Third quarter marking period just ended. I teach 100 seniors, and when I look at the grade book, I could legitimately give F’s to 60 of them. This is the number of kids who have missed ten or more days out of 44 this quarter.
It used to astound me how many days of kids missed when I first began teaching here. Like most things, however, I’m numb to it now. I try to have standards, I really do. I penalize kids for not being in class. I call home during prep periods, even though many of the phones are disconnected and not in service. I send attendance letters home and document it to the main office.
The fact is: I can’t get kids in this city to come to school.
The problem is that these kids somehow know they will pass and graduate high school. Taking a principled stand and putting the F on the report card would just be a hoop for all of us to jump through. I would have to defend all the efforts I’ve made to contact parents, social workers and administrators for every absence the kid has had. The kids know how hard it is to actually fail.
The basic message I’ve gotten from the administrators is this: “Get these kids up outta here.”
So I did. I passed all but three or four kids for the quarter.
My conundrum is this: The main control I have over my seniors is the fear of delaying their graduation. Now that they see I’ll pass them, my fourth quarter could well be hellish. I passed the kids who cussed me out, didn’t show up, can hardly read and write – I passed them all. Why the hell not?
My kids are 18 and 19 years old. In this city, there is no educational body we could send them to next year or over the summer that could catch them up to where they should be by this age. At least with a high school diploma, they appear to prospective employers to have accomplished something.
I used to believe every single sob story I heard from kids because I was hungry to believe I was truly helping America’s neediest. I’m not so cynical to not believe anything they say to me anymore, but could all these kids seriously be telling the truth?
Two cases and then I’m outta here;
1 – A girl whose missed 35 days this semester barged into my room demanding a “make-up” packet. I flipped out because a) it was lunch time and I was trying to have a peanut butter sandwich and b) I hate when truant and rude kids tell me what I should be doing for them. She then flipped out on me and told me that she ran away from her mother who lives in New York and claims government money that is supposed to be going to support this girl. Continuing on, the girl said she lives alone and hasn’t eaten in three days.
I asked her if she wanted the rest of my peanut butter sandwich and put a passing grade on her report card.
2 – A boy who tells me day after day that my class is “bullshit” and hasn’t even shown up for the last three weeks caught up with me in the halls today and told me he’s thinking of dropping out because he won’t pass my class. He told me he’s hustling for money on the streets because he can’t find a job, he takes care of his grandmother, who is sick, and his mother is a drug addict. The kid had tears in his eyes.
I told him I’d give him a D- and to not get caught or he’ll just be another statistic.
People who read this might see me as a pushover or naive, and I wrestle with those things. I’m a lot less naïve than I was when I first stepped into this urban environment. But I really know these kids after teaching here two years. I see what they are capable of achieving and also what depths they are capable of sinking to if people don’t step in to at least try and help.
What good am I doing society if I fail a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds? Chances are, most of them wouldn’t try to make up the class and would fall short of graduating.
Then again, what good am I doing by passing them?
High school for me wasn’t like this at all. I have no reference point for any of this to make sense.
Cforchange // Apr 2, 2009 at 5:09 am
No one in the know would classify you as a naive pushover. But I find it interesting that you are a Republican. The party is just saturated with:
I don’t care to deal with any of it. I’m moving way out so I can polish my guns in privacy.
ChristianMiller // Apr 2, 2009 at 5:23 am
Failing these individual kids would be a shame because they have been operating on the existing expectations. The system is a failure mostly due to years of Democrat policies and cultural attitudes. Any idiot can rubber-stamp these kids through, so you are not “teaching” per se.
I would get out of there and go polish my guns. Let Cforchange deal with it – he has all the answers.
barker13 // Apr 2, 2009 at 7:47 am
“The basic message Ive gotten from the administrators is this: Get these kids up outta here. So I did. I passed all but three or four kids for the quarter.”
So… your “answer” is to simply… er… follow orders?
(*SIGH*)
Question: Putting aside class attendance and class participation, what percentage of your average class merits a D or better based upon quantifiable grades?
Well, Tom… allow me to make it short and simple: THOSE are the only students you should be passing. To pass a student who deserves an F… sounds like malfeasance to me – fiduciary breach at the very least.
Tom… if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. What you’re doing is dishonest and dishonorable. That’s my opinion.
“I passed the kids who cussed me out, didnt show up, can hardly read and write I passed them all. Why the hell not?”
BECAUSE IT’S WRONG!!! That’s why. You’re serving YOUR best interests – not society’s… not those kids’… not the taxpayers… not the parents. If this is you as a “new” teacher I can only imagine what a “burnt out” Tom Gibbon would be like.
(*SIGH*)
“What good am I doing society if I fail a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds?”
No good. You’re doing BAD.
“Then again, what good am I doing by passing them?”
You’re going along to get along; ultimately your placing YOUR career prospects above the public good as well as betraying your duty to those students.
BILL
P.S. – I don’t expect the censors will let THIS post remain on the board too long. We’ll see.
sinz54 // Apr 2, 2009 at 8:26 am
Thom: It really doesn’t matter when you pass or fail these two kids you mentioned–they have deep sociological pathologies that are going to ruin their lives anyway, unless something is done. And evidently government social services have already failed to help them.
