What High School Has Become - From a High School Teacher

I've been a high school teacher for nearly a decade now. I teach Honors and On-Level business classes. Because my classes are considered electives, I have every grade level (freshmen - seniors). I have students with severe learning disabilities, to students competing to be the Valedictorian. I have taught Summer school, where every student there is trying to makeup credit for a class they have failed. I have also been the soccer coach for the last 4 years.

When I started, the high school I was at, was a top performing high school in the nation. We were what the kids in the neighboring town called the "Rich, White High School". 3 years ago, a new high school opened in the newer part of town, rezoning was done, and our demographics shifted dramatically. We went from a school where 15% of the students qualified for free and reduced lunch, to a school where over 50% qualify for free and reduced lunch.

I also teach in a town with a major university that has a large influx of Asian and Middle Eastern faculty and students, therefore we have a relatively large portion of Asian and Middle Eastern students as well. They still make up a small percentage of our overall population, but the proportion of those students in our district is significantly higher than surrounding districts.

I tell you all that, to demonstrate that I've had just about every type of student there is and have had a pretty diverse school environment. I’ve had super-rich, I've had homeless, and I've had classes where if I didn't bring breakfast the majority of kids wouldn't have eaten until they got back home. I've had kids who drive brand new Mercedes to school, and I've had kids who have threatened to fight me. I've had kids who can't spell their names and I've had kids that are going to Harvard on a full scholarship. I’ve had every race, gender, sexual preference, economic class, learning level, behavioral issue, and learning disability possible. Trust me....I've had them all.

I got in to this profession because I love to TEACH. I love to challenge kids; I love to make them think. I want to see them grow. I want to see that light come on in their mind when they grasp something for the first time. I enjoy teaching them things that will benefit them academically, personally, and professionally. I became a soccer coach because I love to COACH. I love pushing kids to their best, and making them work hard to realize results. I want to show them how to better players, and better teammates. I try to show them that if we lose, then we get better, not bitter. I think this is why the majority of teachers and coaches get in to the profession; however what I’ve described above is shrinking in proportion every year in relation to the rest of my ever expanding job description.

I wasn’t naïve when I entered education; I knew I wasn’t just going to be teaching. I knew I would be disciplining and counseling students. I knew I’d be meeting with parents. I knew that I’d have meetings and training to attend and so on. It’s the rapid increase of these things, I wasn't prepared for.

I’ve concluded that we’re facing four epidemics, which have combined in to one massive storm and its being dropped on the doorstep of every educational building in America, with the expectation our educational administrators should have no problem handling it. Here are the four epidemics:

The educational System Epidemic - The federal government has been driving the educational system down the tubes for the last 30 years. Continual ambivalent oversight, ever-changing accountability systems, and plain incompetence have hindered the once great American Education System. Education reform under the last two republicans and the last two democrats has been terrible. It has turned our system’s focus on to struggling students, rather than succeeding ones. Look I get it; we want every student to have a chance, however the accountability of those struggling students has been deferred from the student and their parents, to the teacher. When a student is struggling, the state wants to know what it is the TEACHER is doing to help that student, with no regard to anything else. No regard to the student’s effort or their parent’s.

We squash our kid’s creativity. We have to cram everything in to multiple choice tests , have them regurgitate vocabulary words, and we call that learning. Why? Well because if we don’t force feed them material geared towards state testing, then they don’t do well on state tests. When students don’t do well on state tests, then the school is investigated. When the school is investigated, more oversight, more paperwork, and more training are put in to place.

The Societal Epidemic – Classroom’s are filled with teenagers pumped full of ultra-violent video games, access to anything on the internet, and reality show superstars. Some of the biggest celebrities to my students are the Kardashians, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, etc…Today’s teen’s music is full of sexual, violent, and vulgar ideas and language. I’m not saying movies, TV, and music haven’t always had these things in them, however, the volume, the availability, and the casualness of it, has never been greater.

We’ve allowed Hollywood to virtually skate-by scot-free. The more disturbing something is, the more popular it is. Check out which videos have the most views on YouTube. If someone is continually watching disturbing things, listening to disturbing things, and playing disturbing things, then what do you think the end product is going to be?

