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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Violence in our Schools Part II: Liberal Psychosis Destroying the Public Schools before our Very Eyes..


Liberals have a way of patting themselves on the back when they feel things are going better in the schools.  In this ridiculous piece—if a disruptive student is acting up, not following established rules and affecting the teacher’s instruction—this is 100% the teacher’s fault and he/she needs more training.  From Salon.com

“Across the country, educators are rethinking their approach to school discipline in response to sky-high suspension rates that disproportionately affect black children. Some of the more common efforts aim to change student behavior or overhaul school protocols. A district might unilaterally ban suspensions for more subjective transgressions or adopt restorative justice practices designed to repair relationships when there’s been a rift. But a growing number of schools in the Bay Area and nationally are realizing that improving discipline is just as much about changing teacher behavior as changing student behavior.”

Meanwhile, liberals in California are busy patting themselves on the back because they are achieving fewer expulsions, even though student behavior, per se, has remained constant.  It’s just that the discipline handed out is much more lenient now, particularly for minority students. And this is legislated from the state capitol.  Essentially, like they’ve done for academic rigor, they have lowered the bar on school discipline, violence, and misbehavior so they can pat themselves on the back and claim “success” because fewer students, particularly minorities, are being expelled.  From the San Jose Mercury-News

“Impetus came from the state Legislature, which last year began limiting schools from suspending students for defiance. Suspensions for "willful defiance" dropped 28.9 percent from 2012-13, and expulsions for the same reason dropped 47.7 percent.  Previously, they accounted for the largest number of suspensions, and were associated with a large number of minority students' discipline.”

When Liberals (Democrat and/or Republican) squeeze this balloon on one side, it will expand on the other—they should know this.  When the politically correct educrats want a victory and sell out teachers, the good well-behaved kids, and parents to get it---this is not only reprehensible-it is dangerous. 

They wonder why fewer and fewer students are going into the field of education?

They wonder why some schools cannot be staffed?

It’s not a mystery.  Between careerist bureaucrats telling teachers they must endure verbal, physical, and emotional assaults from students that are violent, disruptive, and dangerous--- and parents and communities chastising them for being failures at educating and disciplining students from dysfunctional households—who would want that stress for the abysmal pay?

Teachers today have knives at their backs and knives in their face—they get it from both directions as they receive less support than ever from both administrators and parents.

We are engaging in this very thing here in our local schools in many instances and it is disgusting to me.   Telling the world that everything is fine in the schools when I hear from teachers, parents, and



 my own students in public schools and from friends that have children in our schools that violence, misbehavior, drugs, all these things are occurring at alarming levels, this is wrong.  Everything is not fine, and teacher morale is at an all-time low in many schools.    Yet, policy makers here (and other places nationwide) change terminology and reclassify discipline offenses to make numbers look better-then they smile and golf-clap for the cameras as they call this progress.   But it is not progress-- it is appeasement.  The sad thing is that many sheeple believe these “leaders” when they say things are getting better.

But the true test is churn.

Churn among educators.  Churn among TFA teachers who are dropping like flies.  Churn among parents who at the first sign of problems are moving their own kids out of troubled schools.  Churn among subs that will not work at some schools due to the levels of misbehavior, violence, and disruptions.  Churn among students opting-out of the public schools choosing charters and private schools out of concern for the decaying atmospheres in some of these public schools.
This churn cannot be ignored.  Liberals will give all sorts of explanations, prognostications, and estimations.  They’ll say what is most politically palatable and expedient.

They know the real reason why but will neither confront nor attempt to slay that dragon.  Nope, the path of least resistance is their way.  Someone else later will fix it.  Can-kicking and status-quo maintenance, that’s what rules the day.

But the fact of the matter is that these atmosphere and climate problems are 100% within our control if we have the guts to take back our schools and DEMAND that one standard be applied and enforced.  One standard applied to any student who assaults another student or teacher---regardless of what the offender looks like.  One standard applied to any student who brings drugs onto our campus.  One standard, firm but fair.  What is so difficult about this?

Sadly, it appears that here and elsewhere this will not occur. 

We practice the pacifist, Chamberlainian approach on many fronts. 

