Tag: teachers

What’s wrong with public education

by Pam Harris, "blind" writer

Don’t get me wrong. There are many things good about public education, but as the beginning of the school year approaches, I can’t help but think about what’s wrong with it. Specifically at the high school level. I know that is a sentence fragment, grammar police, but I intended it to be that way.

Public education has come a long way since this one-room schoolhouse was built in 1885 in Strawberry, Arizona. It’s the oldest standing schoolhouse in the state, built when Arizona was still a territory.

I’ve been out of the education field since 2018, but I talk to people who are in the classroom and hear their stories of what is happening today.Keep in mind my statements are my opinions based upon personal experiences and observations, not research.

First, I’ll address teachers. You have a difficult job, and I know many of you once loved your career but are discouraged by the changes that have taken place. It’s a shame you are not treated like the professionals you are. Your profession is the only one I can think of that is governed by people who do not work in your profession. Legislators and school board members with no experience (or limited experience) in education are telling you what to do and how to do it. Evaluation models you are expected to follow are based on research, and as a former principal who observed multiple teachers, I have to agree that the TEAM approach was effective. The best teachers were the ones doing those things already. It was reflected in the learning and test scores. It was reflected in how the students responded in class. And you know what I saw? The teachers who had the highest test scores were liked and respected by their students. Keep that in mind. Be firm but kind. Encourage. Don’t take your bad days out on your students. Be professional by arriving when you’re supposed to arrive and doing what you’re supposed to do. You know what makes life harder for teachers? When fellow teachers are not abiding by the policies.

Next, administrators like principals and supervisors. Many of you, if not all of you, are in your positions because you were tired of the classroom and wanted to earn a higher salary. Don’t forget what it was like to be in the classroom. If done correctly, it is a demanding, exhausting job. My seven years as principal were stressful in ways, but it was a nice break from being in the classroom and being observed by the powers-that-be who seemed to be looking for what I was doing wrong instead of what I was doing correctly. Treat your teachers with respect and professionalism. To the teachers at DMS, I apologize if I ever treated you badly. It was not my intent. I know of one school district in which a team of supervisors is observing teachers DURING THEIR PLANNING TIME. All caps are intentional. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of. If you have someone looking over your shoulder constantly, how do you feel? Do you want to stay in that job? Give your teachers the support they need. If they’re not doing their jobs, address it and let them go if necessary. I know that sounds harsh, but education is about the students, not a teacher’s feelings. Some enter the profession who are not suited for it. But treat even those teachers with professional courtesy.

Third, school board members. Listen to the teachers. Listen to the administrators. I know you want success for the students, and because everyone went to school while they were growing up, they think they’re experts in education. Really? I’ve been going to doctors all my life but would never presume to tell a doctor or nurse how to do their job. Do corporations have non-business people determining policy? Would I presume to be on a board for an airline just because I fly? Yet we have farmers, business people, some former educators, and other occupations sitting on our school boards and making policies without listening to the experts: the teachers.

Fourth, parents: What I am hearing about parents in general these days just blows my mind. Apparently you feel your child should not be held accountable for anything. Not for grades. Not for behavior. Not for attendance. When I heard the state had changed the grading scale to below 60 being failing instead of below 70, I couldn’t believe it. Look, I know there are some tough teachers who seem to be harsh (shame on them) or expect too much (if they’re doing their jobs right, they will expect more). But your disrespect of the teachers and the school in general is teaching your child to be disrespectful of authority, to make excuses for failure instead of working to overcome it, and preparing them for a future of irresponsibility in life. I know not all parents are this way, but there are enough of you out there that, once again, your attitudes are lowering the quality of education for all students, not just your child.

As I said, there are many good things about public education despite the negatives I’ve listed. You’ve stuck with me this long. Please consider these suggestions:

Teachers, be kind and patient with your students. Harsh treatment, especially in elementary grades, can damage them psychologically for many years if not for life. Students have varying abilities to learn, and your job is to teach them in ways that help each one. Remember that teaching is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. I didn’t learn that for many years, and once I learned that and figured out ways to address it, students actually learned what I was trying to teach them.

