The Irony and (lack of) Critical Thinking

Sometimes the concept of irony comes up in my classroom. It's not an easy definition. But you know it when you hear it. A recent staff meeting made it all too clear.

The Irony

As a teacher you dare not make mention of the challenges the students bring to your room. If you are worth a damn your engaging instruction will be enough to lure them in, keep them coming, and they will achieve dammit!

But when pressed about safety issues and hall walkers in the school, we are treated with a lengthy description of the challenges our school faces because of all the transfers from other high schools and the numerous “shelter house” and recently-incarcerated students we take in throughout the year.

And somehow, my percentage of failing students is supposed to be a reflection of me as a teacher? But I can't refer to the same challenges? Hmm...

I'm so confused now I don't know if this is irony or hypocrisy?

The Critical Thinking

The number one thing principals don't like discussing is the safety or control of their building. Somehow we made this a topic recently. But rest assured, the data, yes, “the data” which we love so much in DCPS says that our school has fewer arrests and serious incidents than most of the other high schools. And while “rigor” in my classroom is held to a standard far above the abilities of my students, the level of rigor for management of our schools is pathetically weak. Seriously, it was basically said that as long as we're not having gang fights and muggings we are doing pretty well.

Now, as a person who has studied statistics (and I think most of us in the room were supposed to at one time) I was wondering why someone would tout our fewer arrests as a feather in our cap? Clearly the question screams—are our numbers low because our building is so calm or is it that we aren't catching or prosecuting kids who commit serious misbehavior? (Or is smoking weed in the building not serious anymore?)

The bottom line was that we were supposed to be happy that we don't have the mayhem that goes on in other schools. Sorry, that's not rigor.

How do we solve the pervasive DCPS problem of poorly controlled schools? I have at least one or two common sense ideas I will get to next time. What are your ideas?

From Little Things, Big Things Grow

Where to start? Where does one begin the story of working within the surreal world of DCPS? On top of that, these days the larger world of “school reform” has become a wacky alternate universe populated with so many “experts” who have spent little to no time in a classroom. So, with no idea where to start I'll just begin, slowly.

Every once in a while, while surrounded by varying levels of insanity, a crystal clear thought appears. Today this was mine. Why does a school adopt a rule it can't enforce? I was told that, when training a dog, never give a command you can't follow through on. Don't try to teach your dog to come unless you have him on a long leash and can enforce the come command.  Otherwise, the dog can choose to ignore you.

So, if you can't turn away out-of-uniform students at the door, why bother having the rule? As has happened for the past several years, there are students out of uniform every day. (Usually the “bad boys” and “bad girls.”)

If this rule is ignorable, what others are? That's how it starts. I think this is akin to the “broken window theory” of crime.

Teachers are told to uphold the uniform policy, somehow. We can't turn students away at the door but somehow we are supposed to enforce the policy.

This might seem a rather mundane problem to start with but it is prophetic.

This is how the foundation of a school is chipped away. One small chip at a time. Multiply this over and over and you see how the adults lose their authority.

(For the record, I lean toward liking a uniform policy but my real desire would be to just have a policy that is clear and properly enforced.)