We wonder why are kids are becoming more violent and sexual, let’s look at the world we live in.

The Diagnosis Epidemic – Is there a kid in America left who’s not diagnosed with something? Every year the percentage of kids with learning disabilities or on some sort of medication, increases. You wouldn’t believe how many kids I have on Adderall and anti-depressants. These kids are diagnosed with everything you can imagine, medicated, and put in our classrooms. By no means am I saying that there aren’t kids that should be medicated, but the rate at which it is happening is alarming!

The Parenting Epidemic – This is by far the saddest of the epidemics. It used to be that parents and educators were on the same side. We jointly were pushing their child to be their best. We were both holding them accountable for their actions and wanted to see them learn from their mistakes. Now it seems parents are just as confrontational as students. When their child is in trouble or doesn’t do well on a test, they want to know what the teacher did wrong. When their child doesn’t make a team, they want a meeting with the coach to tell them what a big mistake they’re making. Parents are continually making excuses for their children and are too worried about their child’s self-esteem to teach them that the real world has real consequences.

Parents seem afraid of their children these days. They seem to want to be the cool mom or dad, who is their friend. They seem to be scared to invoke punishment when their child misbehaves. I have parents all the time asking me how they should discipline their children or asking me if I can do it.

Continued....

It’s also alarming the amount of parents that have little or no interest in their children’s lives. You’d be shocked at how many parents don’t return my phone calls, emails, or request for meetings. Sometimes I get a hold of parent, and the student doesn’t even live with them anymore. They’ve already moved at 15 or 16 years old and living on their own. We have kids who are being forced to come by the country court because they’ve missed so many days, and their parents couldn’t care less.

If I had one take-away from my span in education it is this: 90% of the time, children are a direct reflection of their home-life.

With all of these epidemics happening, schools have become mine fields. Educators are just trying their best not step in the wrong direction. Schools now have been given the responsibility of raising children. We are responsible for their learning, for their behavior, for their diet, for the amount of exercise they get, for their maturity, for teaching them the difference between right and wrong, etc... We deal with fights, bullying, sexual assault, sexual harassment, gangs, pregnancy, drugs, and just about everything else. While parents watch from a far and are ready to jump in and voice their opinion when they think we’re not doing it right.

Schools have become the place for students to rebel and fight the “system”. They want to push their limits when it comes to the dress code, conduct, and whatever the hot topic of the week is in the name of “freedom of expression”. We have students/parents making our schools battlegrounds for religious issues, sexual preference issues, gender issues, racial issues, and just about everything else. We have to be politically correct about everything, and then face the backlash of being politically correct.

We’re facing new issues every day. Issues we don’t have guidelines for, yet will face public backlash for not handling them correctly. For example, we had a parent this school year want her daughter who identifies as a male, to wrestle on the boy’s wrestling team. Emily/Dave is biologically a woman, but doesn’t identify with that gender. What do you do in that situation? While your first reaction may be what’s the problem here? How would you feel if the situation was reversed? What if it was a male who identified as a female? He/She would probably be much stronger than his/her female opponents. Let’s say he was allowed to wrestle as a female, and then dominated everyone, and won the state title. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that these issues are important and we don’t want conformist robots walking around our school, however, our main priority is a safe and optimal learning environment. I’m here on ATS and have been for a while; so obviously, I’m not some close-minded educator, on a mission to get kids to conform. Like I said at the beginning, most of us get in this profession to TEACH their subject. We’d love to be able to spend time addressing every dress code issue, every fight, every homemade clock issue, with sound judgement. The problem is we don’t have the time, the guidance, or the resources. We’re actually trying to….teach, which is challenging enough. Just about every social issue is thrown our way, and even through society doesn’t have a settled answer for it, somehow we’re supposed to. Sometimes we’re forced to make a quick judgement call, and it’s not always the best. The people yelling the loudest however, are usually the people complaining the most when it’s time to raise property taxes, so we can build a new school or hire more teachers.

See we’re now damned if we do, damned if we don’t as educators. While the federal government, doctors, parents, Hollywood, and the rest of society get to defer their accountability for children, we aren’t allowed to do so. Instead we’re put under a microscope and battered by the media when something happens.

