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Ugly words won't fix the schools
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Published: April 6, 2008
The news story out of Waycross, Ga., last week about the third-graders who dreamed up and almost executed a plot to attack their teacher was an extreme example of the discipline problems that plague public schools. But bizarre as it is, the tale is all too believable.
According to The Associated Press, as many as nine third-graders were angry because their teacher had disciplined one of them for standing on a chair. They laid their plans and managed to bring to school their weapons and supplies: a paperweight to knock the teacher out, handcuffs and tape to immobilize her and a steak knife with a broken handle with which to stab her, as well as what they figured they'd need to cover the windows and clean up when the deed was done. They were thwarted when another child reported that a girl had brought a weapon to school.
Fortunately, few children go to such lengths; indeed, it's surprising that these kids devised such an elaborate plot. If only they'd devote as much energy and imagination to their studies…
It is not, however, unusual for students of all ages to misbehave in class and then become indignant or even outraged when someone calls them down for it. And if they don't get angry about discipline, their parents are all too likely to do so. Respect for public schools and those who work in them is at a dangerous low, and I think I know a major reason.
Full disclosure: I have many friends and relatives who are or have been employed by public schools. I am not, however, an uncritical apologist for those schools. Schools are far from perfect. My children had mixed experiences as they made their way through the public schools. Both of them encountered some wonderful teachers and administrators, a lot of OK teachers and administrators, and a few of each who were truly awful. There were times when a particular situation had me writing letters, making phone calls or scheduling conferences in the hopes of respectfully discussing the problem.
Parents should be interested in what's going on with their children at school, and there's nothing wrong with occasional, restrained inquiry and intervention. That's healthy and good, and it's not what I'm talking about.
Anyone who's put in more than a few days working in a public school in recent years will likely tell you that students are routinely disrespectful. And in too many cases, talking to their parents accomplishes little or nothing, because the parents are likely to have an even worse attitude.
It's common for people in my generation and older to say that we rarely got in trouble in school because we knew that if we did, we'd be in even worse trouble at home. Our parents respected education, schools and teachers, and they let us know that we were expected to behave. If a report of misdeeds came home, our parents were much more likely to believe the teacher than to credit our excuses. We tended to approach our children's school experiences with much the same outlook.
Today, however, disrespect and misbehavior are so rampant that many actions that would likely have earned us a trip to the principal's office are simply overlooked by harried teachers. And if an offense is so egregious as to merit a reprimand or punishment, a parent is likely to show up at the school demanding, often in vulgar and even threatening terms, that people stop picking on his or her child.
Why is there such a lack of respect for teachers and schools? The easy answer would be that they don't deserve respect, that they're not good. It's true that schools have a lot of problems. But many of those problems stem from greater breakdowns in society; the schools are being forced to take on roles that families used to take care of. It is a daunting task to try to educate the children of this country, with their wide range of abilities and backgrounds; no amount of standardized testing will solve all the problems. Then too, schools have never been perfect; I could name some terrible teachers whose classes I suffered through, and I expect most people can.
But that easy answer -- that the schools are no good and don't deserve respect -- is the one that fuels the attitude of many parents today, an attitude that they pass on to their children. And one major reason for those attitudes is the relentless campaign among some politicians, talk-show ranters and, more recently, bloggers -- people with a variety of agendas -- to brand the public schools as failures. Google the term "failed public schools" and you'll get endless hits. That term has been hammered into our consciousness for years.
Too many people uncritically believe it, and that poisonous campaign has done as much as anything to make the job of improving the schools even tougher than it should be. The ugly words are helping to shape the reality. And third graders think they should take matters into their own hands if a teacher calls them down.
n Linda Brinson is the Journal's editorial-page editor. She can be reached at lbrinson@wsjournal.com.
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