Tale from the front line

In case you missed it, check out this must-read account of one teacher's experience working in an unnamed Hillsborough high school:

It's sixth period, my first day teaching high school, and my regular Junior English class refuses to settle down. I give them a brief talk, amid the jostling and visiting (and the walking, and the love taps, and the food trading, and the vaulting over desks) about respect. I will respect them, I say, and they will respect me ... For about 30 seconds, they like the idea of my respecting them, and then they're up again.

Melanie Hubbard has a doctorate in English and has taught at the college level. This spring, she tried out the public school setting, where everyone knows there is a shortage of qualified instructors. Her experience, described in a first-person story for the St. Petersburg Times over the weekend, sounds alarms on many levels.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this story and whether it rings true to what you know about the public high school setting.

(Photo: Melanie Hubbard)

Comments

At my kids' public high school: regular English is for kids that don't care or don't know enough to care; honors English is regular English; AP or dual-enrollment English is for students that can read and are thinking about college.

[jwt]

Thanks for the article--welcome to the real world!

[smallcap2000]

I was a long term substitute in the Pinellas Schools, mostly high school. Everything Ms. Hubbard wrote is true to what I have seen. I am flabbergasted by the anti-intellectualism of almost every student. Few want to be in school. Almost all take glee in hurting teachers. I have two kids, both in very expensive private schools. It is breaking financially, but Pinellas schools are worthless.

[Right on...]

This article is shocking and sad, but ENTIRELY true. The sadder thing is that the teacher, I mean doctor of literature, who wrote about her mistreatment and misadventures, was the one who was blamed by some of the more obtuse bloggers.

I am an English honors and regular high school teacher now, but in my first year of teaching, I taught all regular students. I cannot tell how you how difficult it was to get up every morning and come to work. At least half of my students made it their job to disrupt and disrespect me. The hatred some of these students have for others they do not even know is unreal. I don’t want to give overly specific details because I want to maintain my anonymity and be respectful to my students, past and present, but I have had bodily harm threatened face-to-face a handful of times, I have been called every single derisive and profane word under the sun, and I have been pushed and bumped around. I have been sexually harassed on multiple occasions. I have stopped counting. This is just one year I am speaking of. I have seen a girl gang fight in my class. Five girls (not my students) stormed my room to jump one girl (my student). While I teach, I have been mocked and have had racial slurs hurled at me. I have witnessed students being attacked in my classroom. I have witnessed racial slurs, homophobic slurs, and misogynistic slurs hurled towards others. I have heard students brag about beating, stabbing, and jumping their peers or opposing gang members. Several of my freshmen have given birth during the school year. I have had a student ask me how much an abortion is. Other students have bragged about these things.

Before anyone slams me by citing that I am inadequate, under-qualified, lazy, or the like, I assure you that I am a very good, hard-working, caring teacher. I have a solid reputation. I am not under-qualified or lazy. Teaching is my life, so much so that I am completely burned out. Next year will most likely be my last because I can’t run this ship full steam ahead without support from administrators, parents, students, and the community. If I can’t put my entire heart in it, then I need to do something else when that day comes. There are many wonderful parents and amazing students. I am very blessed to have them. They enrich my life, BUT it is the handful of out-of-control-students who ruin it for everyone. They steal the education right out from under the feet of the student who DO care because I will spend at least 1/3 of every class disciplining all the behaviors I have written about above. They take all of my extra time that should be spent on grading, tutoring, and planning because instead I must meet with administrators to discuss their behavior, call their parents to no avail, email to receive no reply, write their referrals to see no real discipline, and conduct conferences with their parents that don’t show up etc. The bad apples overshadow the great kids, and it shouldn’t be that way.

