What will they do?

I've been pondering this question for quite some time now. What will they do? I'm looking at a classroom full of, say, 10th graders. There are approximately 30 registered for the class. 20-25 attend regularly. Of those, being generous, 25, none of them are exceptional. This is not an advanced level class, but neither is it a remedial class. Things were going swimmingly with these students when we were doing creative poetry and in class readings, but suddenly the curriculum demanded that we enter into literature. We had three books we needed to read. The majority of the students stopped working. It was, and is interesting to me that these students, of average intelligence, refuse to read. They will not read a book either in class or on their own time. The last novel we just concluded was To Kill a Mockingbird. If a person polled the class for an honest number, I believe that maybe,(again, I'm being generous) 1/3 of the students actually read the book! The ironic part of this is that those same students. The students who do not read, rarely participate in class, much less complete in class assignments, are the most confrontational about their grades. They expect to be passing. They will look me straight in the eye and tell me that "I'd better be passing." with a glint of a threat in their voices. I'm appalled. I know that I was no star pupil when I was in the 10th grade, but I know that if I didn't read the material, especially if that was the crux of the entire curriculum, that I didn't have a chance. There was no doubt that I wouldn't pass. These kids are clueless. What do they expect will be happening to them in the future. They are going to be facing huge demands, and how are they going to stand up to these demands? Are they going to make veiled threats to their professors, employers, social workers, parole officers? Are they going to go to work when they have nothing else going on in their most exciting lives? Are they planning to work for something, anything? Several of these 10th graders lack of initiative to read was so striking that I did a quick reading assessment. I found that several of my students had a 6th grade reading level. 6th grade in the 10th grade! Big problem folks. The low level readers are the most disruptive. The readers who are challenged by Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird or Julius Caesar, are the most easliy distracted by these disruptors, and those to whom the material is not challenging are frustrated and feel out of place. Why mainstreaming? Why can't we track our kids? How are we supposed to educate if we have 6th grade readers in a 10th grade class? I have so many angry students right now because they are not passing. When I tell them that they are not passing because they never read the book, I might as well be talking into a vacuum. All they see is that someone else who they don't consider any more intelligent than themselves is passing, so it must be my fault. I'm disgusted. Right now I see the labor force, the welfare rolls and the drug trafficing businesses booming with prospective employees, but there is no one left to doctor my babies, protect my community or teach my children. I'm very concerned.

Dead kid

Not too many weeks ago, a former student, if that is what he is called, was killed by the police very near my school. This student, I never knew him, attended my high school for less than a year before dropping out. This boy was pursued by the police for stealing a car. This boy, who was 17, sped away from the police and a chase ensued. The boy was then reported to have actually run down a police officer. The officer was standing in front of the vehicle when he was run down and physically went underneath the car. So here's the deal: An invincible 17 year old boy plays "Cops" in a neighborhood, placing not only his own life in danger...which was unimportant to the boy at the time, but the life of the police officers and the citizens of the community through which he sped on his joyride were not even on his radar. As the case most assuredly had to unfold, the boy found himself dead at the wheel, as the surrounding officers, responding to the threat of the downed officer, filled him with at least a dozen rounds of bullets. Hmmm. Silly boy. What were you thinking? Were you high? Were you laughing? Were you crying? What possibly went through your mind in your last moments here on earth? Was it like it is in the movies, or perhaps in videos?

Now everyone knows this boy. He, of course, became a Cause Celebre to the students. Mail boxes artistically tagged with "RIP....." and students sporting tee Shirts with his year book picture as they photograph themselves in various stages of anger and stoicism. Students going room to room soliciting funds for the family and white boys speaking eubonics as they glorify a white boy gone to the "great hood in the sky". What is their rally? What is their cry of outrage? Nothing really. There is no mention of the officer. There was a sadness that permeated the school for about a week, but now it is gone. Is there anger? No. Who made the shirts? I don't know. Do the kids see themselves being shot down in the street by the police? Some do, some only fantasize about it, others just feel strangely drawn to a cause. And this cause went nowhere. It fizzled out like a bottle rocket in a puddle.

