Risk and Reward

One day you're in; the next you're out. That's the way Project Runway scores the contestants. Doesn't matter what you did last because what's in front of us is what we're judging, and if it doesn't make it, the contest is over for you.  As a classroom teacher for 30 years, this was the hardest part of teaching, having to tell a student that work handed in for grading didn't cut it--or work over the course of a semester just wasn't up to the standard for passing the course. 

Teachers have feelings, and they usually try very hard to look for the best in each individual student's work, but sometimes, no matter how hard a person works or how much they want to earn an A it isn't going to happen this time.  Earning a grade of C means that a student has met the standard for passing a class, but far too often both the student and the parent thinks that working really hard and trying to be the best is good enough to earn an A, and that's not true. There is no way to sugar-coat a less than stellar grade, and we try with positive affirmations about next time, but some students simply will have to accept that their work is not stellar, it's average, and that's what a grade of C indicates.

I am suspicious of the news articles about a dozen students sharing valedictorian honors at graduation because that means that those students were rocketmen/women who blasted into outer space for 4 years and landed safely every time. Earning a 4.0 used to be a rare occurrence, but in today's inflated grade environment, it's much more common to have a group earn highest honors, even at the college level.  If everyone, however, is outstanding, then no one really is: they become average in a group of high achievers.

I learned as an adjunct college professor that students cheat. I knew that before, but especially became aware of it as electronics entered the educational environment. Before teachers were given permission to confiscate phones, students would send messages to other students both inside the same classsroom and to students sitting outside with the textbook (often a teacher's edition) so they can look up the correct response for a test or essay. Cheating used to be a risk; in today's classroom, it's a ritual. For every countermeasure the faculty employs, the students have a newer, better counter-measure to make sure that they can cheat with impugnity. The risk is not high as it's incredibly challenging to catch cheating, stop cheating, and deal with indignant parents whose child simply would never cheat regardless of the evidence to the contrary. My career in education formally ended a decade ago, when the electronics were first making their appearance in the classroom. I had issues at almost every class with students who were trying to succeed dishonestly because ... the excuses/reasons were endless. When the cheating was stopped in progress, the tears began to flow. What was expecially challenging at the college level was the stop at a counselor's office for a tear-filled counseling session that often ended with a heart-to-heart with the instruction that included an explanation of why it happened "this once," and why it would never happen again, and what kind of documentation is going to be needed to strengthen the accusations about the student's conduct if the instructor thinks the student should be suspended from college. One key piece to this problem in the general education environment is the backing from the parents. Believe me, if a teacher catches a student cheating and goes far enough to involve a counselor and the parents, the student was cheating--and it probably wasn't the first time. At the college level, a student who is caught cheating either has never been caught before or realized at an early age that the student has the upper hand when it comes to dealing with the teacher, then the counselor, and finally the administration. Yes, as you can probably realize, one of the reasons I retired before I had finished my teaching career is that I was burned out by issues such as students' cheating. As an adjunct professor teaching aboard a military base, one adult student actually called the MPs on me for "stealing" from her when I confiscated her cheat notes during a testing environment. That pretty much showed me that I was a dinosaur and it was time to move on. As they say, "One day you're in and the next you're out."

Reciprocal Information System

When I was much younger, I was told (and believed) that cheaters never prosper, that cheaters are always caught in the act, and that the disgrace is life-changing. That was then; this is now. Cheating is rampant, its own reciprocal information system, especially with the inclusion of electronic devices in the classroom. The only person who is hurt by cheating these days is the ethical student who refuses to cheat.

It’s quite easy to cheat because the schools have made it easy to cheat:

• At the university level, there are “clickers” for students to check-in for attendance purposes. One person can activate several clickers and no one is the wiser; thus, even students who are not in attendance are in the official records as present. This practice only stops by having specific in-class assignments that are based on attendance and not available as make-up work with just enough points to affect an end-grade. Those who are signed in but don’t take the quiz and/or participate in the activity can be assumed to be not present and dealt with during office hours.

• Students are encouraged to have tablets and/or cell phone access to websites that the instructor uses so the student can be in the moment with the classroom instruction. That same access, however, is also available during exams, which makes it much easier to score higher grades without studying. Thus, the students who are taking the quizzes photograph them with their cell phones and send the quizzes out to all their friends who have a later section—either that same day or a semester later—of the same class. A professor should be smart enough to see both attendance and points trending higher toward the end of the day – but few of them care enough to make it more difficult for students to endgame the system by having multiple versions of the quiz or activity.

• Textbooks are readily available on line, which is a cost-saving advantage for today’s students; however, the textbooks come with the test bank, so students can pass any class simply by using the test bank to take tests. Far too many professors rely on the same materials class after class/semester after semester. Thus, students with limited English skills, students who regularly don’t attend class, and students who are woefully unprepared for college-level assignments pass college-level tests with college-level vocabulary and syntax that they probably cannot read and comprehend.

• Papers and projects from last semester’s class are reworked for this semester’s class when it’s taught by the same professor who gives the same assignment. It’s much easier to earn an A by rewriting someone else’s A paper than it is to start from scratch, especially if your English language skills are barely into the “low literate” level. Amazingly enough, this tact is free if you share the same background; i.e., Chinese students give other Chinese students whatever it takes to pass a class with an A grade.

Professors are proud of the achievements of the students – based on grades on the tests and papers – and seemingly don’t understand that a student may be cheating to earn the grade because it has become so easy to cheat. It’s much easier to justify cheating to earn high grades than it is to risk failing by not cheating, especially for international students with limited English language skills. The pressure to earn high grades is never-ending for international students whose culture values high achievement.

We assume that students will not cheat because they may be caught and punished, but that is simply naive. Not cheating when everyone else is cheating is simply a poor business decision.

Big Block Battle

I hate computer games, but found myself engaging in one at Yahoo's games: Big Block's Battle. The reason I hate computer games is that the gamer has to figure out what to do and then how to do it, which teaches determination based on the old try, try, then try again strategy because there is no way to go to the next stage until the current stage is complete. I like knowing the objective, the "what to do," but often computer games let the gamer figure that out as they participate in the game.

I figured out that the blue guys are the bad guys, the green guys are the good guys, and my job was to knock off the blue guys, and keep the green guys. Once I figured out how to do that, I could complete the task and move onto the next stage. Sometimes, it was easier to figure out than others, but I made it all the way to level 30 of the 35 currently in the game using the trial and error gaming style that I seem able to perform. At level 30, I was stuck for well over a week and needed someone to help me past this blockage.

When all else fails, call in the troops, family members who don't waste time playing these piddly games, but are serious gamers. My S-I-L told me his "go to" is Youtube, and he graciously sent me the link to level 30 of Big Block's Battle, which showed me how to play battle 30. Once I saw it, it not only made sense, but was easy-peasy; however, without that solution, I could die a very old lady without ever finishing stage 30 as the key to winning was the pendulum, which I made rock back and forth in my many attempts to find a solution, but never would have realized that it could rebound up and take out the blue guys!!

I am happy to say that I have finished Big Block's Battle, but the game-makers provide an additional challenge: I can go back to the stages that took me longer to complete and replay them to earn a medal!! They don't realize what it took for me to complete some of these tasks, which is, in itself, worthy of a medal. There is no going back and trying to recreate my fumbling through the stages to completion. I earned medals on 18/35 battles, adequate for my skill level, but not enough to be even a marginally good gamer. However, for the gamer who wants to improve his/her problem-solving ability, redoing the tasks better the second time around is good motivation to improve this skill.

