Simple, yet complex - robbing Peter to pay Paul
Mea culpa. I inadvertantly forgot to type my name at the bottom of the post at LCPS Underground which (may have) led you here. My apologies.
Judging from some recent comments at the LCPS Underground, some schools are on the verge of anarchy. No one, however, has mentioned what to me is the salient point. There's a robbery in progress.
Previously I offered a common sense solution to the "problem" of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports.
And now, I present a common sense solution to the problem of out-of-control kids in the classroom.
But first, a brief look at my rationale (and how it has changed over the years).
In the first decade-and-a-half of my teaching career, I spent inordinate amounts of my teaching time trying to reach students deemed unreachable. (Probably because I myself was one of the unreachables when I was a kid.) This time, of course, had to come from somewhere. I figured that the regular kids would do OK and the gifted kids would continue to excel, so I simply robbed them of some of my teaching time.
Correction. I robbed them of some of their learning time.
A noble effort. At least, that's what I believed those 15 years.
Today I believe that spending inordinate ("exceeding reasonable limits") amounts of school time disciplining out-of-control kids is robbery. The kids who behave, the kids who want to learn, whether they be slow, average, or gifted, are being unintentionally victimized by the system. They are being shortchanged. They deserve better.
A common sense solution - You take the unreachables out of the regular schools and you put them in schools designed for their educational needs. You set the criteria which, if met, allows any student the opportunity to return to a regular school on a trial basis. You apply the three strikes and you're out rule. If they are removed from the regular school three times, well then, that's the ball game. They will finish their schooling separate and apart from the majority of kids. Yes, I said the majority of kids. It's time to devote the great majority of our teaching time to the great majority of our kids. They deserve nothing less.
Harsh? You bet. Fair? Very. A snowball's chance in hell? Definitely.
So, all together now. Let's continue to bemoan drugs in sports. And let's keep wringing our hands over this robbery in progress.
So much for the rather heavy main course, above. How about a nice light dessert before you go?
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