The Ugly American

Yesterday I was reading an article on the "Dumb Things Americans Believe" in Newsweek by David A. Graham. It listed the PEW poll which found out that President Obama was perceived by 20 percent of Americans to be a Muslim(remember Rev. Wright?),40 percent still agreed with Sarah Palin's belief that there would be a death panel with the new health care act, half of Americans still believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq(Pres. Bush even admitted that their weren't there), another 20 percent believed the sun revolves around the Earth and nine out of ten US citizens couldn't find Afghanistan on a map. The kicker for me was that 3 of 4 Americans could correctly name the three Stooges but only 2 of 5 could name the three branches of government. Who are the Stooges- look around you!
Why?
We have failed our kids.
Educators have spent so much time getting students ready for the 'test' that we have forgotten to actually educate them in what is important. I know many a good language arts teacher who has diligently taught students what the difference was between a fact and an opinion, or a fact and fiction. Obviously this skill did not sink into most students' brains or these percentages would be different. When you only have to obtain a 50 percent on a standardized test in order to get a passing grade we have failed the kids.
I'm very happy that my surgeon, my dentist and my lawyer were held to a higher standard.If they only knew 50 percent of their work- heaven help us.
We need to hold all American students to a much higher standard than we do. Yes it is idealistic that they will be as conscientious as the doctor, lawyer and dentist but we need to raise the bar when we teach, when we grade and when we pass those students on to the next grade.
I have traveled extensively in Europe and I am always dismayed when I come across the "Ugly American" who doesn't take the time to understand the customs and habits of the people in who's country he is a guest.They are rude and stand out like the proverbial 'sore thumb'. Now after reading Graham's article I know why.
If I ran the schools I would mandate more geography knowledge, more life skills, more world skills and above all real life relevant examples of fact and fiction. I would make them think, research and write on subjects that have to do with being knowledgeable about what is going on around them. I remember as a kid being required to bring into class a current event which was from a newspaper. A newspaper? 'What's that' today's student would ask?
Perhaps we should insist that they have a newspaper 'app' on their fancy phones. Maybe they could be required to text the news event to another student or put it on their Facebook page. As educators we need to try all the tricks we can to get them to learn something other than the 'test'.
Perhaps if we did this then we wouldn't anymore be known as 'the Ugly American' but as 'the Intelligent Savvy American'.

The First Day of School

Now that I'm retired from teaching the first day of school doesn't mean the same to me. It does, however, invoke many pleasant and some not too pleasant memories. It's a day that most students, all parents and even some teachers were waiting for with great excitement and anticipation.
The students have for the past week or so gotten in their last minute parties, finished up their obligatory family vacations, and if Facebook is any indicator have been busy doing their required summer reading. Being the procrastinators that they are they have left the latter task to the last minute, along with buying school supplies and clothing. They are so looking forward to seeing their old friends again and if they are changing schools to scoping out their new environs.
The parents have served their penance of having to look after their children all summer. Some of them have chauffeured them from place to place, from one activity to another and if they are older they have worried about them coming in before or after curfew. It's bittersweet when the kid's go back to school but at about 8:00 am this morning if you stepped outside you could hear a large collective sigh of relief go up into the skies from all the parents in an universal chorus.
The teachers have busily been spending their summer time doing one of several things: attending inservices,taking advanced college courses, traveling, looking after their own kids or working at a summer job. They too are eager to get back in their classrooms, decorate and set them up for their new kiddoes, meet with colleagues and understand the new policies of their schools and school districts. I remember that each school year not only started with a few butterflies in the stomach but with a refreshed attitude when I returned to the school environment that first day.
This year took on a little different twist for me. My only grandson was starting full day Pre-K this year. He is a bright young man with a lot of energy. I had told my daughter to expect a lot of calls from the teacher this year since he did things very fast and did not like a whole bunch of down time. Sometimes bright children don't do well with segments of free time so I was a little worried, especially with my 38 years of teaching and a number of these with bright children. So I was not at all surprised when my daughter called me and said she got a phone call already from the teacher. In my mind all I could think of is that he acted out and was in trouble. No such worry- the call was a positive call assuring my daughter that he had a great morning and did real well with legos and math. That was nice- a positive phone call.
I once had a principal who asked us to make a positive phone call each day. If I ran the schools I would mandate that program. I know how good my daughter felt today on the first day of school when she got that call. I know how this grandpa felt when she told me. Not a bad idea- perhaps we should ALL make one positive call each day, no matter what our job is!

