July 8, 2012 -- Letter to the Daily Breeze on Student Discipline

Discipline in schools
Re "Bullied bus monitor failed to ensure children's safety" (Comment, June 28):
The bullied elderly bus monitor incident was an unfortunate situation that just happened to be recorded - probably by one of the little punks on the bus who wanted to post it online to show how tough he is. The problem isn't just that the bus monitor was submissive. Here's an older woman from an era when children knew the meaning of respect, when parents taught respect. Now parents can't control their children and they're sent to school where it's the schools job to educate them. Had the bus monitor responded forcefully to the four boys, we'd be watching a video about an "out-of-control bus monitor." She would have been fired and publicly crucified. The school district wouldn't have backed her. We can't expect the system to educate, discipline and raise our children with its hands tied. Schools need to be able to discipline students without the constant threat of job loss or lawsuits.
- Greg Bosdet, Long Beach (Source: The Daily Breeze -- http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinions/ci_21027124/fact-not-fiction-letters-editor-sunday-july-8)

Right on, Mr. Bosdet!

As a former full-time and substitute teacher who has faced the best and the worst in our public schools, I cannot think of a more brief yet bountiful statement identifying the biggest problem in our schools: student discipline.

Students are getting away with everything in public education, and as a result they are getting and getting away with nothing. The world will  not babysit or accommodate people who leisurely walk into class five, ten, thirty minutes late, then talk back to the teacher when they do not get their way. Students who walk off their high school campuses in June may think that they are the winners -- having defeated and disrupted so many teachers, but in the long run they will sadly discover that the world will not tolerate less than excellence, self-discipline, and self-respect.

I recall reading a letter from one teacher who saw two black students harassing an Asian student, but she had refused to get involved because she did not want to be labeled "racist". That and other nasty threats and epithets are frightening a growing number of teachers from doing what they must to hold students accountable. I remember one group of students at a local high school telling me that his English teacher could not control his class because he was afraid of the "black kids". I do not believe that teachers are bigots in the first place, or they would never have gotten into public education in the first place. I also believe that student-parent culture, not color, is the defining factor in explaining why a certain class of students are unruly and disrespectful, regardless of race or ethnicity.

And the administrators! They are the chief culprit in many cases, whom students can fool or scare easily with empty threats or lies about the teachers. Principals worry more about getting fired or demoted instead of firing up the students to obey or go away. It is very rare administrator that has not problem standing up to rebellious students and boorish parents. Such leadership is a diminishing reality, one which is so sorely lacking in our schools.

Then there are the teachers who have all but given up, who practically pass students  on  a technicality who have turned in almost nothing, giving them a grade to advance to the next level, where the teacher has to make do with the students doing less. The "dead wood" of older faculty who are counting the days when they can retire with a rich pension are cluttering up our schools, while first and second year teachers get hammered by savvy students who know that they do not have any protection from getting fired

The real problem has become a school environment where the students are now in charge instead of the teacher and the parent. Indeed, the threat of job loss or lawsuits hovers over schools across the country, especially litigation in response to civil rights violations. Being a teacher demands a great deal of courage as it is, but when the pressure to conform to a culture of disrespect is manifested in our schools, we should not be surprised to see a greater number of young teachers leave the profession in larger numbers, as our schools struggle with underqualified instructors who cannot get through one lesson.

Mr. Bosdet, thank you again for your candor and simplicity!