Misadventures in Public Schools

Misadventures in Public Schools

by Dr. David Edwards, PhD.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Dr David Edwards

Published by Strict Publishing International

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Introduction

This book is a compilation of events, problems and incidents I have encountered during my long career in education, both as a teacher and as a principal. Many, in hindsight, are amusing, but many were not, and at the time they happened, most caused stress and anxiety to me, to students, to teachers, or to others involved in the educational system. Put simply, they should not have happened, and as well as – I hope – being enjoyable and interesting to read, this book is a catalogue of many of the problems within our education system and a guide to how they may be corrected and avoided.

All the characters featured in this book are real. They all exist, although most will now have long departed from their positions within the system. Their names are, as the reader will quickly see, not real. I have invented suitable nicknames for all of them, or in some cases used nicknames I know were given to them by others at the time.

History

My first direct contact with a school principal occurred when I was a fourth grade student in an elementary school. All of us who had failed a math test the previous day were sent to the office to be swatted with a thick, black, leather belt by Mr. Awful. We were not to be struck on the posterior, as was common elsewhere in public schools, but we were made to absorb several vicious hits on the palm of our hands.

There was no prior discussion of the event, or even a warning of any kind. We were simply marched to the school office to get in line to be struck. The hand of each nine-year old student really swelled up after ten vicious hits.

All of the students involved in this misadventure cried and went back to class, but I went home to show my parents the results of this dastardly deed. My mother and father were as angry as I have ever seen them when they realized how my hands had been brutalized. My mother went immediately to the school to have it out with the portly, bald-headed principal.

I did not witness their discussion, but I was never swatted again at school. However, it was an experience never to be forgotten.

Even at my tender young age, I did not fail to notice the complete absence of the Sunday morning’s Christian ethic during each week of classes. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not trying to bring religion into this, and I’m certainly not saying that all schools should be run strictly according to the principles of the Church. There is a basic rule, The Golden Rule that was preached long and loud everywhere during those early days of my schooling and expounded by my parents and others at every opportunity. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The problem was that I, and the other children of my own age, rarely saw any of them doing it.

A few years later, in junior high school, I noticed the many problems the principal and the teaching staff were having in trying to maintain school discipline. Seventh and eighth grade are, no doubt, the worst age for student misbehavior. This is also the age when parents are in the most danger of losing control of their children at home.

In my young mind, I believed the reason for so much misbehavior by junior high school students was largely because supervising adults, especially at that critical time, tended to treat young students as the enemy. It was not often that we were subjected to a kind or understanding word, and that was not lost on any of my classmates. Many of us simply could not wait for school to finally be over and thus remove ourselves from being subjected to such ill treatment from people who should have known better.

All the negative examples I saw from adults in those critical years, I remembered later as examples of how not to act toward young people, or anyone else, for that matter. People of any age generally respond better to courteous words and pleasant behavior.

I am not sure when I resolved to be a teacher, but I think it must have been at an early stage. I had seen how badly it was being done by those in teaching and other positions of authority all around me, and I was quite certain that I could do it better.

Of course, it was not that simple.

Chapter 1

Teacher Preparation

School teaching is certainly not for just anyone. I think it requires special individuals who truly enjoy being in such positions, but unfortunately teacher vacancies often attract poor candidates.

I believe universities can help alleviate the problem of poor teacher prospects by improving the screening of applicants, and not be so obviously engrossed with filling college classrooms with just anyone. School districts everywhere can also help to correct the situation by being more selective in their hiring of new personnel. There should not be undue favoritism in the selection process toward friends, relatives, and locals. School districts should create a thorough and genuinely honest teacher evaluation system. Most importantly, I believe dedicated teachers should be paid much better salaries than they are at present.

Better salaries would attract superior individuals to teaching positions. Filling such vacancies should be thought of as a vital factor in our society. Teachers, wherever they are, have more direct influence on the youth of our country than anyone, except parents, and in some cases they have MORE influence than many parents do. If just one particular teacher is of poor quality, we all suffer.

We should regard teacher positions as more important than those of any reigning sports heroes, or rock and roll stars, or any movie or television personality. Quality teachers should be revered, and paid for their talent and abilities accordingly. What tremendous positive changes we would tend to create in our society.