As both a teacher and a life-long learner, I look for the lesson; in this case, it's persistence in problem-solving. If children will spend literally hours solving the challenge of computer games, why won't they spend a fraction of that time learning the educational basics? Spelling is often just patterning, matching the sounds of the letters to the sounds of the words in order: game-playing 101. Math is easy once a child learns the basic concepts, which is also basic gaming: figure out the system, then repeat it to solve new problems. The multiplication tables are simple memorization, which is also one of the foundations of game-playing: memorize the players, the equipment, the route, the challenges, and the game is easy to complete.

There are lessons to be learned from game playing, but putting the knowledge on-line does not fulfill the obligation to educate. When the student completes the 35 stages of Big Block's Battle, a conversation can help him/her clarify the learning that accompanied the activity: the persistence in problem-solving. How can that learning be applied to the next educational task, to problems encountered outside the classroom, on the job, or in a family?

It's not about playing the game, but it's about learning from playing the game. Without the learning, computer games are just another way for kids to waste time.

So, Sue Me

For the first time in a long time, I somewhat enjoyed watching Glee last night because Sue Sylvester was not featured in the episode: it was about high school glee club singers and a singing competition. Oh, sure, there were still the side issues, including a recently-aged 18-year-old male student banging a single female teacher, and a third party trying to disrupt a gay couple’s relationship, and a teen mother willing to do anything to hold her child’s adoptive mother hostage to get her child back, but that’s almost mild compared to all the other manufactured issues that are presented as the typical high school experience on this … singing show!

If we are to believe the “issues taken from the headlines,” teachers and students are so busy with intra- and extra-curricular activities that it’s a wonder anyone has time to teach or an opportunity to learn. Teachers and students are single-mindedly focused on sex, both heterosexual and homosexual, to the exclusion of all other foci that life has to offer. What’s most important in the curriculum, according to Glee, is that everyone with sexual intimacy and/or gender identity issues must confront them here and now in the most public venue possible so there is never doubt in anyone’s mind what goes on behind closed doors.

Sue Sylvester’s character fuels the chaos, confuses the educational environment with political issues and actions that would result in immediate dismissal in the “real” world, and manipulates students to turn on one another so she can sit back and enjoy the fall-out. Parents are screaming in the media that their children are being bullied: tune into Glee and see an adult pro teach by example. Parents are screaming in the media that their children are being persecuted for their sexual preferences: tune into Glee and see an adult pro teach by example. Parents are screaming in the media that their children are not being presented with an adequate educational opportunity: tune into Glee and it’s easy to see that there is no time in anyone’s day to cope with all the dysfunction and also have time to teach, to learn, to experience something beyond the “desperate housewives” mentality that is alive and thriving in the media.

And, if you believe the writers of Glee, alive and thriving in the high schools of America.

Teaching is a tough gig: today’s academic core teacher no longer has the luxury of class size under 30, the top of the do-able scale based on my 35 years of standing at the podium. Today’s classroom equips every student who walks through the door, oftentimes in excess of 40 per class period, with a desk and not much else; the student provides the electronic device to fill the void where a textbook should be, as well as the seat time served listening to a well-meaning, well-educated professional try desperately to be more engaging, entertaining, and relevant than the Kardashians. For far too many students, class time is more time to text, to twitter, to take and post pictures, to visit one’s wall, to update one’s status, and to pass on any given individual’s take on what is happening at the most boring place on Earth: the totally out of control, dysfunctional American high school run by an out-of-touch administration and staffed by a faculty of buffoons that rivals the Barnum and Bailey Circus!

Add Sue Sylvester to the mix and the scenario goes too far beyond unreal to believe, but many parents believe that Sue’s the way it really is because that’s what their children tell them. Parents believe their children when they are told that “my teacher” did this or that, said this or that – and the parents go in for the kill. It’s hard to convince a parent that a child is making it up as s/he goes along to avoid consequences for their own actions when a very popular TV show seems to affirm that no matter how outrageous a student’s complaint, Sue Sylvester is much worse, with the rest of the fantasy high school staff not far behind! Rather than a microcosm of a typical high school, Glee has become the petri dish of dysfunction that parents would rather believe than the truth.

Glee was good when it was about an a capella choir learning how to function as a unit and then competing to challenge the choir to excel: great message for kids. The last 2 seasons, however, it has gone off-message regarding education and become something with absolutely no value-added, no matter how hard it tries, no matter how hard it pushes, no matter how outrageous the writers take the plot lines. In TV-land, it’s all about the ratings, about being renewed for another season, about making it big on the flat screen; for the educational community, for the first responders, for the hard-working middle class, it’s all about our jobs, our work ethic, our professional lives. Glee is just one more TV show to pit everything I believe and have worked my lifetime to achieve against a Nielson poll and win.

Not That Anyone Asked

This past week, a radio session with Dr. Laura, the proponent of “any idiot” can do a better job by home schooling children than useless, incompetent public education teachers, set my teeth on edge. Really? That’s the message you want to send to both parents and students? You really want young people to walk through the public education classroom door convinced that “any idiot” can do a better job of teaching them than the well-educated, trained professional educator? That mindset is so helpful, and instilling that kind of disrespect from an early age certainly facilitates the teacher’s job performance.

Imagine that parent bringing that child into the public classroom: nothing the public education teacher says or does will matter because … s/he’s a useless, incompetent public education teacher who cannot perform the job for which s/he is well-trained, hired, and paid. The parent/teacher conference is a waste of time because, using the Dr. Laura educational philosophy, rather than discussing the child’s failure to perform to standardized educational expectations, the conversation needs to be about how incompetent and useless I am. It’s obvious to “any idiot” that, if s/he can do my job better than I do it, s/he needs to run the meeting and school me in how to handle the child’s unique educational needs, including a wide array of alternative learning activities that more appropriately support their child’s personal relationship with learning.

I see the flip side of those parental “idiots” who do feel that they can do my job better than I can do it. Unfortunately, it often results in a student who earns straight A’s on official transcripts, but who has never read a novel, never written a formal essay, never had an intelligent, self-generated conversation because the home-schooling parent believes that alternative kinds of “educational activities” are more valuable than teaching solid basic knowledge. For the student who has no specific foundational skills, the challenge to go beyond basics is overwhelming.

There are also many parents who do not home-school their children, but who send them to public school grounded in the belief that Dr. Laura posits: all teachers are useless and incompetent, and public education is a waste of time, money, and effort. If I were a doctor or a dentist, I could strap the patient down, anaesthetize him/her, and get the job done without interference, while a well-trained aide stands next to me to do the grunt work – but I’m a teacher. My client is most often a younger person, currently primarily 18-30 years of age, perhaps minimally successful in public education not because the teaching wasn’t provided, but because that demographic prefers to be anywhere/do anything other than attend school, complete homework assignments, and pass competency tests. And, stating the obvious, I don’t have the luxury of dealing with one patient at a time: in public schools, even academic core classes have 40-45 students every teaching period. Makes the job much more challenging when the single teacher in the room has to reach and teach 40-45 totally unmotivated students who have been taught by both their parents and society that the professional educator standing in the room is incompetent and useless, according to Dr. Laura!