Legislators, administrators, school board members: be willing to listen. And as for the test scores situation…well, that will be another blog. What you legislators have succeeded in doing is to teach students how to take a test, not given them the skills they need to succeed. My generation was not tested like students are today. And yet many of us became successful in life. The only standardized test I took in high school was the ACT. Yet I went on to be successful at the university level. How did one of my classmates become a Harvard professor? How did many become doctors, teachers, business people? (Are you picking up on my sarcasm?) By the way, I think Tennessee should go back to career/college/dual path system instead of the Tennessee Diploma Project. That, too, will be the topic of a later blog.

Parents, teaching your child to be responsible and accountable is not easy. You don’t want to see your child hurt or upset. I get that. But if you lay the foundation of expectations and get the help your child needs when struggling, you will prepare them for a more successful life. In high school, I was used to making mostly A’s, but I struggled with Algebra 2. Mom found a retired teacher in our church who tutored me two afternoons a week, and my grades improved. That prepared me for college algebra. She didn’t go to the principal and complain. She didn’t send the teacher hateful notes or ask the teacher to accept my homework late (which I had not done because I had no idea how to do it). That was in the 1970s. In today’s educational system, free extra help is available at school. And if your child gets in trouble at school and receives a detention, make them serve it. Stop making excuses for them.

If you’ve made it this far, you may be disagreeing with my opinions, and that’s fine. Because this is my blog, I’m expressing my own. We can agree to disagree.

As a product of public education in a rural setting, I am not knowledgeable about inner city schools or schools in suburbs in which the standard of living is much higher. I attended schools that were an assortment of races, socio-economic groups, and ability levels. I taught in the same type of schools.

So, to say I’m passionate about public education is an understatement. I believe in it. A strong public education system makes a strong community. We need public education, but some things need to be fixed.

Look out–I’m about to vent!

by Pam Harris, "blind" writer

You know what I want for these two precious girls? I want them to grow up to have a good work ethic, to be community-minded and law-abiding citizens, to choose careers or vocations that they enjoy, and to be able to earn money, if needed, to support themselves and their families. I want them to have knowledge and gain wisdom. I want them to be kind but to stand firm on their convictions. As a Christian, I want them to be Christians as well. I want them to be able to own up to their mistakes. I want them to be responsible. I want them to contribute to society, not take away from it.

But from what I’m hearing about education these days, I’m concerned. I’m hearing that teachers are no longer allowed to give a “zero” if a student does not turn in an assignment or make up a quiz or test. I’m hearing that a grade of 60 to 69 is a passing grade (D). I’m hearing that parents do not want their children held accountable. And I’m hearing that schools are playing the numbers game. They are forcing teachers to teach to the test. Yes, teachers are expected to teach the standards, but they do not have the freedom to teach the basics.

What do I mean by that? I mean that most students no longer know the basics. Ask any seventh grader to subtract 30 from 125, and chances are he’ll need a calculator. Even high school students can’t construct a complete sentence.

“Big deal,” you may say. “I couldn’t do that either, and I still can’t.”

Maybe some changes in education are not a big deal. I don’t think it’s a big deal that cursive is no longer taught. I don’t think it’s a big deal that students can’t do mental math since they are very proficient with calculators, but I think most teachers would agree that most students do not have the ability to reason and think.

True, there are some good things going on in high schools with dual credit programs, but you know what local college professors are telling me? The same thing middle and high school teachers are saying.

There is no accountability. Students expect to receive a grade for doing very little.

Who’s to blame? The schools? The education department? Maybe. After all, they’re so concerned with retention rates being low and graduation rates being high, they don’t care if the students actually learn anything. Blame the parents? Yes, for many. Even when I was teaching, I sometimes had a parent beg me to pass a student at the end of the year who had not passed a single grading period because of excessive absences and failure to make up quizzes and tests.

I get it. Parents have their own bad memories of school and want to protect their children from those experiences. But they are doing their child a huge disservice.

A nursing home manager recently told me that employees these days are unreliable. “They work a few days to earn enough money to pay whatever bills they have to pay, then they miss work because they don’t want to come in,” she said.

Can you imagine how that hinders the service given in a nursing home, to the sick and elderly who need care and help, but the nursing home can’t provide what is needed because of short staffing?

I know lazy people have always been around, but it does seem the numbers are growing.

“How,” you ask, “would you fix it?”

Well since you asked, I’ll tell you.

First, go back to basics in the elementary grades. No calculators allowed until sixth grade. Parents begin reading to their children from infancy. Teachers continue to read to children, not just short stories but books. Focus on math, reading, and language until sixth grade. Yes, teach science but incorporate it into the reading, language, and math components. Expand in middle school with more in-depth science and social studies lessons. Provide opportunities for physical exercise, music, and the arts. Give students a wide variety of experiences.