While I don’t agree with what happened to young man that made the clock, I think it ridiculous that the school takes the entire blame for it.

I love my job, I love my students, and I love what I’m doing. You’ll find that most educators are the same. We want want’s best for OUR children. We’re trying our best, but let’s also realize what we have to work with.

Cheers, it’s Friday!

originally posted by: stdscf12
Schools have become the place for students to rebel and fight the “system”.

Can't say I blame them really...

Perhaps deep down inside many of them know that there really is a stealth agenda behind it all.

Kids log onto ATS just like you and I...

Surely many of them must be aware that the 'educational' system is being used to dumb down kids into unthinking conformists and zombies who won't ask any questions.

Never mind that this country's education system is already tailor-made to spread misinformation, entrench mythologies, and promote American exceptionalism to our young children. American history, as taught in schools, is generally nonsense meant to instill and preserve a sense of City-on-a-Hill nationalism, along with healthy doses of tall-tale founding myths, gung-ho militarism, and ethnic cleansing justification in the form of righteous Manifest Destiny. As James W. Loewen explains in his 1995 book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, textbooks used to teach our children "leave out anything that might reflect badly upon our national character."

Who's Really Brainwashing Our Children

“Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” ~ Joseph Stalin

"I begin with the young." ~ Adolf Hitler

"He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future." ~ Adolf Hitler

"...the academic meltdown in our public education system is intentional. It asserts that change agents have been working at the Education Department to change curriculum, not to improve teaching but to promote a socialist agenda. Their role is to create schools which will mold obedient citizens who no longer have the knowledge and skills to improve their lot in life, but are dependent on government/multi-national companies' guidance to survive. The system will create imprisoned citizens that will be managed from cradle to grave to serve the needs of the state's managed economy."

Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

As another man without a high school diploma, I discovered many years ago that the "educated" class is generally not educated at all, it is mis-educated. The whole purpose of American (perhaps all "western") "higher education" is obviously to bring minds into lock step with "The Agenda." As a general rule, the less official American education a person has been exposed to, the greater his/her ration of common sense.

"Education" is Spiritual Suicide

Only when all children in public, private and home schools are robotized-and believe as one-will World Government be acceptable to citizens and able to be implemented without firing a shot. The attractive-sounding "choice" proposals will enable the globalist elite to achieve their goal: the robotization (brainwashing) of all Americans in order to gain their acceptance of lifelong education and workforce training-part of the world management system to achieve a new global feudalism.

A 100 yr. Silent War on Education

I wish you were my teacher. I would've learned a lot from you.

a reply to: stdscf12

This is possibly the single most relevant thread to my personal life I have seen since joining ATS. Although not much in it is new to me and I have thought about these issues for quite some time, it was very well put together.

Our son will be four years old soon and despite the fact that my wife and I have to put in more hours to pay for it, starting with Pre-K we enrolled our son in a private Catholic school. We believe that for the most part, parents that shell out the thousands and thousands of dollars for tuition, fundraisers, uniforms, etc tend to be more involved in their children's education and life in general, which leads us to believe that overall the children will be better students and better all around peers relative to their public school counterparts. This is not meant as an insult to public school teachers, but since the school charges tuition, we also believe that the school tends to listen more closely to the concerns of the parents that are paying for it.

To what you said about parents becoming adversarial towards teachers, I could be wrong but I believe that started to happen in my generation (I graduated from high-school in the mid 1990's). I remember growing up in a world where if the teacher called my parents or sent a letter home about me behaving badly or not performing, it was all but automatic that the teacher was right and I was wrong. (And to be candid, I wasn't a horrible kid but I got into my fair share of trouble and the teachers WERE right). Anyway, about half way through high school I started to see something that I hadn't before. Just as you explained, I started to see the parents of some of the other students take the "Not MY Angel" stance. There were kids (some of them friends of mine) that were just flat-out rotten. Constantly causing trouble. Constantly disrupting the class. Never doing any homework. And to my shock, they would come in and fight it when the student(s) would get suspended or detention or disciplined. How did this change happen and why, I will never figure out.