The school district and the administrators are more concerned with what things seem to be. They are not truly concerned with “what is”. They are concerned with managing, keeping their jobs, advancing in the jobs, and defending the status quo that serves them. They do not put the students and teachers first. It is far too easy to blame the teacher in order to stay in good graces with the students, parents, and the public. Granted there are some poor teachers, but overall, the vast majority do their jobs or go above and beyond. There is a reason about half of the new educators leave the field in the first few years. You enter the scene thinking that you can make a difference, feeling like a professional and possessing vast quantities of hope, and it is all dashed by the system. Trust me. Most of my friends are also younger educators, and we are all making plans to leave in the next year or two for new jobs, private school, families, or furthering our education. Who will replace us?

[FYI]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT......

After being interviewed by the school administration, the teaching prospect said, "Let me see if I've got this right:

You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self esteem and personal pride.

You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.

You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the state exams.

You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English and Spanish by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

You want me to do all this and then you tell me.......

I CAN'T PRAY???????

Them. How much of this problem is race clash?

[Finally done...]

I have to concur with Dr. Hubbard and poster "Right on..."; our schools (at least in Pinellas and Hillsborough) are profoundly broken. We have many 'students' who show up just for the day care and the socializing; miscreants who should be in juvie, but are in the schools instead; parents/caregivers who keep making outrageous claims and demands because the school system keeps acquiescing to shut them up.

The racism and misogyny in the public schools on behalf of these 'children' is disgusting. This generation may be the one that finally pushes America into second-best ststus, with their sense of entitlement and their 'victim' attitude (wonder where those came from?)

Sure, there will be the usual posters with their whining about long vacations and high pay (ha!), but since bennies are all they see, the dedication to excellence doesn't seem to be there. The scariest part, though, will be from the 'professional' educators and admins who let all this happen every single day and have a vested interest in maintaining this dysfunctional status quo.

Nothing makes sense - concentrating on symptoms rather than causes, disintegrating discipline as behavior relentlessly worsens, focusing on extracurriculars because that's what the kids want. Keep the vacations and the 35K to start with a bachelors. All we're doing is providing a demanding, unskilled labor force for our future overseas managers.

[Julia]

It seems to me that they need to turn a 1/4 of the schools into schools for kids with behavioral problems. Staff them more heavily, put teams of psychologists on staff whatever you need to do. Have a lot of vocational offerings to teach these kids trades. But these troublemakers need to be removed so that other students can learn. It's not doing anyone any good to allow these "kids" to remain in a regular school. That is just a sad story. My daughter attends a fundamental school in Pinellas. Thank goodness the discipline there is much stricter than at the regular public schools.

[Timmy!]

Addressing any problem(s) first requires admitting there is one, then agreeing on the source(s).

It is not a pleasant task because no one wants to admit it or take responsibility.
Sometimes we must admit we have made or are making mistakes.

For all the Ed-speak about "new paradigms", "thinking outside the box", "equal access", etc., Big-Ed is focused on the status quo. They keep trying to snooker the public with Bid-Ed Vocab.

Go back to '93 and read "Nation At Risk", we have done nothing - but demean the messenger.

It will take a major revolution in education to get away from John Dewey's influence. It will take "enough is enough" from the public. It will take a repudiation of ACLU tactics and legislative hi-jinx. It will take parents with vouchers and a desire to REALLY help their kids. It will take a cultural shift in the US that will hurt more than the current high gas prices but targeted to renew the concept of family and education.

Ask yourself: am I ready to accept, support and fight for these kinds of changes? Is my neighbor? Can we come to terms?

Are we all even smart enough to even recognize what needs to be done?

(The seeds are hidden in the above posts.)

George F. Will: A nation still at risk:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08115/876019-35.stm

[Will's Right!]

Thanks 11:45

I usually don't read Will, but I did this time. WOW.

Guess my changing has started.

[oncearevolutionaryteacher]

"A Nation at Risk" was published back in 1983 not 1993....I was in Educ grad school back then and the only thing that has changed is parenting and technology.

Technology has made our lives better but has disconnected parents from reality with kids focused on My Space/Facebook/texting, etc.

