We have been blazing through so much material. It is a wonder anyone can keep all of this information stored in their heads, let alone readily available when the time comes to pull it out. Recently, our class has been discussing things such as teen sexuality, teen alcohol use, teen Internet use, teen drug use, teen cell phone use (ok, maybe not that one, but that is another interesting topic). Aside from the obvious preventative actions that are taken by schools, what is a typical response from adults about all of this teen use stuff? "Oh, well kids will be kids. They do what they want. They're gonna just do it anyway."
I think that when adults just write off the bad action as "well it's gonna happen anyway, so why try," that doubt in the students becomes the bigger problem than the actual teen whatever use itself. Think about it this way. If a student asks you, "Mr. Red, may I get a soda and drink it in class?" and you say, "Well Ben, it is against school policy to drink anything but water in class, but I know you are just going to do it anyway..." What is Ben going to do? Ben is going to take his $1, buy a pop, and drink it happily and obviously in your class. This is going to prompt other kids to do the same, even without asking. Suddenly, it's not just Ben drinking pop, it's all 26 of them!
It is very similar with all of these other issues. The moment teachers do not hold our students to a higher standard we open the flood gates for everything and everyone to mess around. If it is obvious to my students that I don't believe they have enough self control to say 'no' to drugs, of course they are going to go ahead and do them. By telling them it's 'no use in even trying to change you,' I am telling them 'yes, it's fine and normal, and what I expect you to do.'
These messages are so backwards from what we are telling them about their school work. We expect them to do things correctly, in a proper order, to be fully engaged, to try their best. We have very high standards for them. Look at Atchison! They have been receiving excellent marks in all of their academic scores. Why? Because teachers are pushing their students to perform, and the kids are responding! It makes no sense to me why on earth we would not put the same effort and expectations on them when it comes to other moral issues.
Yes, these are moral issues. Just like teaching students how to live and work is helping them to grow morally. Schools are being so silly when it comes to which issues they are choosing fight. It is even more discouraging when we see new teachers opting to watch the chaos roll by before it is there's to take on.
ED460 Personal and Social Well Being is a course taken by college students in education during their student teaching semester. Topics covered include: poverty, child abuse, bullying, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, counselors' role in school, adolescents and choices, and the use of technology.
Ruth you mentioned a lot of things that I have been thinking about as well. There is just so much that goes into the life of a student that we will not even know about. We only get to see them for a portion of the day and then what they do outside of school (and even sometimes inside of school) is out of our control.
ReplyDeleteI heard a speaker talk about how he was so bad that he even got suspended from homeschool! He caused so much chaos in the classroom and was such a disruption that he was given a teacher to meet with him at home and even she could not deal with him. What causes kids to misbehave and how far are we to go to correct their behavior? In his case it was problems at home that were causing him to turn to substance abuse, bullying, and many other violations. I dont know how hard a teacher could be on him to help him through this. It was really out of their control because his home life was so bad.
But I do agree that we need to do all we can to be consistant and make sure that students know we will not be pushovers. This is where a balance of love and discipline has to happen.