In last month’s blog entry, I offered some ideas concerning the roles and responsibilities of teachers and students in American schools today, particularly in the state or Maine, where I taught in middle-school and high-school classrooms for more than half of my 33-year career. This time I hope to shed at least a shard of light on the state of things among school administrators and parents.
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” — Lao-Tzu
Recently I was struck nearly dumb by a comment made by Eileen King, director of the Maine Association of Superintendents, on the MPBN radio show “Maine Calling,” hosted by Jennifer Rooks. One listener, William, a former teacher, had written in to say that his recent retirement had been hastened by “…Allowed behaviors of students in the classroom. There seems to be no acceptable means of effectively squelching the disrespectful behavior of some students. This spoils the whole stew” (Maine Calling, Sept. 19, 2023).
In reply, King acknowledged that disciplinary issues in many schools had certainly increased last year as students returned to their classrooms after the pandemic, but, she said,
“I believe the students throughout last year have settled in, have remembered what it’s like or have learned what it means to be a student. What I’m hearing right now…is that schools have opened with incredible joy this year, with students really focusing on being students… Many schools have removed cell phones as students have come into classrooms, allowing students to focus in the classroom, participate in classrooms, participate in being learners. We do have behavior concerns in our schools. I believe there are several programs in our state, such as the multi-tiered levels of support, that are working across many school districts to really have educators work together to support these students that have these challenges, and I hope that William’s experience is one rare experience, based on all the hard work that our educators are doing in our schools to support all students.”
Stunning really, for a number of reasons. Aside from its usefulness as a prime example of fatuous double-speak, it reveals a pattern which most seasoned teachers know very well: the classroom teacher makes an observation, illuminates a problem, and expresses his concern to an administrator. And how does the administrator answer?
With claims that lack evidence: “…Schools have opened with incredible joy this year, with students really focusing on being students.” Which schools? All of them? Some? And for heaven’s sake, please, tell us what they are doing right.
In generalities: “I believe there are several programs in our state, such as the multi-tiered levels of support…” What programs? How do they address student behavior?
And lastly, and worst, by suggesting that the teacher is out of step, must somehow be mistaken, or perhaps is the cause of his own grievance: “I hope that William’s experience is one rare experience, based on all the hard work that our educators are doing in our schools to support all students.”
The sad truth is that William’s case is far from rare. Furthermore, the swell of disciplinary issues in schools began long before the pandemic and has now strained many schools to the breaking point. Even in quaint, sleepy Gardiner, Maine, where I taught in the middle school for seven years (having worked for twenty-six years in high schools, both public and private), over the course of my final year, 2022-23, three of my sixty-odd students faced expulsion hearings, and numerous others served long suspensions. Others habitually ignored simple instructions, refused to complete homework assignments, routinely disrupted class with clownish behavior and inappropriate remarks, and were often disrespectful toward their peers and instructors. Just as William noted, I had little recourse. Our principal and vice principal - both devoted and capable professionals, by the way - were typically too busy frying bigger fish, chasing vandals and bullies, and holding down the proverbial fort to deal with lesser infractions. The threat and imposition of detention had little impact, and in fact was frequently ignored by the offenders.
And still…I liked the kids, all of them (well, hmm…okay, yes, all of them). I think it is very hard for teachers not to like their students. That is one reason we enter this profession: we love young people, their innocence and natural ebullience and curiosity about the world - the bad and the good in it. We see ourselves in them, and we have hope for them, just as some of the adults in our own lives had hope for us. To be fair, the majority of my students have been ordinary adolescents, goofy, kindhearted, and in a few cases, in possession of excellent manners. Again, William’s wisdom is manifest: without meaningful consequences, it only takes a few - sometimes only one - to spoil the stew.
And when the stew has been spoilt, the strength and character of an administrator becomes crucial. Just as there should be an implicit trust between the student and the teacher, a similar trust should exist between the teacher and the administrator. This trust has been eroded over the years, mainly for one reason: many administrators have learned to fear angry parents, especially when they threaten litigation. I have seen grown men and women tremble at the mention of the phrase “my attorney,” so much so that school districts now keep their own attorneys on retainer (your tax dollars at work). In the end, only the attorneys win.
My concluding point is a simple one. I wish that administrators were not necessary, just as I wish that when I was selling my house, I’d had the chance to sort things out face-to-face, and fairly, with the buyer, and had not had to hand over 5.75% of the money to a realtor. Education was always something passed between individuals - from Plato to Aristotle, from Mentor to Telemachus, and from Jesus to his disciples. For some strange reason, human nature seems no longer pure enough for such intimate, often holy transactions. Apparently we need moderators in our lives. We need policy and protocol, and we need handbooks - faculty handbooks, student handbooks, evaluative-process handbooks - and we need multi-tiered levels of intervention and videos made by lawyers to tell us what will and will not get us into hot water when teaching our students. With all those things, Socrates might never have allowed himself to be executed by the Athenian court in the name of truth.
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” ― Anne Frank
I can affirm from experience that parenting is hard work, as is teaching. Still, if I had never been a parent, I certainly would not presume to tell other people how to raise their children (and even having been one, I’d still be extremely reluctant in that regard). The same does not necessarily hold true for some parents who have never been teachers; some of them seem very much inclined to tell teachers how to do their jobs.