The root of the problem lies both in adminstrative blindness and parental denial of their responsibilities.

When we have an education revolution which will happen only when students themselves demand that the disruptors be removed so they can exercise their right to learn....

will there be change....

When we stop bending to the whims of the parents who have been manipulated by their teens into thinking it's not "my child" but it's someone else's fault....

will there be change....

Alas, the nation at risk is already seeing the results of their actions or inactions, over the past 20+ years.....

outsourcing jobs / recruiting overseas.

The end is near...as it is many professors are leaving for greener pastures....it is happening before our eyes and yet...no education revolution.

Those wanting to make changes are relegated to giving up or ostracized as troublemakers.

Sad , very sad.

[Sweathogs]

The problem I think is that we refuse to put the blame where it lies, on the kids themselves. I teach non-honors level kids and it is amazing. An easy 20% of the kids come in without the most basic preperations. Forget homework, I spend the first 5 min of every class making sure every kid has pencil and paper. Not becasue they are disadvantaged but because they didn't care enough to bring the one I gave them yesterday back to class today.

When the kids did not achieve on the writing fcat, there was an email put out about how bad the prompt was, no the kids just didn't give a darn.

I love teaching, but this really sucks the life out of you sometimes. Go ahead and talk about summers off, but speaking for myself, I need it. Hopefully the batterys will recharge over the summer but I am beginning to doubt it.

Until the kids get out in the world and face some real accountability they are not going to change. Unfortunatly I don't see it happening.

[Right on...]

Sweathogs, we must work at the same school because that is what I heard too. Then, the teachers got blamed. Hillsborough is making more excuses so no one tries to lay blame on the new 6/7 schedule. Teachers predicted that the writing would go down. 10th grade FCAT writes went down at almost every single HS. Bad prompt? Give me a break! More excuse making...

[Teacher]

To Right On: I've had the exact same experiences, and that is why I am currently looking for a new job.

There is no support, safety, or security as a teacher anymore.

[Veronica]

The motto in my classroom is “If you can say it or write it, you know it.” “IT” could be any subject. The mission is to use flexible creative strategies, group dynamics and cooperative learning to help people learn, whether in a school, a Parent/Teacher workshop, a mentor colleague seminar, or in the community. Creating, maintaining and refining subject materials, leadership and managerial skills take a lot of practice and a variety of techniques to incorporate, practice and refine. In addition to my English degree, my on-going professional trainings, at school, county, state, or international sites have taught me to facilitate for students, to become effective communicators in verbal and non-verbal skills.

Within a myriad of culled frameworks, purposeful, relevant and rigorous options about assessing instructional needs, adapting accordingly, and developing innovative methods and approaches emphasizes student-led achievement, tailoring individual and whole classroom lessons. Instruction centers on students’ striving to achieve their maximum potentials while encouraging a life-long “love” of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing, encompassing the whole person’s development.

Teaching beyond the essential, and incorporating fine-art enrichment as well as, cross-curricular lessons, demonstrates to students the interactions and interconnections among subjects. Academic and behavioral strategies encourage academic growth, fostering fundamental cornerstones of sense-confidence, self-regard and self-respect. Holistic teaching puts individual and group accountability, and right-brained work forefront, while using systematic and logical steps to show students how to merge the two processes.

Reading, writing, and all strands of English become an easier, less intimidating, intelligent, and cohesive way of communicating. Poignant and technical proficiency needed to exist then become activities to practice self-motivation, discipline, risk-taking and empathy. The richness and subtlety of the English language will then be transposed into accessing knowledge, dissecting it, understanding universal themes, and evaluating and synthesizing.

My students’ excellent and insightful class work, state and national test scores, regional and national writing awards and more, attest that these instructional methods work at any age level.

Veronica E. Foley
Bay Point Middle School
Nationally Board certified, Early Adolescent/English-Language Arts
English, 6-12 certified, Florida certificate since 1992