
(fond remembrances of trivia played with my sons at the sports bar!)

what is wrong with education today?

i don't mean to go off on a rant, but in "MY" opinion it goes back to 2 things:

#1 removal of prayer in the classroom

#2 removal of the paddle in the classroom

first let's talk about prayer:

i remember the time when our teaching day started with a prayer.

we also said a prayer before we went to eat lunch.

in this present day, that could be the only reference to GOD in many of these children's lives.

how sad it is when you ask kids where or IF they go to church.
no wonder they don't know how to act.

i was in my second year of teaching when we went from being able to say a prayer and show some gratitude and reverence for our MAKER, to the useless "minute of silence".

have any of you ever witnessed the so-called minute of silence?
not a pretty sight in most classrooms.
...........................................................................................................

and now about the paddle--or more commonly referred to as corporal punishment.

i know i am preaching to the choir here, but when we took the paddle out of the CLASSROOM it all began to crumble.

i started teaching when you could actually jerk a kid up, give him/her a swat right there in the classroom, and sit him/her down in the desk, tears and all.

now that was discipline! and you only had to do it once or twice and never again that year. kids saw that you would NOT tolerate improper behavior, and they would toe the line!

and the parents actually supported you! more amazing, they EXPECTED their kids to behave.

can you new teachers even comprehend that concept?

AND you didn't get called into the office to "write it up", or have a conference with the parent where you had to defend what you did with "documentation" and "what have you tried".

it was simple...they misbehaved and they paid the price for it. students saw there were consequences for their behavior. novel idea, huh?

then things began to change.............

phase 1 - the beginning of the downfall:

after that, we had to take them out in the hall to administer punishment.

the purpose of the hallway was to keep from embarrassing the kid. of course, the way he was behaving didn't embarrass him, so why should we be concerned about whether the punishment embarrasses him? i still haven't figured that one out.

but that was still pretty effective as the sound reverberated down the hall and everyone was put on alert--"somebody just got it!" there was usually some outcry of pain that accompanied the punishment.

we also sent them right back into the classroom.
no going to the bathroom and washing the tears off their face.

and they behaved, not just the offender, but also the rest of the school!

i think students thought using the paddle was a contagious thing among teachers.

once one of us did it, we all were more likely to do it!

phase 2 - the downfall continues:

following the move to the hall, we could only paddle if we had a witness.

even that was acceptable, because we had to go get another teacher out of her classroom. when the kids heard the sounds they all wanted to know about it when the witnessing teacher returned to her classroom.

phase 3 - (feel the authority crumbling down?)

after that, we had to take them to the principal's office.

losing the effect now. not necessarily for the kid being punished, but the rest of the school didn't "learn from the mistakes of others". the kid returned to the class telling whatever story he wanted to.

"i didn't even cry."
"it didn't even hurt"
"i could have taken a 100 more"



phase 4 -

the useless "office referral"

seldom if ever results in any punishment more than a "good talking to",

which rolls off these kids today like water off a duck.

they sit there and tell lies, and more often than not are believed over the teacher. they return to our classrooms with an even cockier attitude because nothing happened.

the icing on the cake was when they came back with a pencil, or a piece of candy, or a piece of gum.

really effective, huh???

iss is no punishment. parents are no support because their little "darlings" (hellions) have never done anything like that before.

and the worst thing of all is the fact that this constitutes only 3 or 4 of our kids.

the rest of them are great kids!
they do their work,
they are respectful,
they are responsible,
they have good attendance,
their parents come to conferences,
they check their grades on the parent portal,
they bring back their homework folders,
their parents sign their planners,
they get greens most of the time on their conduct folders,
they may not LIKE school, but they do what is expected anyway.



so where did all of this madness come from?
i give all the credit to the ACLU.
they have made our jobs almost impossible.
i remember when teachers could actually TEACH.

now there's an idea for you!


i am waiting for the day when the parents of those GOOD students get the guts to file a lawsuit against:

one of those kids AND their parents for...

denying other students a better education because teachers have to spend the majority of their time with the disruptive behavior of a few.

i will be the first one to stand up and applaud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

of course,

that is just MY opinion...

i could be wrong!!!!