Appeasement of the outside special interest groups who wrongly accuse us of targeting minorities for harsher discipline, appeasement of the uber-leftist aristocratic policymakers who have never stepped foot in an inner-city school and whose own children attend homogenous, sub-urban public or private schools.  Appeasement of the media when we agree with them that we have been too aggressive on discipline and we will “Change.”

In many respects the sad fact is we’ve been given more than enough of the resources to succeed, yet we are tearing down our own system from the inside out with our refusal to control our school climate and learning environment.

If we’re truly being honest, this is where we fail.

If we could just fix this, and we can, we have the capacity to handle all the other challenges that go along with educating kids.  And we would grow enrollments, and we would improve morale for teachers and bus drivers, and deans and administrators.  We would improve the life for students who are routinely subjected to bullying, harassment, and intimidation that goes on unabated and unrestrained—and yes, under-reported-- in some or our schools.


I’m going to keep talking about this as long as I have a pulse and am breathing oxygen, that’s how important this is to the future of students, parents, taxpayers and the entire U.S. Public School System!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The way you describe the "liberal" position is unfair and misleading. For example, you incorrectly state the position on the Salon article: "if a disruptive student is acting up, not following established rules and affecting the teacher’s instruction, this is 100% the teacher’s fault and he/she needs more training."

They didn't cast blame on teachers as such. They are challenging the common and reactionary way teacher's handle student behavior. The common flight or fight response is to nag, yell, and kick out. What that does is breed resentment in the teacher-student relationship. When you think about it, how we respond to conflict in many interpersonal relations is important. The same is true for teacher-student relations. This skill indeed takes practice to become a habit. Read toward the end of the article about the success of Mr. Gardener.

This advice, to challenge teachers to be leaders and recondition themselves to react differently, is not ridiculous. It is sage advice. When you work to build relationships, it will pay off. It's harder to respond positively and to build relationships, yes, but it changes student's lives.

"Meanwhile, liberals in California are busy patting themselves on the back because they are achieving fewer expulsions, even though student behavior, per se, has remained constant"

Cite the source to support your claim.

The issue isn't about enduring verbal assaults from students. It's about looking at the situation, and looking at a different approach to ***improve*** student behavior.

Again, I encourage you to cite specific sources that alternatives like restorative justice and improved teacher responses haven't improved behavior in these CA districts.

Jeff Bergosh said...

The liberal approach to school discipline is to look at outcomes and then back engineer why more of "X" type students get suspended than "y" types---never once asking the simple question "Could it be that more "X" type students are committing serious infractions?" of course not-that would be too easy. And yes that article is a study on liberal thinking gone mad. Look at the offender, and try to understand his background, challenges, and try to be sensitive to his/her circumstance. That is ridiculous! Imagine if you were robbed at gunpoint by a guy with a huge rap-sheet and the prosecutor and judge let him off with a warning because so many people that look like your perpetrator are being charged with that specific crime, that something must be wrong with the "system".... Oh wait---that is happening in the criminal justice system to some degree. Anonymous, re-read that Salon.com article, then read the other literature I cited in the post, particularly the "More that Scores" piece about why parents are choosing private schools over public. Here is a news-flash--they want safe environments and quality learning atmospheres for their kids, that's one of the biggest reasons.....They don't want their kids enduring some ridiculous social experimentation where we allow students to amass as many as 62 referrals for violent behavior in the PC public schools, that's why. But nobody has the courage to simply demand that ALL students, of ALL races, behave in the same manner. Nope, that is too unfair to those who have had "challenged" upbringings. And therefore you have schools that are constantly churning teachers, and constantly churning administrators, and constantly churning students, and these schools are the ones, surprise, that academically struggle. It is all tied together, yet the liberal PC policies continue, even though they don't work and cost good kids valuable learning time they will never get back.

Anonymous said...

Well done, sir. I lived the experience that you write about here at a liberal school In CA that couldn’t retain a math teacher. It’s funny because the school I worked at was a revolving door for math teachers but at the end of the day it’s the teachers who are scapegoated for a breakdown in classroom management. Admin gives you a long list of things that can’t be done in the classroom to discipline kids, they completely absolve punishments claiming that they’re too punitive and not reformative enough. What happens as a result? A few kids who don’t feel adequately reformed by the gentle persuasions of the PBIS system end up running the place. 🤦‍♂️ I’m too smart to hang around, gonna find another field to work in.

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