A Little Help From My Brother

My older brother and I do not always see eye to eye on everything but when I read an article he had published in his local newspaper I thought I should copy it to my blog. This doea not have a lot to do with running the schools but I'm sure if we all shared the same idea our schools would run much better. He is a Baptist minister and a former Member of Parliament in Canada. This has a lot to do about values. Here it is:

THE VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
BY REED ELLEY

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

I have to confess that I love Christmas. It brings me so many happy memories of childhood Christmases growing up in small town Ontario. We grew up in the Church and so Christmas held a special meaning for us. It was the traditional celebration of the birth of Jesus. So that meant Christmas Eve Candlelight Services,carolling to shut ins and seniors homes with the youth group,the annual Sunday School Christmas concert where tots to teens put on the show and much more. I remember them all. And it was all done with a backdrop of harsh winter weather and 3 or 4 feet of snow.
And then there were all the special goodies that my mother and indeed my father baked and prepared for Christmas. Whatever happened to Divinity Fudge? And real plum pudding, not that stuff out of some can! And every year,the turkey seemed to be just a little better than the last. I still think the smell of turkey cooking on Christmas Day is the best ever smell!

My parents weren’t wealthy. My father had been in the RCAF during the war and when the war was over he got retraining under a Veterans government program and was able to purchase a house under the Veterans Land Act. But I can’t remember a Christmas where we didn’t receive at least one substantial present from Santa Claus and several from other family members. There were five children in our family and we were all treated equally and well. I know my parents often made personal sacrifices to see that we were taken care of at Christmas.

My parents also instilled in us a belief that we were our brother’s keeper.They were kind and compassionate people. We were taught to care for the poor and those facing personal crisis. Christmas Day dinner was often celebrated with the presence of someone who would have otherwise been alone if they had not been invited to come and share our meal. My father often on his own made up Christmas hampers and took them to families whom he knew had little themselves.
Christmas was not as commercial as it is today. The religious significance was far greater than now. There was none of this insane political correctness where debates erupt over whether it is acceptable to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”. Or if we can have Christmas pageants in public schools or we have to call them “Winter Festivals”. Is it a “Christmas” tree or a “Holiday tree”(thank you President Obama) and can we still sing Christmas carols which mention the name of Jesus for fear of offending someone?
How silly this is! Christmas is as much an important part of our national heritage as Remembrance Day is. And we wouldn’t think of doing away with Remembrance Day, would we? It is important to all of us whether we celebrate the religious significance or not. It reminds us of important values which still need to be emphasized in our society, peace and good will toward all mankind, loving and caring for one another, giving rather getting, hope in the midst of despair, just the sheer magic of Christmas often seen shining in the faces of our children.

So let us celebrate the season and remember the reason for it. Think of giving to the Harvest Home Food Bank or to a charity which helps those in need .Invite someone over to share your Christmas dinner. Because I happen to believe that this is the most wonderful time of the year and I hope you do to! And just because I am so politically incorrect,I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and in the words of Tiny Tim “God bless us,everyone!”

So you can see why I felt it was important to reprint this article from the Chemainus B.C. newspaper. It speaks volumes to how our world should be.

Education: The Reason the Berlin Wall Fell

Twenty years ago I was watching the television and all of a sudden Tom Brokaw broke in with a live shot of the Berlin Wall crumbling down. German citizens were frolicking and celebrating peacefully as that Wall came down. Today in Germany they are celebrating that remarkalble event in Berlin with some of the primaries behind the fall of the Wall such as Russian leader Michail Gorbachev and Polish Union leader Lech Walesa.

I was fortunate that two of the swimmers on my swim team, Indira Allick and Josh Davis were in Berlin with the USA Junior National Team participating in a meet near the time the Wall came tumbling down and brought me back a piece of the Wall, complete with graffiti. I treasure the piece I now own as a symbol of democracy and freedom.

In Karl Marx's 'Das Kapital' and in his 'Communitist Manifesto' he stresses that Communism is the next logical step after democracy using his theory of dialectical materialism. I have often felt that his concept was inaccurate since democracy is the endpoint of the struggles between the classes. This I believe is because education is the vehicle in which democracy prevails. In my theory, countries that have a high level of education and a large participation in the process of being educated are the ones that support a democratic system better. That is why the 1960's and 1970's attempts at democratizing countries like Vietnam were failures. The education systems were not mature in these countries, therefore the people were not ready to accept democracy as a viable choice. It is when citizens of these countries become so educated that they can question their oppression that then and only then will democracy be able to be installed as political system. This is why I feel we are failing in Iraq and Afghanistan because the people are not educated enought to manage on their own. Too many tribes are used to having someone control their lives.