Students spend far more time planning how to avoid being at home and not completing school assignments than they spend actually completing homework. Students spend far more time using electronics to manipulate their public media social status than they do using the same tools to ensure a good education. And while all of this avoidance of educational responsibility is occurring, where are the “idiot” parents, the ones who can educate their children better than the best professional public educator? They are often downstairs, believing that their child is upstairs in their well-appointed, closed door bedroom, doing homework. No fact-checking is done because … my child would not lie to me: if s/he says s/he did the homework and turned it in, that’s what happened. Often boldly stated, as often strongly implied, is the corollary: YOU must have lost his/her work because YOU are a useless, incompetent public school teacher!

My concern is not that I am not well-qualified to do my job, but that far too many parents and their off-spring share Dr. Laura’s perception that I make no difference in the big educational picture because the student’s parent, the “any idiot” Dr. Laura supports, could do a better job than I.
If a parent looks back on his/her own educational experiences, s/he will realize how hard teachers work to perform their jobs. Teachers aren’t just communicators of factual material, but attendance clerks, disciplinarians, emotional support systems, educational counselors, in-class room decorators and motivational speakers, as well as custodians and extra-duty supervisors.

If Dr. Laura will think about the tremendously negative message she sends daily to parents, as well as to immature, impressionable young people, perhaps she could alter her scathing condemnation of public education and start pointing other fingers in different directions, rather than always falling back on the “bad teacher” excuse that has become the mantra for today’s society.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

AP published a story (found on yahoo.com) on the uproar over CA lifeguard salaries, hoping to clarify the public perception that lifeguards make a boatload of money for not doing too much. The head of the lifeguard union, however, made if perfectly clear that ...

"Unfortunately, there's a lot of disinformation out there. People get this idea that we're talking about 17-year-old kids in lifeguard towers making $200,000 and that's not correct," he said. "We're professional level. Lifeguarding here is different than any other place in the entire world."

Base salaries for Newport Beach lifeguards range from $58,000 for the lowest-paid officer to $108,492 for the top-paid battalion chief, according to a 2010 city report on lifeguard pay. Adding in overtime, special compensation, pension, medical benefits, life insurance and other pay, two battalion chiefs cleared more than $200,000 in 2010, while the lowest-paid officer made more than $98,000.

All lifeguards received $400 in sunscreen allowance and two cleared $28,000 apiece in overtime and night duty pay."

Wow, the lifeguards are totally correct: they are so not over-paid for the professional job they do. Why, I've worked as a classroom teacher for 35 years, earning a BA, an MS, and accruing 78 post-graduate credits by taking courses required to keep current. I've worked extra-curricular assignments that often kept me on-site until from 7 am until 10 pm, and, sometimes, much, much later for duties such as prom. However, the highest salary I earned was $75,000, with no over-time pay, no stipend for classroom supplies or sunscreen, and I, too, am on a professional level.

I also well know that teaching here is very different from teaching anywhere else in the world because, unlike the lifeguards, who do not need to teach every individual beach attendee how to swim before allowing them to go into the water, a CA teacher has to assure that every single student graduates from high school, one way or another -- or lose their job.

If I am the well-educated, well-trained professional in the classroom, my "overtime, special compensation, pension, medical benefits, life insurance and other pay" should at least be commensurate with the professional ranks of a lifeguard: Base salaries for Newport Beach lifeguards range from $58,000 for the lowest-paid officer to $108,492.

Add to that all the extra-duty pay and sunscreen allowance and even I'd stay on the job for a few more years.

THE GAP

College is an educational experience on a higher level, and, contrary to popular opinion, college is NOT "for everyone." Because the public school systems believe that every child will learn the same academic content to the same degree of proficiency, regardless of the myriad variables that both affect and determine educational success, generations of younger people believe that they deserve a college education so they can be given a better job at higher pay. It's an exercise in futility to explain that's not how the system works: you EARN a college degree based on the successful completion of increasingly demanding academic coursework, and not everyone is capable of doing so.

The first two years of a college education require the determined and correct usage of all those pesky basic skills that one should master during the middle school/high school curriculum. However, mastery of basic skills is not accomplished when the task of teaching test-taking overwhelms other skills, such as written expression, scientific experimentation, and advanced mathematical calculations. The four-year high school curriculum has become a repetitious cycle of reteaching the same basic skills, without upping the ante to higher levels of application of the skills. Thus, a student may recognize vocabulary words and application definitions, but have no idea whatsoever how to use those words to write a coherent, meaningful sentence, much less string an endless parade of well-written sentences together to compose either a paragraph or an essay.

The students who are "getting it" are those whose parents push, push, push their students to earn good grades and, therefore, qualify for the advanced classes. High schools used to delienate appropriate educational placement based on academic performance, but that criteria no longer applies: everyone takes the same courses in an effort to leave no child behind. In the process, the curriculum is so diluted that the majority of students who should be doing more/doing it better are left behind, waiting for the under-performing students to squeak through another semester with a barely passing grade based on simple skill 'n drill educational activities. Application of the basic skills in a meaningful setting is limited to the select group of students who can already do that prior to arriving on the high school doorstep.

If there is an adequate number of advanced classes to handle the students who no longer need the basic skills classes, there will continue to be a graduating class that prepares at least some of its educational product to succeed beyond the high school diploma. Unfortunately, however, due to skill-based testing requirements and/or budget allocations, the great masses of students are endlessly repeating what should have been mastered no later than 8th grade.

Eventually, even the most marginally prepared student will enroll in college, based on the widening gap between the educated work force that gets it and has it, and the poorly-prepared day laborer who is stuck in a job that mirrors the high school experience: endlessly repeating the same basic action while expecting to be promoted to a position of more responsibility that is rewarded with a higher salary. Not going to happen, and the jobs that used to be termed menial are going to continue to dwindle as automation of the assembly line becomes the standard for the physical labor. A professional job earns a professional salary, as well as professional responsibilities, while a menial job remains menial both in task and paycheck.

The gap widens: well-prepared college students succeed, while unprepared college students drop-out and/or fail classes. The classrooms are packed with students who want more, but don't have the educational skills to achieve more, sometimes to the point of excluding the well-prepared student -- who works during the day and cannot show up between 8 and 5 for priority registration. The lie is that everyone deserves the right to attend college because not everyone is "college material." A person who spends at least two years retaking high school curriculum before mastering enough competency to squeak by the required college-level coursework takes up space that could be filled by another student who already mastered the high school curriculum and can actually complete a college degree within the expected four-six years. Professional careers require the first degree to be completed before the advanced degrees; some students can accomplish that task, while others will endlessly sign up for, drop, fail, retake the same courses ... and finally give up, while blaming the schools for their failure.

All men are not created equal, and neither are all students equal in aptitude, ability to learn and retain knowledge, and application of skills to actual tasks. Some people take longer to learn, but retain the knowledge for a lifetime; others take a lifetime to learn, but fail to retain what they have been taught. There are going to be professional careers that pay high salaries and menial jobs that pay minimum wage. The individual determines who makes it and who doesn't, not the educational institution. Some students endlessly complain, "I don't understand this," while others vow to keep redoing until they do get it. At the end of the semester, the student who gets it moves on, while the student who does not understand stays in place. Sooner or later, both the educational institution and the floundering student run out of time, energy, and resources, leaving the student with unpaid student loans for a failed run at an inappropriate educational choice.

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.

In the REAL World ...

