Teachers

“Hey TT teachers.

I was reading about this teacher in Philadelphia who decided he had to take the school district to court so that he could send unruly students to the principal’s office. They had sent kids who were cursing and threatening him back to his classroom for him to deal with.

I remember when I was in school (back in the papyrus and stone tablet days) teachers routinely sent kids to the office. It was considered something to be feared and helped the teacher maintain control and continue teaching.

Have things changed that dramatically? Is his experience typical?”

“Same thing happened then. Always has, always will.

It wasn't so long ago that few - if any - of us would have heard about a specific incident such as this.

But, alas, the Information Age is upon us. Nothing passes through the seine of the modern humans need to know - or tell, for that matter.”

“Through the three districts I have worked in, it is common place for Administration to place troubled and unruly students in the classes of teachers they want to remove, hoping that they will just leave the district. Being as they are "tenured", the Administration cannot fire the teacher, unless it is a real serious offence. I call this tactic the "Administrator's Shuffle". I have seen it many, many times. I would hedge a bet that the Admins don't like this new situation, bringing in teacher who hasn't went through the "process" and are taking it out on him.....

...or it could be that because he hasn't went through "the process", he doens't know basic classroom management. I've seens Subs get eaten alive because they don't have the skills to deal with unruly students. People who don't know the right techinques are like chum in a pool full of sharks. The kids can almost smell the fear and lack of experiance and shred the living hell outta the adults. Sometimes it's well deserved, but most of the time, it's not.....”

“BTW - the teacher is a backpacker so this is topical.”

“He’s also a pretty dangerous martial artist.”

“I can't really comment, because my kids are fighting for marks to get into college or a trade school. I have taught maggots (the younger grades) and special ed., but never had much of a problem. I seldom throw a kid out of class, prefering to deal with the problem myself.

Our school (and others around here and probably everywhere in Quebec/Canada) have a 'punishment' room where the kids have to go and sit in a booth and remain silent. This is because some were liable to raise hell on the way out of class. Suspending them home often makes things worse because home is where the problem is when the problem is there (not always), or conscious, or straight, or sober. We send them to this room for the suspension period. This room is supervised by teachers backed by two psycho-educators who follow up and refer the kids to Youth Protection and/or social workers as necessary.

If I send one of my kids to the punishment room, it is a humiliation - I call it the 'veal pen' and remind them it's for maggots, not them.

Basically, we run a class by the force of our personality. I tell my kids they only have one thing to learn: We are all cimpanzees and I'm the Alpha Male"”

“The problem is that Pitone thinks he is there to teach the students and that they are there to learn. Those days are gone in many classrooms. His job is to contain his students for the class period and do what he can to teach something.

As a lawyer, the thinks that a lawsuit will fix it. Millions of teachers around the country are laughing and crying at the same time.”

“So true, Phil. So true. :\”

“I'm told about 100 teachers want to join his suit. This should be national news tomorrow. CNN interviews him in the morning.”

“The sad thing is that if you let the principal and teachers take care of discipline they way they know they should it would work out over time. They would expel some students and dump them back in the parent's laps. Instead the parents threaten lawsuit and the school board and superintendents cave in.

The kids know it when there are no teeth in the discipline system. The fact that those kids can fake punches at the teacher and get away with it is awful. I am pretty sure that is not tolerated in the vast majority of public school districts.”

“What Pitone needs to do is plant a small set of nail clippers on each unruly student. Then turn them in for violating the weapons ban. The "zero tolerance policy" will get them kicked out!”

“Canuck -
We call that "in-school suspension" (ISS). Most public schools in GA have such a room.

My former school, a high school, could accomodate prolly 30 kids in ISS. A few years ago, my shop students built some 60 study carols (booth things), and helped set-up an overflow facility in a gym tunnel. Occasionally, kids would be assigned ISS en masse. These kids would be the ones "sentenced" for one day type offenses, is, dress code violations, first offenses, skipping class, etc.

A second offense would usually cost the kid three days; a third, five.

After several referrals and/or ISSes, the kid would be sent to a hearing. Hearings usually resulted in several days of "out of school suspension" (OSS), but sometimes got the kid sent to our alternative high school - enrollment about 300. The AHS serves our district that includes five hgh schools. Each HS has an enrollment of about 1600 kids.

Last year, I had a class that included six kids that were eventually sent to the AHS (a couple opted to drop-out). It was a two hour class that included an additional half-hour due lunch scheduling. It was the worst class I've ever experienced. I did more referrals on those six kids than my other 70 combined. That class is the primary reason I decided to take this year off...”

“I'd love to comment here but.....there's too much to talk about and no time. This is a can of worms for sure.

The mayor has a "program" here in Baltimore called...BELIEVE. You see that word plastered all over town. Some folks have come up with a counter-idea. It's called .... BEHAVE.”

“lol!”

“Pitone will be on Scarborough Country tommorrow night.”

“interesting...There isn't enough money to get me to think about teaching HS. no way...especially in south Philly.

but, I am considering going back to school for a teaching degree...3rd grade though.”

“And a good one, too. I think the most important thing is that you have to want to live it. Personally, I couldn't see myself teaching primary, or even middle school. I coach boys' and girls' rugby, set up cultural exchanges (any ideas here, anyone?), am involved in our International Baccalaureate programme and right now, I'm installing holds on our gymnasium climbing wall in my spare time (AND it gets me out of meetings).

I don't think I could stand teaching in the 'burbs - in fact my only, thankfully short experience living in the 'burbs was pure he!!.

Don't misunderstand; my school is far from perfect. We have a lot of rural poverty problems with all that that entails, but I spent five years in middle management at TPC (the ,phone company - you owe it to yourselves to rent, 'The President's Analyst' - an oldie, but a goodie) and one year as a journalist in the city (Montreal) and, if you ask me, teachers are worse for complaining even than farmers and I know a lot of both.

There, I said it and I'm glad. Phbbbth!”

“I loved teaching the two years I did while working torwards my masters degree. Sometimes I wished I would have gone on for the Phd so that I could have taught college. Man! summers off to backpack, what was I thinking?!?!”

“summers off and you get to brainwash kids to be future backpackers and explorers...ok, fine, I'm gonna take a minute and do a trip report...look for "kids day with the Rangers" thread...”