This is what happened eventually in communist run countries. When the people realized how bad their system was, they revolted or in the case of the Wall, the leaders acquiesed to the populace's demand; that being the start of a democratic system. Education in these countries made this possible, in my theory.

Universal education is the key to any democratic system and was responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. Look at what followed that fall.

Making the School Day Longer or Not?

A month ago President Obama came out with a radical education idea, that being making our students stay in school longer. Longer school days and more school days were one of his answers for a better educational system. As many of you know, I have long been a supporter of the change that the President wants to make in this country. A lot of this stems from being an outsider and an immigrant. Having experienced systems in other countries I feel that the USA isn't necessarily the perfect situation, though I will qualify it by saying that in many aspects it is the best situation.

That being said our school system is far from perfect. I have often been a proponent of a longer school day, beginning at 7:00 am and going to 5:00 pm. I, however, differ from the President when I also advocate a four day school week.

I feel that we could educate better with these longer hours. There would be more time to emphasize the basics that our kids don't have time for in schools these days. I also feel that we should be downplaying the 'fluff' we have in our schools. Fridays could be set aside for remedial work, clubs, sporting events etc. Fridays in my opinion are wasted days at schools as are half days. The end of the school day could be set aside for enrichmnet activities and for further remediation. Students after a three day weekend come back ready to learn, in my opinion.

The parents would have a greater chance to get home from work to meet their children when they returned to work. Many industires and corporations are going to a four day work week and this would coincide woith a four day school week.Parents could have more opportunities to bond with their children by taking them places on the long weekend or visiting museums, parks etc. Lord knows we need to bring this bond back to America. It will make it stronger, I guarantee it.

The problem with the President's proposal was as is the case with most government programmes is paying for them. This way the extra time at school duing the week would be offset by the long weekend that teachers would have. There would be extra pay given to those who wish to run programs on Fridays. Coaches already get this extra money in most sports.

Add to this a few more weeks into June for most schools and we have a longer time to educate our students. The summer vacation in my state, Texas, is way too long. Kids have a hard enough time retaining work in their heads over a Christmas or Spring break, let alone a three month hiatus from school. Summer schools could still be kept in operation but I would think that with more time in the day for rote learning and drill in the basic subjects there would be fewer numbers of summer school students. Summer school should be used for those students who wish to extend their learning, not for those who didn't choose to learn it in the first place.

So Mr. President listen to my ideas. If we want to compete with the other world powers it startsin the classroom. We have too many good teachers and good students to waste this opportunity to make it better. This is only part of the problem, I know, but a little more intense time and rigor in the school can't hurt.

Murder of a Teacher: Are We Protected?

Yesterday in the East Texas city of Tyler a Special Education teacher, Todd Henry, was maliciously stabbed in the neck by one of his 16 year old students in the high school he taught. Mr. Henry, by all accounts was a very good teacher and was in a classroom at the time with three other special ed. students and a paraprofessional helping him teach. The student was a special education student with special needs.

It is obvious Mr. Henry and many like him all over the country have special needs also. In my thirty eight years of teaching in Canada and the United States I was rarely taught to protect myself. I saw Mr. Henry's picture on the TV and he was no slouch, a big burly fellow who looked like he could handle himself with any high school student. Most teachers can, in most cases. In most schools this might have never happened.

Not when there is a weapon involved, whether it is a knife or a gun, could he handle this himself. I often thought what it would be like if I pissed off a student or parent. Would I be able to defend myself? Sure with my hands, but not against a weapon like Mr. Henry was confronted with yesterday, especially if I didn't see it coming. I have been assaulted at least once in my career.

I was wandering down the hall towards the office in a middle school one day when I came across a fight in the hallway. There were two large boys who had been shouting at each other. One was about 230 lbs. but not in very good shape, chubby to say the least. The other was a kid who just enrolled last week. He was a strapping tall boy, very muscled, in really good shape. I diffused the situation verbally and asked a strong female teacher to assist me in taking these two to the office for disciplining.

Then out of the blue, the strong one started taking off his shirt and his chains and I said to myself 's..t I'm in trouble here'. He went through me to the other boy and threw me, literally threw me up against the lockers. I was able to separate the heavier boy from the other and then the strong one came at me again and went after the other one. I found myself up against a wall. A coach came by to help and I grabbed the heavy kid and threw him into a sixth grade room and told him to get back to the rear of the room. He called me every name in the book and all I said to him was " He's going to kill you. I can see it in his eyes". When I got out of the room the strong kid had calmed down. We were able to get them to the office.