This last weekend, I enjoyed a concrete example of the real world when the 5 finalists for Next Great Baker were told by Buddy that he's ashamed of the lack of quality in their work. The premise of the show is that a dozen bakers began the competition for a full-time spot in the bakery, as well as other prizes. The problems began with the first episode, when it became obvious that if this is the best the country has to offer, we're in sad shape in the bakery business! The finished products were (being kind) amateurish, unpolished, and unprofessional. If I had ordered any of the products during the many weeks of the show presented by some of the winners of the on-going competition, I would have asked for a full refund.

Really: that bad.

Buddy laid it on the line for the 5 finalists: their best work was an embarrassment to Buddy and the reputation of his business. I agree. None of the cars resembled the Chevrolet Cruze, and one of the finished cars looked like a lump of cake air-brushed silver, with wheels that literally fell off, plopped on top of a much-too-small, butt-ugly layer cake that had red/blue fondant streamers falling off the sides. One of the bakers, directed to make a cake for the client, used rice cereal treats for the car and styrofoam for his "cake." Another one of the contestants, one who made it to the finals, only made the rear end of the car!! In her presentation, it appeared that the vehicle was at the point of impact in a head-on collision, and I'm doubtful that is the image Chevy wants the consumer to have of its product line.

When Buddy offered the bakers the chance to redeem themselves with their "best" bakery product to off-set their awful cakes, believe it or not, he was handed burned Snickerdoodle cookies and everyday chocolate chip cookies! When I go to a bakery and ask for the best the pastry chef can do, I don't want either Snickerdoodle or chocolate chip cookies: I can bake those in my own kitchen. I want something over the top, incredible both in appearance and taste, something that I could never make for myself. If I screw up Snickerdoodles or bake everyday chocolate chip cookies, what am I doing in the Next Great Baker competition???

We want the best the pastry chef has to offer, not burned basic cookies!

Buddy wants the Next Great Baker, not a counter-worker in a hardware store who wants to learn how to become a baker because it looks like so much fun! Buddy needs someone who can become an integral part of an existing business, not a person who has limited skills and/or experience, but tries really hard. Believe me, if you could have seen those final presentations to the client, you would NEVER hire any of the final five bakers to make even a child's birthday cake! Buddy put his reputation on the line with a client, and a really poorly baked and decorated cake cannot be passed off to anyone as anything other than failure.

In the real world, no one cares how hard a worker tries if s/he fails to complete the task in an acceptable manner. Donald says, "you're fired"; Buddy puts it, "get in the box truck." No excuses; no explanations; no apologies: either do the job or don't do it, but if you fail to perform -- you've failed. It's time to move on.

Your assignment: make the connection to my world: the classroom.

Writing as Revision

A student said to me in passing that he had rated me on one of the websites that allow students to do so. I smiled and asked him if I should thank him or cringe. He responded that he believes I'm the best teacher he's had during his college career, but he also acknowledged that students either rate me highly or ... hate me, most often because they feel that I am too hard on them and expect too much. If I believe the good, I also have to believe the bad, and if the bad is out there, it behooves me to know what it is. With the upcoming semester beginning in another week, I decided to read the comments and see how I can refocus my instruction toward the goal of being a better teacher for all the students in the classroom, including those who ... hate me.

The comments are benign, with the exception of one note by a student about how rude I am. The example of my rudeness is tearing up student essays, which I did, indeed, do -- as part of a lesson on revision, the skill I believe is most important in the writing process. Students own their writing regardless of their proficiency, so their perception of revision is to run spell checker and grammar checker; whether any changes are made as a result of those two computer clicks, the final papers are rife with grammar, mechanics, and spelling errors. After I respond in red ink to the many obvious technical errors still present in a final, polished essay, as well as the actual content of the paper, the students are stunned not to see that bright, shiny A+ at the top of the paper.

My focus is on the key idea of the paper, the organization of the presentation of information, then the development of the idea, and, finally, the conclusion. The paper has to say something worthwhile, say it well, and make sense from beginning to end; if it does not accomplish those goals, then rewrite it until it does. When I work with students to revise, which means to change the actual content of the paper, their eyes glaze and they go into a hypnotic state of disbelief. The idea of literally tearing apart a paper and rewriting it to improve the idea, or to reorganize the presentation of the idea, and/or refine the conclusion based on the presentation, is anathema to their belief system.

To make my point, after first offering students the opportunity to make their own changes while working in writer's groups in a workshop format, I tear the paper into the separate paragraphs, spread them on the table separately, and then reorganize them and tape the paper together in the new configuration. I point out to the student writers that ideas often clarify as we write, so where we begin is often not the best part of the essay, but the conclusion often makes an excellent opening paragraph. That one simple organizational change can often refocus the essay so the student then knows how to reorganize and redevelop the rest of the original paragraphs. Sometimes, I can even convince a student to toss out a paragraph or two and replace that content with new content based on the new perspective on their main idea.

However, more often than not, the student assures me that is NOT the way s/he writes an essay, to which I just as often reply, "I know. That's why I'm taking the time to work with you: to improve your ability to write a college-level essay so you can pass this class, as well as all the other college classes that require you to write an essay."

Thus, technically, the student is right: I do tear up student essays and that may seem, to some people, rude. However, it's part of the formal learning process conducted by a college instructor, not the actions of a rude madwoman whose goal is to harass and intimidate hapless victims. Some students get it, while others never will, but my job is to instruct, not to enable, and I'm going to do my job.

What I think is rude is the student whose response to my instruction is to inform me that I have "no right" to change their papers, that I "have to accept" their writing the way it is and not make any changes that violate their freedom of expression. If I point out my professional responsibility is not just to respond to their writing, but to evaluate it and assign it a grade based on the quality indicators published in the course rubric, they head for the main office to protest -- probably using the word rude in their presentation of my many failings, shortcomings, and unreasonable demands for excellence.

This is a syndrome symptomatic of today's young people, who enjoy a sense of personal empowerment with limited basis in fact. There are few young people who have the knowledge, the education, and/or the experience I have, but far too many who feel it is their duty to educate me on what I can and cannot do in the process of formal classroom instruction. Students think it is hilarious when they have to take a class from a dinosaur, but cringe in horror when they realize how well-prepared the dinosaur is to teach the class and how high the expectations are for student performance! Enrollment drops by half within the first couple of weeks as students actively pursue the path of least resistance. Why stay enrolled in a class where the teacher expects your best performance when you can get the same credit and a higher grade from another teacher?

I get it, but I cannot change my belief system to accommodate an educational philosophy I do not believe or support. School has to be challenging, not simply a holding tank for students who need a Pell Grant to pay living expenses while they wait for a high-paying job to drop into their laps. Teachers have to be empowered to draw a strong line between acceptable and unacceptable, and know that line will be enforced by the system. Parents must assume that their young children are going to earn a living at some point in their lives and support the laws that not just require their children to attend school, but to master basic core requirements so if/when the child wants to attend college, s/he has the basic skills to succeed. If all the grown-ups stand together when the children are young, the college student will understand that there are no excused absences in life, no late work accepted, no make-up or extra-credit assignment available, and no good job for a person with bad performance.

We all have to be willing to tear apart the previous draft and reassemble it into another presentation that has a stronger core idea, better organization from beginning to middle to end, and a much stronger presentation based in fact. If a student is not willing to learn how to not just do it, but do it better, perhaps college is not an appropriate placement at this stage of that student's life. Perhaps life still has lessons to teach before that student is ready not just to enroll in a college course, but to ... learn ... regardless of how rude the teacher is perceived to be.