The last few years we have seen salaries of sports and entertainment personalities climb ever upward toward obscene levels. It’s completely out of control! Millions of dollars are paid for the production of home runs, touchdowns, and even mediocre moving picture and stage performances. Are any of these overrated individuals worth more than one, inspiring teacher? I think definitely not!

But a school teacher should be much more than just extremely knowledgeable in academic subjects. I have seen many superior scholastic individuals who didn’t have a clue about how to effectively impart knowledge to others. Rather, some of them seemed to have an ever-biding contempt for anyone who didn’t understand the subject as well as they did themselves.

A truly great teacher must be able to inspire his/her students with the desire to excel, by being interesting, pleasant, and enthusiastic. A large part of the ever-present problems in our schools must also be remedied by parents bringing their children to the realization that our public schools are much more than merely there to provide a social environment. Schools should be thought of as an academic training ground to prepare the minds and efforts of students for the future.

As noted, far too many students today merely attend school to socialize with their peers. They give little thought to the ever-approaching time when their public school days are suddenly over.

A large percentage of these students go on to graduate from high school without ever having read a book in earnest, or studied any subject seriously. They seem to go through the motions of learning and discover much too late they can’t read, write, compute, or comprehend with any degree of proficiency. Such poor students also are made to realize they must suddenly compete for jobs or college against their better prepared peers.

During freshman year at college I saw many of these poorly-prepared, would-be students wasting additional time and money taking bone-head, basic English and math courses, in an attempt to catch up with others. Some find the challenge too much effort and they drop out, resigning themselves to lives of disappointing mediocrity.

When this writer first joined a huge, new, freshman class at a local university, an administrator walked out on the auditorium stage and announced, We want to welcome all of you here for classes. Please be aware that statistically speaking, only twenty percent of you will graduate! This means only one out of five will be successful!

I thought it was an astounding statement. But I made up my mind at that instant that nothing would deter me from my objective, regardless of what anyone else did.

During my first year, I watched as several members of that freshman class dropped out, just as predicted, unable to cope with the academic demands required of everyone. Some students, who were away from the restraining watchfulness of their parents - probably for the first time - only wanted to party day and night. Others quickly found members of the opposite sex to spend time with, to the exclusion of anything else, including studying for classes.

Many were simply not emotionally prepared to do what had to be done to compete. They were soon left in the dust of others who were better scholastically and emotionally prepared.

__________________

I had long since realized the greatest enemy to any of us is time. We only get just so much to do all that needs doing in our lives.

So, I tried to set the all-time record for rapid completion of a four-year undergraduate course at the university. By attending extra summer and night courses, I finished my four-year degree in less than three years!

I honestly believe I could have graduated even sooner if I had been assigned a decent adviser at the university. The professor chosen for me by lot, never took time to sit down with me for one minute. He was of no use to me at all.

By doing my own class scheduling, I never had time to attend a football game, a basketball game, or any of the endless parties of diversion held in various buildings surrounding the campus. My single objective was to get my college career over with as quickly as possible. I believe it was an extremely wise choice.

When I wasn’t in class, I was at work earning all of the capital I could, in order to get an excellent start in life. I honestly never regretted any of my concerted efforts in reaching my goal. I would highly recommend others to follow the same path. The good times came later. I followed my father’s wise adage to, keep first things, first!

There were some officials and their secretaries at my university who seemed to greatly resent anyone who finished getting a Bachelor’s Degree in less than the expected four years. I had some real opposition to my plan to get the required courses over as quickly as possible. But I never carried less than eighteen semester hours at a time, even though it was recommended I take no more than twelve.

Incidentally, at the time, each semester hour’s tuition was only eight dollars, and students could carry anything beyond twelve semester hours free. Therefore, the most a semester could cost was ninety-six dollars!

When the tuition cost of a semester hour eventually went to eight dollars and fifty cents, I recall there was a near-riot on campus. Today, of course, the cost of a semester hour is beyond the range of human comprehension.

What is it, I’ve often wondered, that continues to drive the cost of higher education ever upward? It is a gross evil that desperately needs correcting. We are at obscene levels of college tuition, now. Many potentially excellent graduates are forced into oblivion by these excessive, often ridiculous costs.

