Change Won't Happen Unless We Make it Happen

I?ve spent a lot of time talking about what doesn?t work in our public schools. I?ve also talked about what we can do to fix the problems. There are so many circumstances responsible for the failures of our public schools, but there have been some things I just couldn?t figure out. One day when I was substituting, a young man came up to me and told me he wanted to die. He just wanted to be dead. My legal responsibility says that I must report a suicide threat to the proper authorities. I notified the on-campus police officer and the counselor. They did nothing. They were aware of the problems. They knew the child was suffering, and they did nothing. I called the school board. I was told they had once had a mentoring program, but it no longer existed. I called and called and called all sorts of places following the slimmest of leads. I found no help. No one seemed to care. I cared, but what could I do? My hands were tied legally. The school has to call an outside resource. The outside resources aren?t really designed to work with the schools. The result is that children are lost and become future inmates in prisons and other institutions. I am a very good teacher. I care so much about my students. I want to be a positive force in their lives in whatever way they need. I know I?m not alone. There are a lot of good teachers. So what does that mean to the schools? What is not happening that needs to happen? I think I have a piece of the solution puzzle. There isn?t a lot you can do about bad teachers. You can get rid of them. You might try retraining them and helping them become good teachers. But what about the good teachers? It comes down to this. Is being a good teacher enough? I don?t believe it is. So what are the good teachers to do? What?s happening in schools is just a small part of what is happening in the world. Few people take the time to care about people. It?s a vicious circle. In school, you have a smart-mouthed brat for a student. The teacher can?t control a class of 25 with even one of those in the class. So the teacher gets frustrated and frightened because s/he knows that the subject information has to be passed on the to the students in the class time. But this is impossible with the brat. So the teacher sends the student to the office where punishment is administered. Now, whatever made the student angry in the first place still exists, but now there is more frustration in the student?s life. The student is now a ?bad? student and expected to behave badly in the future. The student usually ends up back in the classroom eventually. The student now hates the teacher. The student behaves badly. The teacher is grumpy because of having to deal with the student. The student misbehaves. The teacher sends the student to the office. The student gets punished. Whatever made the student angry in the first place is still there..... It?s a long paragraph. It?s a longer process. Nothing is solved. Nothing changes. Nothing gets better. It?s even longer to watch the process in person. So what is to be done?

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