Kids in the classroom

I need to understand something. Every day I am responsible for the education of students who don't want to learn. I have found that No Child Left Behind is extremely challenging when there are so many kids who WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND. If their parents cared, perhaps there would be some recourse, but in many cases, their parents CHOSE to be left behind when they were in high school as well. The cycle is this. The student does not want to be in school. The student makes the attempt to be in class for a time, perhaps even turns in a classroom assignment once or twice. Eventually the student starts disrupting the classroom with his or her antics, competing for the spotlignt, looking to make him or herself a power in the classroom. A force to be reckoned with. Of course, this is directed toward the teacher. Lines are drawn. The student attempts to create a coalition. The student works to bring others into his or her sphere of influence. This begins by cheating. The student finds someone in the classroom to use as a pigeon as his or her ticket to an easy A. The pigeon gladly complies, whether for the attention of a beguiling member of the opposite sex, or perhaps for the "protection", or acceptance that this alliance creates. In many instances the student decides that the classroom is not where he or she belongs. They stop coming to school, but not without leaving a trail of disruptive behavior in their wake. All should be well, right? Wrong! After 24 consecutive days of missed school, the juvenile justice system seeks the child out, arrests him or her, and places him or her into Juvi. The student then spends 20 days in juvie, then is returned to the same classroom! Wow. so now we have a child in the classroom who was educationally or emotionally behind when class commenced in the fall, but now we have a child who is almost 50 curriculum days behind expecting to be educated at the same level as his or her classmates. This is ridiculous. The behavior problems that arise from this kind of action makes learning an extreme challenge for those in the classroom who wish to learn. The children who fall into this disruptive cycle are in the minority, but those who want to gain an education are in the SILENT majority. The disruptors, who are coerced back into the classroom because of NCLB, spend all their energy focusing all the attention onto themselves. As I witness this behavior in classroom after classroom, I know THIS IS NOT WHERE I WANT MY CHILDREN. And I'm a teacher!!! No Child Left Behind is a bold plan, but with serious casualties. These casualties are the very children we need to protect; Those ambitious individuals who will be running this country someday. These children need to be allowed the freedom to learn, share and discuss the material without the interference of lousy legislation that demands tolerance of those who have no interest in persuing a path of higher learning. As one once said, "Aim for the Stars, the least you can do is land on the moon"..or something to that effect. NCLB has the vision of idealism but it is wrapped in the cloak of impracticality.

Donaldina Cameron

Have you heard of this woman? She lived in San Francisco between the 1890' s and the 1980's. She rescued Chinese child slaves and prostitutes. She ran a home for girls and helped to give them skills, education, husbands, or return to China. She would break into the Tong dens to rescue these girls. Someone would tip her off, then she would assemble the cops and break in on this most dangerous, opium and prostitution scenes and rescue the child. She left Oscar Schindler in the dust. Girls from this time were not recognized as human by the United States Government. They were kidnapped, raped by sailors on the trip over to the states, then sold into prostitution once they arrived. The contracts were actually set ups for indentured servitude. One day sick extended the contract by a year etc. She had to repay all costs to her purchace, medical expenses etc. Once they were enslaved, their circumstances varied from pampered Chinese concubine to under-ground chattel, confined to chicken coop sized quarters, chained to a bed behind bars. The Girls were unable to prevent the sexual diseases wrought upon their bodies by their "visitors". When a girl became too ill to work, in many instances a cup of poison was placed in her room, the door locked and she was left to make the "choice". No expenses were put out to provide her with food or water. Several days later, no blood on his hands, the owners would open her room, and remove her corpse. Donaldina spent her life campaigning for the rights of these poor women. Donaldina Cameron's only crime was to be a Christian. Today, that seems to negate her heroic deeds today. As we read about the Underground Railroad, the great deeds of Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and Barbara Boxer, the most amazing heroes are invisible. Their faith makes their stories fall on deaf ears.