Whitewashing History

Samuel Clemons, known by his pseudonym Mark Twain, captured not just the diction of his time with uncanny accuracy, but also the social climate. His masterpieces tell the backstory of a time in this country that included use of the terms nigger and slave to describe what were also referred to as colored people. The terms may be perjorative in light of today's society, but during Twain's time (1885), he was writing history, not politically correct rhetoric.

An article in the local newspaper describes one Twain scholar's attempts to make Twain's work less offensive to today's students by removing what is referred to as "the n word" in Twain's work. I disagree with that decision. Changing the way history is portrayed does not change history, but it does raise questions about why anyone fears the truth in writing and challenges today's youth to answer tough questions. Twain scholar Alan Gribben says that his experience with changing the terminology during public readings convinces him that the changes make Twain more accessible to today's readers, avoiding, as he puts it, putting "the books [Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn] in danger of joining the list of literary classics that Twain once humorously defined as those 'which people praise and don’t read'" (PHILLIP RAWLS • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • JANUARY 5, 2011, http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110105/ LIFESTYLES0105/110105009/New+edition+removes+Mark+Twain+s ++offensive++ words).

The true offense is changing a classic work of literature to appease those who are unable to stand up to the truth and deal with it in open dialog. I feel equally as strong about Harper Lee's classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel that portrays the reality of the deep South and the classic conflict between black and white. Lee allows the reader to decide not just the core issues, but the many options for using the past as a textbook for both the present and the future. We do not change people by changing language, but we do change how people respond to issues and the language used to express them when we presume to rewrite the way the world was to conform with anyone's idea of how it should be.

Mark Twain wrote that “... the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.” Gribben points out these words of Twain's as his defense for changing the classics because "the N-word appears 219 times in Huck Finn and four times in Tom Sawyer." For me, that means that I am afforded a total of 223 opportunities to allow my students to become engrossed in how the commonplace usage of labels for people can create a divisive environment between races, religions, political preferences, ethnic origins, and/or sexual orientation. The "n" word becomes a modern metaphor for all forms of discrimination and a dynamic teaching tool.

Avoiding truth creates falsehood, and falsehood is far too often used to obfuscate reality. Twain said that words are "... really a large matter," and to me, because the words do matter, they should never be changed.

To Err is Yet Another Sign of a Poor Education

I often lament the loss of language skills from one generation to the next, but seldom as often as I do while reading published words in either pulp fiction or the newspaper. Yesterday, however, I had a great belly laugh at the expense of an on-camera news reporter who is often sent to report from the scene of both the ridiculous and the sublime in the desert valley. If it's raining and the water sheens the surface of a side street, poor Phillipe is on the scene building face time while trying to hyperbole his way through a non-event.

The recent report involved a burglary suspect, always correctly referred to a robbery suspect by Phillipe, who ran from the officers on scene. As Phillipe, the on-camera reporter, described the event, "the officer gave chase after the robbery suspect while brandishing a knife."

Props for the use of "brandishing," perhaps one of those pesky weekly vocabulary words we still give to the AP students and which Phillipe brings to his news reporting with alacrity and constancy. However, Phillipe may have been absent during the lesson on misplaced modifiers; hence, his commentary has the officer brandishing a knife while chasing the suspect, rather than the suspect brandishing the knife while trying to evade the officer. Note that Phillipe always uses the word "suspect," never the word "criminal," as others are wont to do.

We can probably make yet another bashing argument for the failure of the educational system to teach misplaced modifiers based on this one example of a TV news reporters' gaffe, but it's just one of those things that happen when we speak the way we should never write.

Making it Black and White

Bad news: according to this morning's media report, the educational system continues not to serve racial minorities, who are disenfranchised (don't you just love a big word?), their lives ruined by the failure of the educational system to meet their unique, special, individualized perceived needs.

This morning, bemoaning again the failure of the educational system to serve minorities, a teen-aged minority student was interviewed on a high school campus. When asked what he sees as the biggest problem with education, he eloquently responded that "... they like don't give you nuddin' to do, like games and other stuff that ain't borin'. Alls they wanna do is teach! Man, I'm not down with all that stuff. School's too hard and it just ain't worth it."

Yeah, tell it like it is, kid. All wees wanna do is teach, teach, teach; alls you wanna do is ... anything but learn, learn, learn. Paraphrasing an old saw that still makes the rounds: those who will, do; those who will not do, drop out.

Boo-hoo. That pesky, antiquated educational system is stuck on stupid skills, such as reading (say what?), writing (i txt 40 wpm), speaking (I'm like totally down wid all dat!), and math (like, duh: the cash register makes the change for you!!). R U feelin' me? Get real: today's educational goals are to meet student needs, not to train students to meet society's needs!! Employers will just have to adjust their expectations if they want to hire the employees of the future.

The schools, simply stated, are not meeting the needs of today's diverse student population, so WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT??

You disappointed educational disenfranchees can stay home, watch videos, play video games, text until your thumbs drop off, hang out with your boyz, and really live your lives the way you want to live them. Forget what all those old fogies at the school say about needing to know the basics! You're 16 and you know wazzup!

Please: you're clogging the drain. Move out and make room for the students of all shapes, sizes, colors, economic standing, family background, difficult circumstances, and/or any other alleged failure to perform cop-out who value education and participate in the process. Let me spend me time, my talent, and my financial resources on the students who suit up, show up, and work for an education and a future.

Do Cheaters Ever Prosper?

It’s crunch time at the college. After a semester of instruction, it’s time to see if the students not only can get the homework completed correctly and participate in class discussions, but also to determine whether the student can apply the education in a practical application. In math, calculate correct responses to complex computations; in science, develop the hypothesis, then design, conduct, and evaluate the experiment; in composition, write an analytical essay with a clearly defined thesis that is supported by credible evidence from legitimate sources. Do it and move on; don’t do it and repeat the course; but copy an essay from an on-line source and be held accountable for cheating.

Google the word “plagiarism” and the list of well-known public figures attached to that key word confirms that far too many individuals take the written words of other authors and make them their own. Many people think that making a few changes here and there avoids the issue of plagiarism, but that’s not true. Citing the original sources of information “covers” the use of another author’s content at the college level, using in-text cites at the site of the source material. Back in the day, however, it was easy to plagiarize because the odds of anyone recognizing the stolen words were slight; however, today’s internet can find the phraseology in mere seconds.

There are world-class plagiarists, those writers who find obscure sources of information and rewrite the original text in their own style to fool readers into thinking the ideas are original. According to writer Jonathan Bailey, searching for well-known plagiarists reveals that “… five men on the list, Stephen Ambrose, T.S. Eliot, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Richard Owen and H.G. Wells are all well-known cases in plagiarism circles” (www.plagiarismtoday.com). Alex Haley, in the seminal TV series Roots, was caught by the still-living author of the 17 pages he stole word-for-word from her published book. The case went to court, Haley’s reputation was tarnished, and the original author accepted a financial settlement. Perhaps if Haley had contacted the author, conducted an interview, and invited her to participate in the process of his own writing, he would still be basking in the glory of his authorship, but that is not the choice he made.

It’s curious why famous individuals borrow from others without crediting the original source, but it’s understandable at the college level: the clock is ticking on the semester, the student has fallen way behind in completing the requirements of the course, and a sense of panic develops that leads many students into believing that it’s okay—just this once—because the teacher probably will never know that it’s copied from an on-line source. It’s not a good decision, and it’s made on flawed logic, but it’s a coping mechanism that far too many people use. Whereas the societal expectation back in the day was that it’s always wrong to lie, cheat and steal, today’s operating system is situational ethics: it’s okay as long as I am not caught and/or don’t hurt anyone. I have to pass this class, and I'll do whatever it takes to get a passing grade, including lie, cheat and steal.