In high school, go back to the two-path system. Let students who have no interest in going to college learn trades. Don’t force them to take chemistry and advanced biology and four years of math to graduate (with the lowest level being Algebra 1). Let the college-bound students pursue those courses. Students can choose the dual path system in which they complete coursework for both.

But, most of all, make them accountable from an early age. As far as the state testing…in Texas on one test passing is 31% correct. Really? When I was in school (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), a 74 on a test was failing.

If the test is so hard that 31% correct means passing, maybe the test writers need to re-examine the tests. When I was in the classroom and gave a test that students did poorly on, I re-examined the test along with my teaching. I used it as a tool, re-taught the material, and gave a different test.

This is Teacher Appreciation Week, and if you’ve never done that job, you have no idea how challenging and difficult it can be. There is a reason so many are leaving the profession.

To you teachers who haven’t given up and are continuing to do your best, thank you. Our society needs more people like you, but we also need people who are making decisions about education and parents to look in the mirror. Those of you in the education department–stop playing the numbers game. Listen to what the teachers are telling you. I know not every teacher is a good teacher, and they need to be ‘”relieved of their duties.” But listen to the teachers with experience. They’re the ones in the classroom dealing with issues you cannot imagine.

And to parents–if you truly want what’s best for your children, have expectations. Help them learn. Make them accountable. Teach them to be responsible and accept the consequences of their choices.

As a former educator and grandmother, I am disheartened by what I’m seeing and hearing. I want my grandchildren to make our world a better place. To do that, they need great teachers and an education policy that focuses on student learning instead of inflated numbers that make the district look good.

Once again, to the teachers who are doing their jobs–thank you. I hope your students will recognize you this week in some way, either with an expression of thanks, a nice note, or simply putting forth more effort than they normally do. And I hope they show you respect.

You deserve that and more.

Thoughts (and apologies) on my years working in education

by Pam Harris, "blind" writer

The beauty of memories is how the bad things hurt less and the good things are sweeter.

That’s how I’ve been feeling the past few days. My two best friends since I was 12 came to see us, and for those few days, I was my young self again with the two people I had gone to school with, been with at slumber parties, occasionally had an argument with, and even worked with at a bank. We went out separate ways as adults but remained in touch, and the blessing of cell phones and social media reunited us in a bond that is indestructible.

While we spent some of our time talking about things like painting with water colors, our families, and the usual girl/woman talk, we also reflected on our working years and experiences we had.

There is no doubt my first year of teaching was the worst year of my professional life. I say that all the tine, and it holds true. I’d been working at a bank where I was a vice-president, loan officer, and assistant secretary to the board of directors. A local high school needed a French teacher, and with a three-year-old son, I thought it would be a more Mom-friendly career. That way I could be off when he was off after he started school. And I loved French. I had majored in Spanish and minored in French, so it seemed like the perfect fit.

The problem was I had never taken an education class nor done student teaching. I had no idea how to teach high school students. So I taught each day (badly), took classes at night (meaning I was away from my son even more for a while), and struggled to learn classroom management as well as how to teach well. I cried almost every night because I felt so inept, and I was counting the weeks until Christmas break by Oct. 1.

Thanks to the encouragement of some other teachers, I stuck with it, and I did learn. Sure, some years were worse than others, and I continued to feel inept at times. But after a few years, I felt confident in what I was doing and eventually became burned-out being in the classroom, so I took courses to become an administrator. I loved working as a principal, but I returned to the classroom after just seven years of it because of responsibilities to my elderly mother who was having one health crisis after another. Being a principal is a twelve-month job, and I needed time off with her.

Having said all that, the purpose of this blog today is…well, just read on.

To you reading this who were my students, I apologize for any mistakes I made. I’m sorry if I didn’t show you enough grace and mercy. I’m sorry if I said something you took the wrong way. I didn’t mean to say the wrong things. I truly cared about each one of you and wanted to teach you to be responsible as well as the subject matter to prepare you for foreign language classes in college. At that time, our state required two years of a foreign language to enter college, and I knew some majors would require you to take a foreign language in the college setting, so I wanted you to be prepared. But if you misunderstood my intentions or if I caused you hurt in any way, I apologize. I did not mean to do so.