One other note that may only affect areas in cities/suburbs like mine. I had mentioned that our son is enrolled in Pre-K in Catholic school. Prior to that we was in nursery school and our original intent was to finish Pre-K at the same nursery school. However, on the first day of school this year, we realized we had to pull him out and sign him up at the Catholic School a year early. Why? Well, this might sound harsh but it's what I feel. In a class of ten children, about half spoke no English. Some were from Spanish speaking countries, some from India. Now I am glad to see that their parents were interested enough in their children to send them to Pre-K, but it was painfully obvious so much of the teachers' time and energy was going to be sucked up by just bringing those kids up to speed at the expense of the other childrens' kindergarten-readiness.

When it comes to students and their parents using schools as an arena for "social statements" (for lack of a better term), I totally see that happening. The story the other day about a student born male but identifying as female and the school made accommodations for the student to use a faculty restroom.... but NOOOOOOO. Thats not good enough. Thats one of countless examples.
I would have to say though, on this "social" issue, I do think that it goes both ways. Over time I am seeing more and more instances where the schools/teachers are the ones trying to socially engineer the kids and go well beyond traditional education.

All in all though, you sound like one of the great ones so thank you and I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

a reply to: stdscf12

Please know that I appreciate that you are truly concerned about a very troubling issue, that you followed your calling as oppposed to choosing a career, and I appreciate that you took the time to write such a thoughtful explanation of your perspective as a teacher. But -- you had to know that "but" was coming! -- it's not so peachy keen for parents either, especially conscientious parents who do want the best for their kids, and work just as hard as you, but feel we have been thwarted and undermined again and again and again by teachers and administrators. Please tell me I'm wrong, but you don't seem to have any empathy for what parents must deal with. Even "good" parents.

Yes, our schools need a MAJOR overhaul, I agree. I have much sympathy for teachers in general... and much contempt for some teachers in particular. A good teacher is worth their weight in gold, and bad teachers cause more harm than can be measured. I can think of a couple times where a teacher was damn lucky the principal found me before I found the teacher. There was a time that I wouldn't have been surprised to find my picture on a huge banner with a circle and a slash through it outside the school.... and my kids were honor students who NEVER displayed a behavior problem.

One example: My daughter once had a math teacher that refused to return my calls after she went from an "A" to a "C" from one report card to another, which was unacceptable and indicated a problem. The website we were given to monitor our daughter's homework assignments and progress was never updated. I called numerous times, I left messages for her at the front office, I sent notes with my daughter -- for weeks, she did not call me back. So one day I went to school with my daughter, waited 10 minutes after the bell for the teacher to get her butt to the class and let the students in... mind you, if students were late for class, they were given in-school detention... and then told the teacher since she couldn't find a way to answer my messages or communicate with me in any way, I would be sitting in class every day with my daughter to make sure I knew exactly what was expected of her and make sure she did so.... I then looked around and asked her where she would like me to sit.... Oh how quickly that teacher changed her attitude and her ways!!! (My daughter was very relieved... I told her the next time I had to do so that I would be wearing my fuzzy slippers and a robe and curlers in my hair ) The most amazing part? My daughter started doing much better in class. Go figure, eh?

I should not have had to go to those extremes, but I did. It is just one of MANY examples of how teachers drop the ball again and again and again, then blame it on parents and students. But here's the thing: You are the professional. You have the degree (as was pointed out to me many times). You call the shots. In the case above, I eventually learned that every student was between a C and a Fail, because the teacher was not trained in math, she didn't know what she was doing, and she wasn't capable of teaching the material (Algebra 3 and 4). Whose fault was that???

There are three sides to every story: Yours, mine, and the truth. As long as parents are the enemy, nothing is going to get better. Please consider what parents have to deal with.

A long but very I nteresting read and you are very correct in your observations.

We need more teachers like you, you should be proud.

I know it must be stressful and depressing at times, but keep soldiering on, kids need you and people like you.

Learning has been the last things school systems have been worried about for a long time.
The standardized test results are how schools get funding so that's the main focus now.
Teach for the test and don't worry about the rest.
Kids are all different and need to be taught different but that's a no no today. we have the autistic kid in the classroom with the rest of the students, doesn't matter how much he disrupts their learning.
Everybody is treated the same.
Washington should not be in control of our schools.

WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN THE OBVIOUS LESSON?

DUH?

