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Tuesday, November 29, 2005
‘Not an issue, it is THE issue.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I got this e-mail yesterday:
PLEASE do a blog on the lack of support for teachers when it comes to discipline. It is NOT an issue, it is THE issue. Trying to deal with anything in education without dealing with discipline is the equivalent of asking “Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?”
I think you would be shocked at the number of teachers who have to spend the majority of teaching time dealing with one or two chronically disruptive students without administrative support.
The only thing worse than the lack of support is that administrators then blame the teacher for lacking “management skills” when they, by not supporting the classroom teacher when it comes to consequences, have given the child carte blanche’ to act a fool. (Quite often, even when they remove these children from the room, they themselves have no control over the child; but once they are the ones the child directs the behavior at, they will be quick to suspend them.)
One small real life example: A child repeatedly refuses to follow directions. The teacher calls the parent to inform her of the child’s behavior. The child gets mad and throws a chair across the room, leaving a large hole in the drywall. Choose the correct administrative response:
A) The child is removed from the room, the parent is called and the child is suspended B) The child is removed from the room, the parent is called and the child is suspended; the parent is forced to make restitution C) The child is removed from the room, the parent is called and the child is suspended; the child is forced to make restitution by performing clean up duty after school. D) The child is NOT removed from the room, and the teacher is asked in an accusatory tone “didn’t you know he was going to get mad when you called his mother?”
NOW do you understand why discipline (and the systemic lack of administrative support) is not “an issue” but the issue?”
Thoughts?