What many writers don’t get is that each writer has a unique syntactical rhythm, a way of selecting words and forming them into thoughts that are expressed as sentences. Readers recognize their favorite authors by the style and know immediately if/when a co-author comes on-board or the author has gone public, writing far too many commercial products to support a lavish lifestyle. The original vocabulary of the writer reflects his/her generation: older writers have more archaic words in their vocabularies, while younger writers develop a kind of linguistic short-hand that incorporates street slang, conversational catch-all phraseology, and limited academic language choices. For instance, an inexperienced movie review writer may capture an idea by writing that a character “... comes across as a no-B.S. mother with a strict agenda, but just as [another character] goes through a complete change, so does she” (www.cincemablend.com), an opinion that is not just expressed in a modern slang syntax, but says nothing of an analytical nature about the main character's, mothering, a strict agenda, or the process of complete change for either character. Whereas most readers know what B.S. is, that abbreviation would never be used in an academic environment. A complete change indicates that an individual no longer is any part of what s/he was before an inciting incident caused a total transformation, such as an individual who is critically injured in an accident and no longer is the same person physically, mentally, or emotionally. Using an example from the vernacular of today’s culture, Chas Bono has truly gone through “a complete change.” Simply inviting another person into one’s life does not cause a “complete change” of the individuals involved in the new relationship, but it can begin a metamorphosis from what one is to what one becomes, often referred to a transformational process.

Additionally, there are standards for academic writing, which include no acceptable use of contractions (they’re instead of they are, for example) and no instance of analytical analysis using the word “you.” The focus is reflected in the thesis statement, and every word of every sentence in every paragraph is carefully selected to present the analysis of an idea captured in the thesis. Concluding a movie review with the challenge to “Do yourself a favor, don’t get too picky, take the film for what it is—an inspirational sports movie—and you’ll win big” is not a conclusion, but a cop-out (www.cincemablend.com), and a poorly-written one at that.

Students say they don’t get it, they don’t understand, and create their own version of an assignment and present it with the expectation that doing anything is better than doing nothing. If the student is held accountable for not meeting either the criteria or the standards for the assignment, it becomes the result of "bad teaching," rather than "bad learning." Students rely on the kindness of the academic community to accept whatever they present as valid, as well as valuable, but that is simply not the case, especially when some of the students do get it and actually submit quality written work. No one ever says to a math professor, “I couldn’t figure out how to do the problem your way, so I did it this way – and I think my way is good enough to earn me a passing grade in this class.” An analytical error in math results in a nuclear disaster as there is only one way, the right way, to compute mathematical problems. In written expression there is some leeway, but analysis is analysis is analysis, the same way that a person’s ethics should prohibit anyone from first, thinking, and then deciding that passing off someone else’s source material is okay as long as the student who makes this choice is either not found out or not held accountable.

In the legal system, ignorance of the law is not a reason not to follow the law; in the classroom, “I didn’t know” is simply an excuse that demonstrates an individual’s inability to accept responsibility for all the decisions s/he makes, not just the ones that are not exposed. Do cheaters ever prosper? Certainly, as evidenced by the Jonathan Bailey article (plagiarismtoday.com), but perhaps more certainly as evidenced by the fact that few students think that copying to get a grade is a problem. Cheaters do seem to have the upper hand in defending their actions as acceptable, rather than illegal. When our role models, our authors, our politicians, our ministers, our teachers, our family and friends lie, cheat and steal and get away with it, why would any reasonable person not do likewise, especially if the chances of being caught are minimal.

A society is only as strong as its most honest citizen, and a lack of morality indicates a crack in the fabric of honesty. When I cannot participate in the ages-old trust exercise, falling backward into the arms of those who claim to have my back, I know that contrary to the claim that “no man is an island,” I am, indeed, standing alone.

Two-Minute Drill

The end of the semester is weeks away, with the clock ticking on two major projects for one class and finishing a workbook for the other. Meanwhile, there is the flu going around, colds hitting everyone, family emergencies, sudden deaths, and all manner of interruptions that are interfering with the educational process.

I remember the stress of college classes, but also the "death penalty" mentality of the instructional program: you do this on your own time, do it correctly, and do NOT even think about handing in an assignment late, no matter the reason or the excuse. That is not the same mentality driving this semester as making it to more than half the classes seems to justify passing a class or dropping it before the F lands. And the most oft-asked question is either, "Did I miss anything?" or "Did we do anything" when a student is absent, a hold-over from high school.

Of course, my response, "Nah, we saw you weren't here, so we just sat and talked so you wouldn't miss anything" flies right over the brain housing.

When push comes to shove, show up, suit up, and get in the game. Last weekend, I saw the New England Patriots lose a game in the last 4 minutes, a game they were sure they had won. Sure, the coach made a questionable call, but the bottom line is the game is in the Loss column as of the final tick of the clock. On the other hand, the Colts showed that no one should ever stop playing the game just because they think they may have already lost. They did in 4 minutes what should have been done in 4 quarters, but sometimes people need the intensity of the pressure to perform to their highest level, and that's where the semester is.

Those who think they've secured an A cannot afford to let up, while those who are praying for a C may surprise themselves with a strong "last 4 minutes" performance surge. It ain't over 'til the Fat Lady sings, and I'm just starting to hum.

To What (Greater) Purpose?

The reason it used to be common practice in business for employees to work "30 and out" is that cycles change completely during 30 years: perhaps a couple of times. What existed when an employee was hired is no longer part of the paradigm when the same employee reaches age 60. Thus, it is easier to retire that employee than to provide answers to hard questions, such as why?

One of the most significant changes during my classroom tenure has been the inclusion of diversity, which meant the exclusion of many educational principles and practices, such as specific language to describe occupations; i.e., mailman has become letter carrier and/or postal service employee, serviceman is now service member, mankind is now either humankind or personhood, and there are both actors and actresses. Stripping words of unique characteristics often changes both the original intent and the impact of the word, but someone decided about 40 years ago that the language would benefit from non-gender-specificity and, thus, it became policy and practice.

If a teacher does not agree and/or insists on using the old-fashioned expressions, s/he could well lose his/her job and/or be subjected to disciplinary intervention by his/her site administrator.

This week, our school children are being inducted into a self-aggrandizing educational approach to set the tone for the newest generation of schoolchildren: rather than asking students to define global goals and objectives for themselves, their community, and their country, children are being asked what they each can do to assist the (first African-American) President of the United States to reach his (there is no her) goals. Perhaps this approach is a step up from the denigration of the previous (American) President of the United States, who was openly trashed in classrooms across the country during the last Presidential election by fair-minded citizens and teachers without repercussion, but it is still an unusual tact to teach children to use in their political future.

Imagine if I asked the students in my high school classroom to write a letter to me detailing how each of them will help me to achieve my personal goals during the coming year: WTF? No way! That conversation would escalate to the "What the hell are you thinking?" firestorm that would rage through the family and occupy my planning period in front of the site administrator for the next month or so. Back in the early days, teacher training included working with students to set incremental educational (and, sometimes personal behavioral) goals for themselves that could be monitored throughout the school year. The goals were for the student's success, not for the teacher's: it was assumed that the teacher had a different set of goals, both professional and personal, and would work to accomplish those as the children worked on their goals.

