THERE ARE HUGE TEACHER RETENTION AND TEACHER MORALE PROBLEMS IN OUR AREA. A HUGE PART OF THIS IS DUE TO CLASSROOM DISRUPTIVENESS.
policy dictates it’s better that “all children get left behind,”
We had a Spanish teacher just walk out of a middle school classroom after numerous student behavior problems, ending with students drawing genitalia on the whiteboard. A long-term sub who didn’t know Spanish taught the rest of the year. Our children’s education was directly sacrificed to ensure no effective consequences were made for students. It’s not the teachers fault.
Somehow, policy dictates it’s better that “all children get left behind,” than one child get left behind. That’s the illusion of “no child left behind.” It seems no one is left behind, but everyone is held back to give the illusion not one is left behind. The intentions were good, but it’s detrimental in practice.
Children’s education is constantly sacrificed to ensure there are no meaningful consequences for students to correct behavior. With poorer areas having statistically higher behavioral problems, the sacrificing of education is exacerbated in poor areas. The poor students who need the education the most end up in a degrading spiraled loop, because no one wants to accept responsibility.
You wonder why there is a teacher moral and retention problem? The problem has been well-before Covid ever hit. Pumping up pay hasn’t done the trick. There is a serious behavior problem among students – not because the students are so bad, but because the behavior is allowed. If you don’t fix a leaky roof, eventually your whole house will be wet and ruined.
Many politicians and most well-to-doers know this, putting their children in private schools where there are higher standards and expectations not just for education, but notably for behavior. You cannot have one without the other.
Teachers always have and perhaps always will be underpaid, but without doubt, their position is one of the highest honors in our society. People willing to teach our young minds should first be given the respect of an orderly classroom so they can perform their profession – teaching. A teacher must be able to teach – so guarantee them an environment conducive to teaching!
poor areas like my own need the most discipline
Teachers should not be routinely found in situations where they’re considering quitting, because students are misbehaved. It shouldn’t have to get to that point. It’s nonsensical to sacrifice teachers to allow student misbehavior, nor is fair to sacrifice the education of every student, to allow the misbehavior of a few.
You have to change the atmosphere. I’m sorry, but poor areas like my own need the most discipline. People keep moving out of here because the standards keep getting worse.
change our expectations
Everyone expects violence at our schools. Please change our expectations. Surprise us with policies focused on educating our children, not giving them passes. Surprise us with something many have not had in Dundalk for a long time – High Expectations and High Standards.
I’ve communicated with teachers all around Maryland and a few from around the country who’ve confirmed the acceptance – the normalization of misbehavior. There are articles written about it throughout the country. It’s in almost every school, but surely exacerbated in poor areas. Fix the common expectations of classroom disruptions and you’ll be on your way to fixing education. If you can bring the poor schools in Dundalk to higher expectations, you can bring up all of the schools.
I know I will get a few people berating me regarding this, but anyone who supports it, please share. Many teachers and public workers I’ve spoken with have expressed to me this is their truth, but know they can be fired for publicly expressing their opinion on school policy, so they can’t share it. Teachers can and will be fired for expressing their opinions on educational policy if they’re not toeing the line.
God bless our teachers and may their hearts be guided by love and their minds be flowing with logic.
Please, share this for the teachers who can’t speak out for orderly classrooms and all of our children who deserve the same high educational standards and the same great expectations for behavior regardless of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
The above message was something I put out on Facebook in a community group.
I have a lot of personal experience on the subject, including numerous personal sources which I will not name as their free speech can easily get them fired or reprimanded from a government job. To add validity to the topic I will link a few articles.
“Classroom teachers are leaving at an increasing rate.”
“…teacher attrition, classroom climate as affected by student behavior, and the possible link between concerns in both areas.”
“teachers, individually, often expressed greater concern for the system as a whole, more than behaviors in their own classroom.”
“In recent years, attention appears to have shifted away from recognizing and remediating the causes of this problem, moving toward applying short-term remedies, such as securing increasing numbers of non-trained teachers”
https://www.proquest.com/openview/75669bf6363835b0389fcfef3340d7d3/1“Surveys show that coping with disruptive students is teachers’ number one problem.”
https://childmind.org/article/breaking-behavior-code/
[[[ It’s also then a top inhibitor of education for all students ]]]
“Prior research has shown that challenging student behavior is a primary reason why teachers leave or consider leaving teaching.”
“A teacher in a high-retention school explained, “The kids are generally well-behaved. We have a strong behavior management system, and we are all on the same page.” Compare this statement to the response of a former teacher when she was asked what made her feel overwhelmed: “The behavior of the students was extreme [and] the administration did not know what to do.””
“Those mediocre “A” students become indistinguishable from legitimate A students, making it more difficult for employers to hire the best applicants.”
“I believe the trend to replacing strictness with leniency is a core cause of America’s decline.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-life/201910/the-case-strictness-over-leniency