Knowing this, I have wondered why those grossly over-paid individuals in our society like movie people, and every one of today’s ball players, don’t do something positive to correct this horrendous situation. Think of everyone in our society who makes over one hundred thousand dollars annually being required to pay a fifty percent education tax on each of their lofty salaries to help promising students in our country. Besides, what person is it in our society who needs more capital than one hundred thousand dollar per year to survive? The super-wealthy would still be making too much money!

__________________

The college curriculum I was required to complete in order to get a state teacher’s certificate, included multiple courses in English, mathematics, social studies, history, music, art, political science, geography, economics, botany, physical science, physical education, literature, journalism, counseling, and some electives.

I took as many extra courses in speech as possible because I have always been fascinated by verbal communication, and the fact that even educated persons who speak the same language do not always understand each other. The courses I took in speech helped to clarify that phenomenon for me, to some extent, although certain areas of human communication still hold many mysteries.

I must say, with few exceptions, most of the other college’s courses mentioned here proved to be of some value. However, some of my fellow students believed our required Education courses - I think that there were nine of them - were largely a complete waste of time.

The courses were designed as the epitome of busy work. One Education class demanded sixteen written reports, which was surely the all-time record for absolute foolishness. Whenever possible, I would volunteer to substitute oral reports for written work, and I was always first with presentations when professors asked for volunteers. Sometimes the difference between getting an A or a B in a college course is just being noticed!

All of the Education courses I took required the purchasing of some very expensive texts everyone had to have, but no instructor ever used the books in class! Figure that out! I couldn’t!

__________________

One of my junior courses was an hour each day of student teaching. This required each college student to be put in an ordinary classroom under the daily supervision of a regular classroom teacher.

These supervising teachers were supposedly selected for their superior, helpful ability. It was a fine concept, but one that led to some genuine problems for many college students.

I was first assigned to an older, burned-out, very unhappy female, who proved to be one of the worst school teachers I was ever to meet during my lengthy career. All of the student teachers who knew the woman referred to her as Screaming Sarah. She yelled at her classroom students unmercifully everyday I was with her. Screaming Sarah took a strong dislike to several of her student teachers from the university, including me.

Looking back, I think my problems with Screaming Sarah first began when I didn’t cringe in her presence. She loved to intimidate everyone and anyone, but I wasn’t playing that game. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, No one can make you feel inferior, unless you let them!

Screaming Sarah reminded me of a few of the teachers I had in elementary and junior high school classes years earlier. They were totally used up, and desperately hanging on until retirement.

When I witnessed the negative effect Screaming Sarah was having on her own class of sixth graders, she filled me with loathing for her. It is poorly-evaluated public school teachers, like this one, who should be counseled, transferred, or made to immediately retire.

Soon after I arrived on the scene, the thirty-odd students in Screaming Sarah’s classroom began coming to me to answer any questions about their assignments, rather than to risk asking their teacher anything, and thus, be openly condemned. This did not further endear me to Screaming Sarah, and she took exception to my immediate overt popularity with her students.

As a consequence, Screaming Sarah’s direct order to me was, Don’t speak to my students no matter what they might ask. And remember, I’m in charge in this classroom, not you!

Screaming Sarah was a thirty-five year classroom veteran, who had long ago lost any quality teaching ability she might ever have had. At this particular very late period in her career, she was just a cranky, tired, mentally fatigued, blue-haired witch, who should have been replaced years before. She was surviving on a past reputation of teacher skills that had long since vanished, as a passing parade.

There are, of course, some overly fatigued, veteran performers of this type in all professions, whether they are baseball players, doctors, singers, truck drivers, dentists, policemen, secretaries, journalists, nurses, and others. They quite often have to be carried kicking and screaming into retirement, but many are not. So it was with Screaming Sarah. A proficient evaluating administrator would have gotten rid of the woman long before I met her.

Five days after my arrival in her classroom, I was unexpectedly confronted by Fuddy-Duddy Frank, the school principal, and Shocked Shelby, our Education Department supervisor from the university. These two gentlemen had been invited to the school by Screaming Sarah who, I quickly discovered, wanted to personally discredit me in front of the others. One of her favorite activities must have been to disgrace student teachers from the university. This is what she was going to try to do with me.