You need to be more of a social worker than a teacher. Since government has clearly failed these kids, I would try to get these kids some help from the non-profit private sector. Tell them that a passing grade will be CONTINGENT on them going to the YMCA, or whatever other faith-based or secular private organizations for troubled kids exist in your community. And they will have to bring proof that they have sought out these organizations in exchange for a passing grade.
If you don’t think you’ll get in trouble with your superiors, ask these kids if they have a religion. If they are Catholics, for example, TELL them to talk over their situation with their priest. He can’t fix it. But he can help them deal with it better.
We conservatives believe in the power of private charity. Let’s put that theory to the test with these kids.
barker13 // Apr 2, 2009 at 10:34 am
“Since government has clearly failed these kids,”
How so…?
Seriously… how so… exactly?
Perhaps you’d like “government” to regulate pregnancy and child bearing? Hmm… if we can perform reversible “sterilizations” on children as they’re born, then in order to become a parent you’d have to petition the government…
(*RUEFUL SMIRK*)
Hmm… or perhaps…
Take more kids out of their homes. Government can decide who is and who isn’t a “good parent” and what is or isn’t a “good home” and then just take the kids away and raise them in government funded/run orphanages.
That what you’re thinking, Sinz…???
Go on… enlighten us… start where all government efforts to “educate” the parent/parents have failed… start with a home that 9 out of 10 of us who regularly comment on this blog would agree is dysfunctional…
(This should be good!)
(*TAPPING MY TOES*) (*PATIENTLY WAITING*)
BILL
P.S. – BTW… in a perfect world I’d go for BOTH of my scenarios! (*WINK*)
thomasgibbon // Apr 2, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Barker,
I respect your point. The kids come to me reading at 5-6 grade level. I teach 12th. Keeping them in the system another year is serving NO ONE…
I’m not toeing a line or trying to advance my career! It serves no purpose keeping these kids in school, or trying to, for another year.
They are already so far behind it would take a herculean effort from non-existent forces to make it work – - never going to happen. Still, I hear what you’re saying. I think about it often. What’s best for these kids? I have no idea.
thomasgibbon // Apr 2, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Lastly, Barker….
Good question:
Am I part of the problem or solution?
I just got back home after taking a team of 20 city kids to a meet all the way across the city where we stomped on three other schools who barely mustered a squad. 20 kids busy after school each day doing something positive – working towards something positive – would it be better if I were not in this school?
I know the reality of my school. We can’t grade on merit like they do at a prep school. There are too many issues. Call it a cop out or an unfortunate reality. To think it’s the former is to ignore the latter.
Publius // Apr 2, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Thomas, dear friend, stop the madness. You and I both know that if you attempted to issue actual earned grades to yur students you would be ordered, not asked, to amend the grades. We have both experienced that. To make the attempt at a high school that has been uprooted at mid-year and has been ordered dis-established would be folly of the worst order. Issuing ‘Fs’ you know will be expunged and amended would simply be an exercise in futility.
What is not an effort in futility is to make perfect copoies of all your records, before they arte reqyuired to be surrendered at year’s end, and deliver a copy to the State Board of Education and to every major news outlet in your community. The rug large enough to sweep that mess under does not exist. Perhaps, in the hue and cry that will undoubtedly follow, a true discussion can be had. If the truth sets us free, will this free your spirit?
barker13 // Apr 3, 2009 at 11:25 am
Tom,
I don’t question your good intentions. Nor do I equate “pragmatism” with… er… “evilness.” Yeah… I was a bit rough on you, but don’t take it personally, I’m simply… er… forthright.
(*WINK*)
“The kids come to me reading at 5-6 grade level. I teach 12th. Keeping them in the system another year is serving NO ONE…”
And passing them serves… whom?
Cooperating in a kabuki theatre… pretending we’ve educated students we haven’t educated… whom does that serve?
Tom. Changing the dynamic – challenging “the system” – has to start somewhere: Why not with you? Or… at least… why not with you in terms of playing your small part is just saying “NO!” to the continuation of this sick farce?
(*SHRUG*)
“I just got back home after taking a team of 20 city kids to a meet all the way across the city where we stomped on three other schools who barely mustered a squad. 20 kids busy after school each day doing something positive – working towards something positive – would it be better if I were not in this school?”
Tom. Have you ever seen Schindler’s list? As an individual Schindler was a hero because he did what he could to alleviate, to mitigate, some of the horrors of the system. Imagine though if enough Germans had had the backbone to “just say no” in the first place to a system where a Schindler could become a hero simply by making things better for some while the vast majority were sent to their fate?
For the SYSTEM to change… the PARTS of the system have to ensure that change.
Oh… and btw… I know… I know… all of this “theory” is EASY for me to spout. Take my word though… I’ve walked the walk in my time; I don’t just talk the talk.
Yes… there is a place for pragmatism… for compromise… but beware the step by step path down the hallway toward a point where you’re no longer trying to work from within to enact positive change, but instead, you’ve reached the heights where YOU YOURSELF have become “part of the problem.”
(I’m speaking in broad terms, not you specifically, no particular profession; but think of the bright eyed idealist working as a page on Capital Hill and 40 years later he’s… Dan Rostenkowski or Duke Cunningham.”)
Or…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjMNNpIksaI
Beware the Dark Side, my young friend…
(*GRIN*)
BILL (The Misunderstood Idealist)