After that I found out that this student had been in and out of State Hospitals all year and this was his sixth Middle School. None of us were even informed of this. He was later expelled from our district for assaulting me. Even at the hearing the district did nothing there to protect me. They even let the boy and myself out of the hearing room at the same time. The boy followed me all the way to my car where I jumped in and sped off.

If I ran the schools what would I do to protect the teachers? The state pays millions of dollars a year on bus evacuation drills, spends teaching time on fire and tornado drills and even have secret codes for lock down procedures. Some of our esteemed legislators have even gone as far as to try to legislate teachers carrying weapons on them while teaching. This idea, if it would have been in effect yesterday, would not have prevented the situation ,only escalated it. Probably there would have been at least one dead kid as well.

No these are not the answers. Increased police presence perhaps.Better disseminating of information about problem students. The 'heck' with 'confidential' in these types of cases, teachers need to know what they are up against. Surveillance cameras such as they have in the Northside ISD can only help. Some schools have metal detectors at doors much like county courthouses have across the country. That might help. I think character education classes, if taught correctly, could be a preventative. Most of today's kids, unfortunately, are not getting this message at home. Schools shouldn't replace parents but the law says we are 'in loco parentis' so it is my experience that there are many times we have to replace the parent, even when the kids have them.

There probably are very few things I could do that could have prevented what happened yesterday if I ran the schools. It was a freak situation. In my years of teaching students brought knives and guns to schools I taught at but this was not the norm. It only takes one, however in the wrong hands. School districts need to have the means in their possession to combat these situations. I'm sure that all school districts will have mandatory inservices on this case. I'm sure that there will be some grants for programs to train staff on crisis prevention. This will last a while until the money for the grants runs out. Then it will be forgotten until someone reinvents the wheel. That always happens in education.

School districts will try to combat this issue and that is good. I pray that we won't hear about something like this again for a long time. I pray for Todd Henry, his family, his friends and his students.

Separation of School and State?

The last time I looked the government ran the schools. The local authority was the school board, the state authority was the Texas Education Agency (in Texas where I live)and the national authority was the Department of Education. To me that seems like there is a big connection between government and state. So what is the huge fuss when our President who happens to be the highest elected official in the land wants to address the students of the country?

Earlier this year the school district I worked in had all the students in the district, almost 80,000 of them, watch the President's Inaugural Address on TV. What a historic moment! Now that speech was a political speech full of ideas for the country and ideologies that would shape his new Presidency and his promise of change. Now when he wants to address the youth of the country in what I understand to be a non political speech this same school district is not allowing it to be shown. At the least, tape it and show it during that invaluable time that we used to call advisory.

If I ran the schools all my students would be watching and listening to what he has to say. What can it hurt to have a motivational speech from a guy who has come from unusual circumstances to become the most powerful leader in the most powerful country in the world. Students tend to be highly socialized by the 'street', the TV, Hollywood and I can't forget the internet. Most of that information they are gleaning is pretty horrible stuff.They hear about violence, drugs, sex etc. from people who lead lifestyles that are not too exemplary. They see immages of things that children should not see. So when a President who is intelligent, who overcame the stigma of race, who worked his way up the socio economic ladder with hard work and responsible choices wants children in America to become responsible citizens and make good choices we want to BOYCOTT him.Come on, you boycott bad movies, topless bars near churches and schools and shoes made in sweatshops.

Why I say? I think there is a large undercurrent of racism in this country. I live in East Texas now and I hear the 'N' word used in association with the President. I hear people wishing someone would assassinate him. It's because he is black. Do you think for a moment if one of the Bushes, Bill Clinton or even Jimmy Carter were to offer to address the nation's children there would be such a big reaction. No! Ever since President Obama got elected, yes elected by a good majority of the electorate,there has been a vocal element of this country that has been sabotaging his every move with HATE,LIES, and DECEPTION. This element has been allolwed to stir up feelings of hatred in America.

Next week I will watch the Obama speech to the kids. I will wait to judge it's merits. I think if we don't allow our kids to watch out of hatred we are sending a message to our children that it is okay to disrespect our President no matter who he was. There have been many Presidents I have not agreed with, but I have never disrespected them. They have the toughest job in the world. Let's let them do it.
To answer the question. No, there is no separation of school and state in this country.