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| "Schultz Syndrome" | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 1 2009, 10:12 AM (119 Views) | |
| Post #1 Mar 1 2009, 10:12 AM |
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School bus driver faces felony charges. When I read the headline, I knew I could fill in many of the details, even before reading the story. I knew that the bus was totally out of control and that the bus driver suffered from "Schultz Syndrome," ("I see nothing. I know nothing."). Within our public school systems (and, now, much to my personal embarrassment, within at least one private school), the "Schultz Syndrome" is epidemic. School leadership is absent. The primary motivator for administrators is the avoidance of hassles, such as the threat of lawsuits. Teachers (and bus drivers) who try to maintain a modicum of order receive zero support from administrators and are even pushed in the direction of overlooking the minor disruptions and misbehaviors. In the short-run, such a policy actually does reduce the number of parents tromping into the building, complaining about how some are "out to get" their angelic ones, and threatening to sue. Unfortunately, teens, in search of boundaries, will keep pushing the limits, until they get a reaction from an authority figure, thereby establishing those sought-after limits. So, when the adults at school start turning a blind eye towards minor infractions, the infractions escalate. In, the long run, circumstances will reach the point where, in horror, we wonder how a bus driver could possibly have seen nothing and have known nothing as criminal behavior happened all around him. I don't wonder at all. Believe it or not, administrators will then escalate the level of misbehavior defined as "minor," requiring a blind eye be turned toward more and more severe misbehaviors. Case in point: I was told on Friday not to worry about a student who had cut my class, that having given him a zero for his work that day was sufficient. He wouldn't even get the 15-minute detention that the last student who cut my 50-minute class got! Thursday, when he had cut the class, I discussed the case with the headmaster. She understood the facts and found his behavior inexcusable. She assured me that he would be dealt with. The next day, his mother tromped in and complained. None of the facts changed. Yet, no punishment was meted out (beyond the zero for a daily grade, one minor grade out of 45 minor grades). More and more this year, the administration has been backing off on their willingness to discipline students. More and more teachers who discipline their students are risking not being supported by the front office. There are two reactions exhibited by the staff as a result. Most are now suffering from "Schultz Syndrome." The result is showing in the behavior of the kids. I am literally embarrassed to be in that building these days. The students dress however they please, despite our having a uniform dress code. There are about 30 students in the hallway for several minutes, making no real effort to get to class after each tardy bell. They freely discuss their gang and drug behavior. (One of my students expressed fear about passing through a group of them in order to get to the rest room just the other day during lunch.) They participate in activities euphemistically called "public displays of affection." They openly text and make cell phone calls, despite a school policy against even the possession of cell phones. They openly leave the building and the school grounds when they should be in class. (Now, there is a lawsuit waiting to happen!) The other reaction is the one I chose. I do not turn a blind eye to the misbehavior (even minor instances) in my classroom. I know that I will receive zero support from the office in assessing consequences for misbehavior, so I have drawn a line in the sand between my classroom and the hallway. As for what goes on in the hallway, I make sure that I know nothing and that I see nothing. I keep my door closed all day. I have let my students know that when they won't follow the rules on this side of the door, they will be put on the other side of the door, where the office can deal with their behavior...or not. I buzz the office, let them know the student is on his or her way, and put the student out. If a student's behavior is repeated often enough to convince me that they have no intention of changing, or if it rises to a high enough level that I feel that external discipline MUST be meted out, I put the student out until that punishment happens. In some cases, that means that the student has never been allowed to return to my class, a solution which is now, unfortunately, acceptable to me. The result is that my classroom is a oasis of order, where learning can take place, in a desert of chaos. The kids who remain want to learn and do learn. I am able to teach, with very rare instances of disruption. However, it is an absolute crime that students, who, with a little parental and/or administrative support for my disciplinary efforts, could and would learn in my classroom, are not being served at all and, instead, are being taught that they have zero responsibility to become a functioning part of any group to which they belong, that all of their personal desires completely outweigh every group endeavor. I now realize that I am powerless to help shape this system in any useful way. I can only teach the students who want to learn (or whose parents want them to be taught) in my now small area of influence. That situation is unacceptable. I have notified the owners of the school that I will not be returning next year. The current owner is pleading with me to stay on. He is hiring a new headmaster, one that he hopes will turn things around. But, despite the current headmaster's desire to relocate as soon as possible, the new headmaster will not start working for at least a couple of months and will not fully take over until next year. That means that I would have to decide to return long before any real changes could (or, more likely, won't) occur. Unless the new headmaster is in place within weeks and making immediate changes, I won't even consider returning. If the changes started occurring very soon, I would consider teaching next year only if I felt the changes would be helpful. I am not the only one who feels this way. Several other teachers have also expressed the intention not to return. Many of the students who routinely behave and who perform academically have also said they will go to another school next year. It is imperative that positive and dramatic change be visible this year, or the school will implode next year, regardless of the efforts of the new administration. The school will be populated only with problem students and Schultzes. On the broader front, our nation's classrooms and busses are being populated by an army of Schultzes, such as the bus driver in the story. More and more horrifying incidents, such as the ones in the story, will occur. And, we will continue to wring our hands and wonder why. (Again, I don't wonder at all.) In order to stop this trend, schools must reassert their role in discipline. Parents must back off and let the schools do their job (and, in many cases, the job that the parents have abdicated). Courts must remove the teeth from threats of lawsuits in all but the most egregious cases of malfeasance. Unfortunately, all of the above are highly unlikely. We will continue to place teachers and drivers in the position of the driver in this story, and then, when they predictably start Schultzing, we will, as we must, hold them criminally liable. |
Administrator
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| Post #2 Mar 13 2009, 03:54 PM |
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Can you get together with some other teachers that feel the same way and start your own school? Up here in CT we have lots of magnet schools and private schools; one dedicated to fine arts, another to math and science. There's one dedicated to technology and communication and many to religious education. But what about one dedicated to an environment that is civil and respectful? One where the children and parents sign contracts that allow real discipline. A school handbook that isn't a show just to impress the licensing board. I actually think a school of that sort would need less rules and policies than all these Schultz Schools like yours. If you can't start your own school, can you apply for headmaster? |
Civil Servant
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1:17 PM Sep 9