STATE EDUCATION DOES NOT WORK. It is an oxymoron.

The ONLY system that works is PRIVATE EDUCATION.

What needs to be done in the USA is OBVIOUS.

Its time to privatise ALL EDUCATION.
Give all the schools to the teachers to run as businesses.
Give every parent a voucher for one education per child.
Then the state pays the school fees for which ever school that they send their kids to up to a limit.

If a school is rubbish, no-one will send their kids there and the teachers will lose their jobs. If a school is great, everyone will send their kids there and the teachers will make a packet.

This is sooooooooooooo accurate.

I'm currently 18 and couldn't agree more.

I actually dropped out at the age of 16 though. It got to a point where I would be so stressed and so despised of school that I would begin to get sick easily. I'd get nauseas going to school and being at school, & I would be going home sick atleast twice a month.

Other than those things, the main reason why I dropped out was because school was getting in the way of what I wanted to do and learn. So far I've been more productive and successful since school.

If you're thinking of enrolling your child into a school, I suggest a private school.

I can see two sides of the issues you stated. Schools do rely heavily on state/federal funding which facilitates much of the crisis now facing schools. Unfortunately, money is once again the elephant in the room. I'm sure we all read those stories about how administration "fudged" test scores on standardized testing, which in itself is ludicrous.

As a single mother working full time plus a weekend job just to (barely) make ends meet, it's really hard to be as hands on as my mom was a couple of decades ago. Thank goodness my kids are not into drugs, gangs, etc.... but I worry constantly that I am not doing the best for them by not being more present in their lives.

In my case, it was stay in an abusive marriage and expose my kids to a highly dysfunctional upbringing or work like hell to have money to make it on our own. Two sides of the coin (like the dems and reps, both no win situation). All I can do as a parent is do what I can, make time for teacher conferences, lots of phone calls and pray it all works out in the end.

BTW: Thanks you for being one of the few dedicated teachers trying to make a difference. I know I especially appreciate it.

a reply to: Boadicea

I definitely agree that there are some bad teachers and that it adds to the problem. I guess I should have indicated that teacher's aren't always innocent bystanders to the problem.

Feels depressing, sounds true. Thanks so much for your insight and your passion.

But, IMHO, each of those categories can be further condensed down to one root cause - The dissolution of the family.

Families are under attack in the modern era. What is a family? Who is a family? What is quality family time? What are "family" values? Those and many other questions about family have been redefined to a nonsensical, dysfunctional, overly PC and, quite frankly, dangerous degree.

The troubled state of education is but a symptom of all of that.

Mankind has successfully evolved over the millenia in large part because of the strong cultural foundation of family. Now, suddenly, in the modern era we have the arrogance and audacity to decide that it doesn't really matter. And our children are paying the price for it.

My girlfirend of 8 years has been a middle and highschool math teacher of 17 years. Everything OP says is exactly true. She has too many years in to quit, plus she had additional pressure of teaching a tested subject. As far as me I have to say that the parenting in this country is outright disgusting. These so called soccer moms who sit on their asses all day on facebook and pinterest are bat # crazy because their husband works and is probably porking someone at the office. They pour all their insecurities into their 3.5 children and have created a generation of excuse ridden useless crybabies. Sometime even drug addled mindless zombies by the age of 13. All because everyone needs "special accommodations". This will be the most doomed generation to inherit a county and society that people today are creating.

a reply to: stdscf12

I have been an IT in K12 for 15 years. I travel class to class. I spend may hours with the Superintendents of 11 schools. You are spot on! As a parent, I couldn't care less about my child's success at school in this day and age. My family makes the system happy during the day and bitch at night.

My problem is when Parents/Community want to call the school and complain. (No sodas in the kids lunch box). Wake Up People!!! The school has no choice! Our governments are fubard! We need to be on the State and Federal Lawns!!! But, no, the ignorant people around here want to blame the local staff and just complain.

Daily quote from Supt. "If we don't comply with the feds programs, they cut our funding".

Sick I tell you!

I am curious why my Fed tax is 10X my state tax? Anyone care to explane that one?


OK, OK, I am being silly. We just need another fed funded social program to cover these issues.

a reply to: stdscf12
Wow! Nice OP(s). If I was a writer making a novel involving an educator, I'd read this and get to know--that was my thought.