But before we get too far into that, a disclaimer: most of the parents whose kids I have taught have been extremely supportive and trusting. I have even counted some of them among my friends. However, I have also known a few who allowed their protective instincts to devolve into a kind of zeal that could only be counter-productive. There is today an even more zealous version of this, though I have not known any of those parents personally. A handful of them are even willing to disrupt school-board meetings or belittle instructors during parent/teacher conferences because they disagree with something in the school’s curriculum. In my view, there is no point in arguing with those people.
No, this appeal is to sensible parents who may feel a bit uneasy about something they’ve heard from another mother or father, or something they’ve read online. If you are concerned about a particular book or unit of study, in any subject area, approach the teacher first. Chances are he or she has a very sound reason for incorporating it, and the intention is not to corrupt the child. Context is everything. I cannot recall any colleagues I have had over the years who were covertly “peddling a liberal agenda” or “grooming” young people for some diabolical purpose.
Or course, a parent has every right to ask that their child not be made to read a book they find objectionable, but that is an individual choice and not one that should affect the entire class and/or curriculum. As best I can remember, that has happened once in my class (I’ve forgotten which book it was), and I created an alternative, individualized unit with a different text, and everyone was happy.
Youth is inevitably a time for growth, exploration, and oftentimes rebellion. That is nature’s way. Our children can never be exactly like us, nor should we want them to be. Their beliefs will likely differ form our own, just as their experiences will. Certainly my own parents made their share of mistakes, but they had the good sense to allow me to find my own way, pursue my interests, read the books to which I was drawn, and all of that led to a life enriched by literature, art, and music, and in turn, that shaped my identity.
There is another parenting “style” I have not discussed here, but it is the one that ought to disturb us the most. It is really one of no style at all, which is to say that it amounts to non-involvement. Quite frankly, the opioid epidemic, alcoholism, and other forms of substance abuse are often at the heart of this tragedy. I’ve had students, particularly in recent years, who have witnessed terrible things in their own homes, things that are far more destructive of childhood innocence than any book could ever be: heroin use, needles, violence, poverty, misery… Some have seen their parents taken away in handcuffs or have visited them in prison. The effects of such trauma on these kids becomes more evident as time goes on; although, as I’ve said, children must be allowed to find their own pathways, we must also remember that they are great imitators. They very closely observe the actions of the adults around them, absorb them, and in many cases perpetuate debilitating cycles of abuse.
In expensive private college-prep schools, such as the ones where I taught for the first sixteen years of my career, these particular sorts of problems are not as pervasive (although addiction surely does not discriminate among social classes). Nonetheless, these environs can present the teacher with a wholly different set of challenges. Because the parents are likely to be financially invested in their children’s education, some of them begin to believe their tuition fees also buy them greater influence in matters of curriculum, as well as certain opportunities and advantages for their kids and for themselves, whether earned or not.
I will illustrate my point through an anecdote. I taught for eleven years in a very fine private school in Jacksonville, Florida, and we would always assemble at the end of the year for the presentation of academic awards - awards that carried weight as decorations for student applications to prestigious universities, and parents came out in herds to applaud for their talented offspring. A young colleague of mine, a science teacher - we’ll call him John - approached a well-dressed mother wandering among the rows of seats typically reserved for faculty.
“Excuse, me, ma’am,” John said. “The teachers usually sit in this section. Parents’ seats are there, closer to the stage.” He smiled and pointed the way.
Suddenly her demeanor changed; she became like a bellicose airline passenger who is unhappy with the wine list in first class. “I’ll sit where I wish,” she told him. “After all, I pay your salary.”
Standing a few feet away from John, I found myself too stunned to walk over and say what I ought to have said, which was that her tuition money did NOT pay for John’s meager first-year salary, but rather for a desk in a top-tier school, access to the best materials and equipment available, to an entire stable of distinguished teachers, and to a chance to be considered for acceptance at the country’s best colleges…and that was it. The kid had to do his or her part. Mom’s money was not enough.
In public and private schools alike, each party must play a unique role. Students, teachers, administrators, and parents are called to do their various jobs. Each is equal in importance, but they vary dramatically in methods of execution. The problems I have observed, as complex as they are, will not be easily untangled. Nonetheless, in another sense it all boils down to two simple guiding ideas: mutual support and trust. As a teacher, I never aspired to be an administrator - I loved the classroom too much. Sometimes I was even incredulous that I was able to make a living talking about great books from day to day (okay, there was also the 25,000 or so essays I graded over more than three decades). In the same way, good administrators - and in all of my time, I only had one boss that I considered to be ‘great’ - also know when to trust the teacher’s expertise and instincts. Parents must do their very best at parenting, and sometimes this means trusting that first and foremost, their kids are learning to be critical, analytical thinkers who, from the time they are very young, must begin to think for themselves.
We must remind ourselves that education is a fundamental right in the United States, and it has tremendous value…and I’m not simply speaking of intrinsic value. Check out this chart from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website:
It tells a simple story, does it not? There are exceptions, but for most of us, more education equates to more money and greater opportunity. And perhaps, most amazingly, in the United States, it can be had for free.
Are we wise enough to see the gold at our feet?