A Teachable Moment

A young female teacher is on administrative leave in Pennsylvania for blogging about education. She has not identified her school site nor specific students, but has captured the frustration of dealing with today’s teens in a frank manner often portrayed publicly on talk TV, radio programs, as well as in print media, and discussed daily in the staff lounge. I doubt that many adults disagree that today’s youth are out of control, arrogant, poorly motivated, mouthy, and disrespectful of adult direction, a frustration expressed centuries ago by Sophocles, whose ancient Greek students also ran amok. Hence, the plethora of talk shows, such as Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, The View, Regis and Kelly, as well as the comedians, including Conan, Letterman, Leno, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL, all finding adequate fodder for filling their airtime by discussing today's youth and challenging adults to find a way to turn the trend around before it's too late.

Consider an adult engaged in a career/activity that deals with young people, such as law enforcement, educators, psychologists, social workers, counselors, employers, parents, friends, coaches, neighbors, business owners -– and you will probably discover the list of adults who share this educator’s perspective is long. Will all who express a similar opinion about today’s youth also jeopardize their jobs? Who better than educators, whose sole profession is to be locked inside a room with a random assortment of various ages, nationalities, languages, faiths, political viewpoints, family values, educational backgrounds, and electronic devices, to sound the alarm about the failure of students to engage in the educational process? Teachers seldom have a classroom assistant, nor a security officer, but have to contain, and then attempt to teach, as many as 40+ bundles of raging teenage hormones with the constant threat of negative parental/public/political reaction to the performance of their professional duties.

Why is a teacher relieved of duty for simply confirming what is already not just well-known, but supported by professionals other than educators? Have we gone so far that no one can express either an opinion or a frustration without being taken to the woodshed? Perhaps that is what the children want: if I make enough noise, I take the onus off my bad behavior and put the teacher on the hot seat to explain him/herself. After all, if it works at home, it'll work in the classroom.

Why rail at children's behavior when parents are responsible for teaching their children not just how to act at home, but in public venues that include a classroom? Recently, Dr. Laura talked to a young mother (on SAT radio), a mother who bemoaned the fact that her 3-year-old daughter won't do anything she's told to do and throws a temper-tantrum if anyone tries to make her either do or not do something. The mother confessed that she has started bribing her 3-year-old to comply with reasonable requests, such as "put on your jammies and get ready for bedtime." Dr. Laura pointed out that the child has all the power in the family dynamic, and, if the parents don't regain control over the child, that child will continue to dictate to the parents what she will/will not do -- and find many other demands to make as she holds her parents hostage to her temper tantrums.

The difference between that 3-year-old tyrant and a high school student is about 12 years of honing the tyranny.

Unfortunately, students have become more empowered to be more disrespectful in today’s society because that is the role model provided for them not just in their own homes, but in the media, including the instant internet sensationalization of what used to be called one's private life in TV "reality" shows, such as The Kardashians, a family that has no boundary between appropriate and inappropriate private/public behavior. Watch some “teen TV,” or listen to the lyrics of "teen music" while watching a music video on MTV, or check out your child's Facebook/ MySpace page, and judge for yourself the role models available for today's young people. Teens hardly blink at the nudity, the profanity, or the sexual activity portrayed in the media because their demographic programming, such as The Kardashians, depends on drama, drugs/alcohol, and sex to stay on the air. After all, it’s what their parents are watching, too, only with a nicer program title: Two and a Half Men is not funny, it’s filth, and its star, Charlie Sheen, carries the role into his personal life, whoring, drinking, drugging, and disrespecting every family institution that used to be valued in this country--and the audience laughs hilariously at his "antics," while upping his salary to become the highest paid actor in a TV sitcom. Bachelors and Bachelorettes construct intimate relationships on public TV with what begins as a group of 2 dozen complete strangers, but is narrowed down to the "perfect" mate by booze, raunchy sex, manipulation, deceit, and really high TV ratings.

We live what we learn; what society teaches young people is that there are few boundaries because there are few consequences. If we want to hold children accountable for their behavior, we have to admit that the adults are accountable first for it. I know few parents who are willing to accept that their children live what they learn at home, and practice it both in public and in the public classroom.

I hope that the teacher union stands up for this blogger and supports her right to express herself freely, to ask difficult questions and to lament the challenging situations that are so much a part of today’s classroom. Students know what’s going on because they are the ones behaving badly; however, it’s a rare event for a student to return home at the end of the day and admit to a parent that s/he was badly behaved, cussed out a teacher, left campus, and spent the rest of the day hanging out with friends off-campus. Far too often, the student doesn’t see anything wrong with so doing because it was "all the teacher's fault," and, regretably, the parent falls into the same faulty reasoning. However, when the parent supports the child by blaming the school and/or attacking the teacher, the student adds yet another skill set to their toolbox for avoiding responsibility for their actions.

And, if the student is really on his/her game, someone in the classroom caught the bad behavior on a cellphone and posted it to You Tube, adding to the "you are there" viral video power base of children behaving badly -- and the instant world-wide fame -- to prove it.