In addition to her other major shortcomings, Screaming Sarah was also sinisterly vindictive. I have since discovered, this is a common trait among ranking incompetents everywhere. It’s almost like an exclusive club. Screaming Sarah could have been the club’s founder and reigning president.

I listened politely, while Screaming Sarah told Fuddy-duddy Frank and Shocked Shelby she didn’t like my clothes, my face, my manner, my ability, my hair, my attitude, nor anything about me. She finished her ridiculous harangue by also announcing she didn’t think that I would make a very good public school teacher.

I laughed out loud at her open hostility, especially coming from the worst example of a school teacher I had ever seen, up until that time. I laughed because Screaming Sarah knew absolutely nothing about me. We had never even had a polite conversation, and she had not observed me doing any teaching in her class. So, how could she know anything about me?

What facts she based her questionable statements upon, she did not reveal. She said it was just her gut feeling. It was clear, Screaming Sarah was out to ruin my chosen career, if she could.

In response, and, at the proper moment, I interrupted her vile, repetitious monologue, and responded with the truth about her, as I saw it. It seemed only fair!

The subjects you teach in your classroom are not math and English. Rather they are sarcasm and ridicule! Yes, that’s what you teach here, and that’s why all of your students hate your living guts.

Fuddy-duddy Frank jumped to his feet to defend Screaming Sarah. He shouted, You are not to criticize this wonderful lady!

Excuse me, Sir, I replied, I don’t recall seeing you in this room observing what I have seen and heard during these past four days! In my opinion, this person is a disgrace to the teaching profession, and I would not want my own children in her class as students. Yet, here she is judging student teachers from the university, as if she was some sort of expert! What a laugh!

In response Fuddy-duddy Frank rose again and shouted, I want to see you in my office!

I answered as softly as possible, You have no jurisdiction over me. Rather, I believe I will be seeing the president of our university about this matter. This sort of underhanded, despicable treatment is not the type of behavior I expected to receive when I signed up for, and paid tuition, to take classes here.

Immediately afterward, I got up and left the scene, leaving Screaming Sarah and Fuddy-duddy Frank sputtering and fuming about what they had just been told. Following close behind me was the college professor, Shocked Shelby. He had not said a word during the short, impromptu meeting. I knew this man had a different set of priorities.

Once outside, as he walked along with me, Shocked Shelby apologized for the unexpected rudeness of the meeting. He also revealed there had been other student teachers who had experienced classroom problems with Screaming Sarah. He said he thought I had stood up to her better than anyone else had.

I didn’t know if Shocked Shelby was telling the truth, or trying to butter me up so I would not visit the university president. Shocked Shelby went on to say, if I gave him until the next day, he would have the entire situation resolved to my satisfaction.

Though I had no idea what he had in mind, I readily consented. My father had taught me years before that the best solutions are made at the lowest levels of any organization. In other words, don’t get the highest echelon involved in problem-solving, unless all other avenues have been exhausted, otherwise everyone may be then stuck with a very unpopular, irreversible decision. On many occasions during my career, I had found this to be absolutely true.

The following morning, Shocked Shelby informed me I had been reassigned to a supervising teacher in another school. A fresh start as a student teacher was fine with me. Screaming Sarah and Fuddy-duddy Frank could then be someone else’s problem. But I also hoped the report of our confrontation would be the catalyst to finally having Screaming Sarah removed from the list of supervising teachers, and, perhaps, force the woman to retire.

__________________

The next day I reported to Fair-minded Florence, my new supervising teacher. She had thirty-plus students in a very old school, and directed me to prepare to teach mathematics on a sixth grade level. Right down my alley, I thought, and, full of confidence, I said with a smile, You couldn’t have asked a better guy! Fair-minded Florence seemed to like me right from the start, and the feeling was mutual.

I quickly established a warm, working rapport with the students in her class, and each day in Fair-minded Florence’s school became a joy for me. She was the kind of supervisor who told people what had to be done, and then had the good sense to get out of the way to let them do it, instead of meddling.