Yep there're expectations everywhere. Note you expect parents and students to assume more responsibility and accountability, and yet they'll likely launch a similar retort on you. So who's right, who's wrong?

I don't envy. THIS is what life is, though. It's a struggle. Everybody wants to do the "right" thing. Everybody is "fighting". And when the "violence" is over and everybody has settled downed, we get an "answer". It's a brief treaty because it'll recur again and again anytime something important comes up. And yet I think even when it's not important, the "fight" lingers.

No disrespect meant when I sum it all up that way. You understand I'm just another person with another (hopefully innocuous) opinion.

originally posted by: JetBlackStare
Feels depressing, sounds true. Thanks so much for your insight and your passion.

But, IMHO, each of those categories can be further condensed down to one root cause - The dissolution of the family.

Families are under attack in the modern era. What is a family? Who is a family? What is quality family time? What are "family" values? Those and many other questions about family have been redefined to a nonsensical, dysfunctional, overly PC and, quite frankly, dangerous degree.

The troubled state of education is but a symptom of all of that.

Mankind has successfully evolved over the millenia in large part because of the strong cultural foundation of family. Now, suddenly, in the modern era we have the arrogance and audacity to decide that it doesn't really matter.

And our children are paying the price for it.

I told my child's teacher that if she wants to come over after school and feed the farm, help cook dinner, and sit down for our nightly board game; My daughter will gladly turn in the two hours of homework. To make No child Left Behind and Standardized Testing happy. She declined.

I am guessing that operating a small farm, providing for your family and family bonding time is not educational enough.

My children know the difference between a cow and a human being. I think that pisses off the establishment. So be it.

To put into prospective; I have know my children s teachers for 15 years. I keep their network and computers running. If I am not available, my 10 year old son fixes it. My kids have straight A's and are never required to do homework if they have above B's. The teacher is on my side. She loves us being a family. Most house holds are not.

a reply to: eluryh22

We're in exactly the same boat as you. I spent some time as an inner city classroom teacher, and I saw how that went. I also got an idea where Common Core was going to take the world.

Our son is going to be 5 in early October. When he was 2, I was already researching our options. I'm glad I did. By the time He was 3, he was already using words like delicious appropriately in his sentences. He needs to be challenged and I don't think Lowest Common Denomi ... er, Core will do that.

We examined our budget closely and chose a small, private nondenominational Christian school that uses the Classical Curriculum approach. It is only affordable because it relies heavily on parental involvement. It has that small country school feel, but it produces results. And their reading approach is phonics and he will always be challenged to read at the level he is ready to read at, not what his grade level says is "appropriate."

Like you, we are working longer and giving up things to do it, but we feel like the parents are all involved and serious about their kids getting an education and the teachers are also involved and serious. Not to mention the values are not at all incompatible with our own, but had the curriculum approach, budget and everything else worked out, the addition of Christian values would have been negotiable, that it's there? Major bonus.

originally posted by: vanguard72Sometime even drug addled mindless zombies by the age of 13. All because everyone needs "special accommodations". This will be the most doomed generation to inherit a county and society that people today are creating.

I can agree with this.

I made friends with this wonderful girl my first year of highschool. We became the bestest of friends, but then she started to smoke and sell weed. She changed (went downhill), we weren't friends anymore and her mom didn't do anything to help her.

Her mom always stayed home and never worked. The only father she had was a step-dad who didn't care about them since he wasn't the father.

She was caught with weed in school on the last day of her freshman year. So they suspended her and she wasn't allowed to return to school until she submitted some drug test paper that was to be obtained by a doctor. 3 months into 10th grade and she was yet to submit the form. Her mom didn't wanna do it because it was "tedious". The school ended up dropping her out and now she is doing nothing with her life.

The problem was the lack of support and interest from her mother. Her mother didn't pressure her to get things done and to do things right. Heck her mom even encouraged her to drop out because she didn't want to go through the trouble.

a reply to: Kuroodo

This is the problem with a selfish society. It's all about me now, not about others. When you are parented by someone who takes that approach, you don't matter.

This is what happens when families break down and break apart.