The photogenic young spokesperson justified that it was a mis-step in preparing the educational materials, not a political crisis, and expressed her angst that there is so much over-reaction to such a simple assignment that has already been fixed. She apparently either lacks the wisdom of the ages and/or job experience to follow the logic of the citizens who are questioning the educational implications of the big picture: (1) why is the President's (political) speech being required nation-wide as part of this semester's curriculum from grades K-12 (2) how bias-free are the materials (including political, gender, and racial point of view) (3) what is the educational value of the activity?

If the only justification is "because I say so," the whole idea is on shaky ground.

The independent thinking process of the individual citizen in the United States of America is paramount to the democratic political system. It is a pain in the ass to have a parent come charging into the classroom, demanding why? why? why?, but knowing that parent is always on the way in helps each of us to prepare better lessons and to do a better job for the students in the seats. It isn't about me keeping my job; it's about me doing my job. If I don't know what I am doing, why I am doing it, and the goal for what I've planned, I have no business doing it.

If the goal of the President's speech is to engage students in the politics of the country, perhaps a better question than how each of them can help the President set and achieve his goals requires the changing of one word: how can each of them help the country to achieve its goals. The President's job is to set his own goals, personally and professionally, and then work to achieve them, even by asking his two school-age daughters for their input. If he does not feel that he can do that over the course of a four-year term in office without input from the nation's school children, perhaps he needs to fend off the questions of the irate parents and be called to the principal's office, too.

Eroding the Foundation

On the last teaching day of the year, another 170 teachers employed by a local school district received a surprise: lay-off notices! These teachers survived the first round of cuts and thought they were coming back in the Fall. According to the contract, notification must be served by March 15, but districts everywhere cover themselves by handing out non-hire notices by that date and then drop the bad news at their convenience. This group of teachers not only have to finish off grades and pack their classrooms, but they are turning in their keys and going home to stay. It's well past the time to look for another job, if, indeed, there were other jobs available. By this time all the part-time positions have been filled at the big box stores, which can only absorb so many overly-qualified employees with Master's degrees and teaching credentials.

During the campaign, I was promised change I could believe in; what I got were ongoing frantic efforts to save major corporations and major cuts in education, neither of which is change I believe in. Businesses come and go, especially when businesses engage in poor business practices: refusal to be on the leading edge of advancement, while continuing to price products out of a competitive marketplace. I drive Toyotas for one reason: they last beyond the payment coupons. Many people I know who purchase American brandname vehicles suffer from the Fix Or Repair Daily theory of operation, a cycle of spending that does not appeal to me even in a healthy economy. If American manufacturers want my business, they have to earn it by offering a quality product at a reasonable price. I am not one of those who will "buy American" for philosophical reasons if I can buy a better product at a better price from another manufacturing source.

America used to be a strong, competitive world market, but gave up its driving force to make a quick buck. You snooze, you lose.

During a huge tidal wave of immigration into America during the waning years of the 19th century and the opening years of the 20th century, American citizens realized how vital the education of all citizens is to this country's survival. We believe in what teachers call "Statue of Liberty schools," educational institutions that take our poor, huddled masses and educate them. In the smallest hamlets of this country, as well as the largest metropolises, immigrants went to school to learn the language, to learn the ways of this country, to learn the skills that would guarantee employment and fulfillment of The American Dream. Education was the foundation of a strong America and the businesses were a by-product of American knowledge and ingenuity.

My, how times have changed: we're flooding failing businesses with unbelievable amounts of money while shutting down schools.

I'd like to see change I can believe in, with a laser focus on one change that will turn this country back onto the path that it began to walk when courageous immigrants arrived on the shores and pointed their footsteps in a direction no other country dared to walk. I'd like to see education become the foundation again, the patient parent teaching the child what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, rather than a bastard step-child to big business begging for recognition and funding. I'd like to see each citizen doing a fair day's work for a fair wage, setting the industry standard, rather than being a victim of it. I'd like to see pride in ownership, rather than a disposal economy that varies with the whims of the rich and famous and/or the demands of the ignorant and indigent.

I'd like to see society recall that no one owes you a living: it is up to you to get the education, to get the job, to do it well and to live within your means. If you cannot accomplish those goals, so be it. The role of government is not to prop up the weak, but to support the driving forces that keep the nation growing -- and that includes education.

Here's change I can believe in: let the businesses fail and be rebuilt stronger by people who actually care about the product and services the business offers, rather than the comforts of their 401k's. Put our faith back into the educational system and strengthen it so teachers can do the job that has to be done for any country to survive: educate the children to become productive adults.

Quality Counts

One of the most frustrating educational challenges is the process of making students improve as a result of experiencing new content, accepting new instruction, and developing new knowledge. My experience shows me that far too many students recycle what worked for them in high school, most especially classroom behavior, educational expectations, and essays.

Yes, essays. You would be amazed how many college-level compositions cannot make it past a basic 3-paragraph, 5-sentences each basic high school essay. The concept of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation providing the foundation for written communication is totally foreign to far too many college attendees. "Focus on the topic" is an overwhelming challenge because most students only know how to write about themselves and their (sometimes painfully) limited knowledge and/or experience.

Sometimes, it's a matter of personal safety for a student to recycle past successes, especially if a beloved high school teacher emotionally supported students with comments that valued their self-esteem, rather than the quality of the written communication. I am continually amazed at how many "straight A" students are attending college, especially when I read essays. Handing back a college essay with the comment "empty content" is anathema to building self-esteem; explaining that all those words in all those sentences don't add up to much more than one meaningful sentence can downright devastate a college student and send him/her to the Office of Student Services for a quick drop-the-course response.

It takes guts and sheer determination to learn to write content-rich, well- researched, important essays. College is not for whimps.

However, there is rich reward when students put their ego (and cell phones) into their backpacks and take out their "I'm here to learn" equipment, such as notetaking supplies, writing utensils, and completed assignments. It's surprising how interesting, engaging, and challenging college courses can be when students come prepared to be part of the process, rather than observers. Essays, in particular, can grow from a good thesis statement to an excellent examination of an important idea based on solid research and insight when that is both the expectation and the goal of the writing process.

The lamenting wail of "but I did what you told me" falls by the wayside in college, as simply doing homework is only one step in the learning process. More importantly, can you discuss the concepts/issues, both orally and in writing, and create understanding for the listener/reader? Can you demonstrate to anyone that you know that about which you are writing? discussing? thinking? Telling anyone what you know means nothing; demonstrating knowledge means everything.

Across the disciplines enrollments have plummeted as students wait for the classes to meet their needs, rather than stepping up and fulfilling the expectations of the course content. The old saw, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" has been reworked to "when the going gets tough, the student drops the class."

My goal is to hear the sweet chant of "I'm going to learn this; I'm going to do this; whatever it takes," rather than the whiney wail of "This is too hard!" College is all about quality, a commodity that is in short supply this semester.

The Third Wall

In the theatre, there is a third wall, the allusion of reality that is never to be breached during a performance. It separates the actors from the audience, while allowing the appearance of a relationship. The audience knows that it's a performance, but engages with the actors who create a believable stage reality. When the final curtain falls, the actors leave the stage, change their costumes, remove their make-up, and go about their personal lives.

Such is teaching. An effective teacher must also be an effective actor who actively engages the students in a relationship that allows the instructional process to flourish. However, when the class period ends, the teacher exits the stage and resumes his/her real life, a life wherein the audience, the students, are not part of the teacher's personal circle of friends.