I made several math posters to get my major points across, remembering the adage, One picture is worth a thousand words.

The students seemed to really enjoy each of my classes.

I made a particular point to memorize all of their faces as quickly as possible, and to use their names at every opportunity. Who doesn’t enjoy hearing their own name used in a friendly manner?

Also, I made it a special point to smile every day as I entered the classroom, to let them always know I was happy to be there with them. My father always said, Smile, even if you have to fake it. It’s what people want to see, so, give it to them. You’ll find you’ll feel better about yourself in doing it. If you frown, that’s what you’ll get back from others.

When the semester ended, the class threw me a party, and they brought some presents and mementos I still have in my possession years later.

One was a little wooden plaque with every class member’s name on it.

My teaching supervisor, Fair-minded Florence gave me the first ‘A+’ that she had ever given anyone. I was justifiably proud of that.

Back at the university, fifteen weeks later, Shocked Shelby appeared to be completely bewildered by the grade I had earned from Fair-minded Florence. Unbelievable, he still was giving some credibility to Screaming Sarah’s wild assertions about my five-day attendance in her classroom. He wanted to average Screaming Sarah’s F grade for my one week with her, and the A+ for my fifteen weeks with Fair-minded Florence. The result was a C+ for the entire semester!"

At that moment, I thought Shocked Shelby’s thinking processes were

a bit warped, too, but I didn’t argue with him. While never losing sight of my long range goal, I felt since this particular course was complete, I was ready to move on, just to get it all over with as soon as possible.

__________________

My very last Education course was student teaching in a public school all day, every day, for an entire sixteen-week semester. My supervising teacher was supposed to be Frumpy-dumpy Fern, but she did little or no supervising during the entire semester.

During the preceding two years, while attending college, I had also held a full-time job creating a computerized inventory of existing stock at a local plumbing warehouse. However, in order to take student teaching, I had to quit my lucrative position. Naturally, I greatly missed the salary my steady position had afforded while I was attending college.

The ironic fact was that Frumpy-dumpy Fern was going to get paid extra for supervising my teaching of her class. I honestly thought I was the one who should be getting paid, not her.

The reason I felt so strongly about this issue was because from the first day I reported to her classroom, Frumpy-dumpy Fern immediately retreated to the teacher’s lounge, where she drank coffee, ate donuts, read magazines, and gossiped with other off-duty staff members. Frumpy-dumpy Fern never helped with anything. The entire sixteen-week situation all seemed grossly unreal to me.

__________________

There was some obvious resentment from her students, when Frumpy-dumpy Fern did her disappearing act. Prior to my arrival they really got away with a lot of foolishness in her classroom, mostly because Frumpy-dumpy Fern was an extremely poor disciplinarian.

Her class of fifth graders looked upon me as some sort of fire-breathing ogre, because of my disciplinary expectations, and my insistence upon classroom order at all times. These students were use to having a free hand in punching, tripping, yelling, pushing, shoving, stealing, and any other mischief that crossed their little minds. They seemed to have very little interest in learning anything, and usually balked at anything new presented to them.

It was in this class I first was able to use educational television programs for the first time. I quickly noticed these fifth graders would quiet down for television or movies, even if the program were of horrendously poor quality. They seemed to be mesmerized by television and moving pictures, but little else.

Because it was rather easy to get the class to quiet down in this manner, I scheduled an educational television program listed in my teacher’s guide. The schedule read, Mexico.

Therefore, well in advance of the program, I arranged the student’s chairs, as the written guide suggested, so that all of them had a perfect view of the television screen. I gave them a fifteen-minute introductory talk on Mexico, complete with pictures from library books on an overhead projector. I showed them Mexico on wall maps and it’s geographical relation to the United States. I told them a little of Mexican history, and thirty seconds before the television program came on the air, I pulled the shades to darken the room.

This class was primed and ready for learning about Mexico. But, to my utter dismay, the female moderator came on the television screen and announced with a huge smile, Hi kids, today we’re going to Bolivia!

My schedule for that day said Mexico. So much for Educational Television.

Of course, this class of rowdies never knew the difference anyway, and they all quickly assumed that deadpanned look all children seem to get on their