Students, however, seem not to understand that being friendly within a professional relationship does not make the student/teacher friends. Today, it's all about being friends and liking one another, rather than establishing a relationship that is friendly, supportive, and effective to accomplish our mutual goal: education. Students want to call teachers by their first name, feel free to contact them on their personal phones, and engage in social interaction outside the classroom as part of the student/teacher relationship. Students don't understand that assuming that relationship is actually counter-productive to the business relationship of the classroom because it becomes personal, not professional.

I do allow students to contact me via email so they can ask questions, send drafts for response, write on-line journals, and receive electronic copies of materials I use in the classroom. I do not expect and/or accept personal emails from them, a differentiation that I make very clear and reinforce with my actions, the same way that I would if we were in the actual classroom, rather than a virtual classroom. If it's business, we conduct it; if it's personal, they lose their email privileges.

As funny as this sounds, I move past the teacher-student relationship when the course ends and another course begins. I don't remember; I don't pick up where we left off when I see the former student on campus. I separate myself from each year's worth of students, replacing one group of hundreds with another. There have been so many thousands of students that, for me, maintaining the third wall is a survival skill: I cannot continue the relationship as each of us goes his/her separate way.

As the students are younger and younger, this concept is more challenging for them to understand. It is as if they have to be friends -- or we become frenemies: friendly enemies. It is the projection of their personal relationships onto their business relationships, a projection that makes me uncomfortable because it assumes a level of intimacy that I don't want to accept. Sometimes I wonder if it is this inability to separate relationships that leads young people to come onto a campus and shoot to kill: if the only columns they have are "friends" and "enemies," it somehow becomes easier to obliterate perfect strangers simply because they aren't on one's "friends" list.

I do have friends, hard to believe, from my professional life and some who sat in the seats as students, but these are individual decisions based on a complex matrix that we all [used to] have for delineating between family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Students seem to have two columns in their lives, very little delineation of quality indicators, and the assumption of too much too soon in personal relationships. They are socially presumptuous in a way that transcends boundaries that serve a purpose, and I'm not sure whether that's good, neutral, or wrong.

The times they are a-changing, aren't they, and if I cannot or will not change with them, it's time to retreat to the rocker with my knitting in my lap and my snoring dog at my feet, peering out the living room window once in a while to see what the world is up to today.

Score

As part of the ongoing accreditation process, the college used a campus-wide writing assignment re: persistence v. ability, based on a quotation adapted from Tom Morris, True Success: A New Philosophy*. The students' writing task was to develop a point of view on the issue of persistence as more important than ability in determining a person's success.

There were 12 faculty members present, a blending of full- and part-time staff. The one prereq for attending was that if you gave the assignment, you had to participate in the holisitic scoring session, but 3 of the original dozen had to leave after the first 2 hours and 1 person came in for only the last hour. Other than that, we went through the norming process and then began the task. Although I don't have an accurate count of how many essays, I'm going to guess that there were probably 500-600, based on the stacks I saw.

Holisitic eval requires that the essay is read for focus on the writing task and development of relevant ideas and appropriate support, with the actual skills of writing a lesser part of the process. However, there were 2 scorers who were "grading" the papers by marking grammar, spelling, vocab and mechanical mistakes. Our task was simply to mark the appropriate class level for each essay based on the quality of the writing, and assign it a 1-2, 3-4, or 5-6 score.

Once the scoring panel got into its groove, the process ran smoothly. The only issue I saw develop was that one scorer consistently marked papers with a 5-6 that a second and, therefore, a third reader marked as a 1-2-3 paper. That is a wide discrepancy that shows that the 5-6 marker may have completely over-looked the skills aspect -- or is a teacher everyone wants as (s)he is probably an easy grader. I sat next to a man whose profession is lawyer and with whom I switched the first stack of papers. He and I scored identically on every essay save one, which he gave a 2 and I gave a 4. When I asked him why he scored it so low, he remarked that the writer didn't address the prompt, but when I pointed out the use of the key words in the thesis, as well as throughout the paper, he recanted and allowed the score to be a 3.

My observation is that there are far too few 5-6 essays, the quality that is necessary for college-level work across the curriculum that requires critical thinking and development of a thesis that is sustained with appropriate analysis and explanations. The majority of the essays scored 3-4, which is what used to be the expectation for a grade-level high school graduate. Far too many essays scored 1-2, which means these writers should not have high school diplomas, much less be attending college.

Some of the phrasing hit my funny bone, such as the writer of a 2 essay response whose goal is to become a "trama sergon," a goal I fervently hope is NOT achieved. A young man who arrived from China in September with limited English language skills wrote simply, "a single drop of water will go through rock," an understanding that is far beyond what so many students comprehend. This writer may not (yet) be able to express himself in English, but I'm going to guess that within a year, he'll be able to write rings around any of the other essays I scored, proving his point about persistence.

My final observation is that all but perhaps 10% of the papers were approached as personal narratives, a story all about I. The prompt should have led the writers to a discussion about persistence and ability, not about their own life struggles, because college writing demands objectivity and factual information. Personal experience can (sometimes) be used to augment an essay with support/examples, but the majority of the writing at the college level is factual and objective, not fictional and subjective. My major recommendation for the writing classes is more focus on the objectivity and development of factual examples and explanations and less emphasis on telling one's own story. The students who used these skills far outreached the rest, which paled in comparison because they became so commonplace.

When a teacher has high standards for students, the teacher gets the rep as being a hard-ass and websites (such as RateMyProfessor) tell students to avoid his/her classes. When students consistently fail to meet expectations, the expectations are lowered to accommodate the lack of ability. The students I served during the first 10 years of my career include some of the brightest and the best, students who have gone on in their lives to make a difference in a wide range of professions and arenas. During the second 10 years, I chose to work with the continuation kids, kids whose personal issues interferred with their school success, an assignment that remains the best teaching I've ever done.

My third 10 years were marked with roadblocks and failure in a school that refused to hold students accountable for any aspect of their education, beginning with the ability to speak English (even minimally). The site admin persistently condemned the teachers as failures who, if they could be fixed by yet another endless in-service presentation, might be able to keep their jobs. If students do not have to attend school, do not have to complete assignments, do not have to behave appropriately -- they don't, and the process falls apart, which it has done in my geographical area. And when the educational process does not demand that students speak English, we're done before we can begin.

Society can make all the excuses it wants for the failure of teachers to do their job, but until we regain the value of education as the basis for this country's future, and parents once again put their children's education as the number one FAMILY priority, it is talking to a brick wall. Paraphrasing Jim Morrison, it isn't that we don't need no education, it's that we don't got no education.

What does the staff do with the data and where do we go from here? I don't know. The product we receive every year grows less and less able/capable. Persistence cannot overcome the lack of ability unless/until the student is willing to take the hard-ass, well-qualified teacher's class and do whatever it takes to overcome the deficits in their educational preparation for a certification program, an AA degree, or a transfer program to a 4-year college/university. This isn't about the teacher, it's still about the student, and I know that the man from China is going to develop his ability to read, write, speak, listen and think in English because I already know, having met him once, that his inner core is strengthened with persistence. Whereas other students use their heritage language as an excuse to fail, he realizes that his language is his reason to succeed, and I suspect he will.

*"The biggest difference between people who succeed at any difficult undertaking and those who do not is not ability but persistence. Many extremely talented people give up when obstacles arise. After all, who wants to face failure? It is often said about highly successful people that they are just ordinary individuals who kept on trying, who did not give up."