To the teachers I oversaw when I was a principal, I apologize for my blunders and mistakes. I’m sorry if I ever put you on the spot with a parent or if I interfered in something I should have stayed out of. My goal was always to make your lives easier so you could be the best teachers you could be. I made mistakes, I know, with some parents, and I learned from those mistakes and tried not to repeat them. I know I was a rule-follower no matter what because that was the only way I knew to be consistent. Maybe I should have relaxed those rules a bit.

But for the most part, the memories I now have are good ones. I loved working with high school and middle school students. Sure, there were high school students in my classes who created problems and that sort of thing, but most of you were great. You made me laugh, you made my days enjoyable, and I learned from you. I learned what was going on in pop culture, I learned how you viewed the world, and I learned to care about the student as much as the subject.

And thank goodness our district switched to Spanish for the primary foreign language to study because believe me, it is much easier than French and obviously more useful.

I don’t miss getting up at 5:30 every day, and I don’t miss teaching the same subject six classes a day. I don’t miss dealing with the occasional discipline issues that arose. I definitely don’t miss grading papers.

But I would have to say that when looking back, those working years in education were the most fulfilling years of my life. I was right about the teacher schedule being great for Mom-friendly hours. I loved using the languages I had studied in college (although my intent in college was to work in international business and get to travel to other countries, not teach students the languages), and I loved making friends with my fellow teachers, our common bond being the rewarding but often frustrating career of education.

I have probably blogged about something like this before, but I am hoping this blog will reach more of you. I hope parents reading this will understand that teachers truly care about your child, so when you do not support them or try to make excuses for your child instead of enforcing consequences, you make their job harder as well as do a disservice to your child. To teachers reading this, I’ve heard that ever since the Covid shutdown, students have changed and there is no accountability anymore. Maybe you can’t change that, but you can focus on each student and realize he/she needs to learn even if they don’t want to put forth the the effort. I taught students, too, who didn’t try. I hear the numbers are even greater now because of the numbers game the state is playing and the district. Of course, that’s a topic for another blog.

But to former students, I hope you know how much I enjoyed being around you. I have often said I have a love/hate relationship with teaching, and to be honest, banking was my favorite career. But I’m grateful I became an educator for many reasons. It’s the most rewarding, sometimes frustrating and discouraging, and sometimes fun career you can imagine.

Maybe the years have pushed the bad memories aside and made the good ones sweeter, but that’s okay. C’est la vie, n’est-ce pas? Or maybe you would understand Así es la vida better. If you don’t remember either one, you understand what I told you years ago–if you don’t use it, you lose it!

Thanks for the memories, Dresden, Westview, and Henry County. You each hold a special place in my heart.

Public education–why I still believe in it despite some problems

by Pam Harris, "blind" writer

Orphaned at the age of nine, he was never allowed to go to school, used instead as a farmhand on his half-sister’s husband’s farm. He never learned to read or write.

He grew up, married, and had nine children. He worked as a coal truck driver and as a sharecropper. The family lived in poverty, and his six daughters and three sons were expected to do their share of chores and hard work.

His youngest son, a sickly boy who was not allowed to go to school until he was nine, was expected to do his share as well, and it wasn’t unusual for him to feed livestock and collect eggs even though his body was ravaged with fever, his throat swollen, and his lungs full of infection. When he began school, a new life opened up to him. He excelled in learning to read and write as well as arithmetic. He loved being away from the hard work on the farm and being around other students.

When he was 15, at the end of sixth grade, his illiterate father who’d known nothing but hardship his entire life, forced him to quit school. The two older brothers had been drafted to fight in World War 2, and his help was needed for the small family that remained on the farm. Three years later, he was drafted into the Army.

He never went back to school. He married, tried to continue farming, worked at a flour mill, and finally found his gift in working in production at a local newspaper. His skill in setting type, burning plates, working in the darkroom, laying out pages, and running the massive press offered him opportunities to advance and earn a good living until he was injured on the job and forced to retire too early, much sooner than he’d planned.

The illiterate sharecropper–my grandfather. The sickly boy–my father, who lived to be almost 86. When he was dying, he had only one regret. “Why,” he asked me about a week before he passed, “do you think Pap wouldn’t let me go to school?”

“He needed you,” I told him. “He couldn’t see past his own hardships to think of what was best for your future.”

Both my parents valued education. As far as I know, I was the only one out of all my cousins on that side of my family to not only go to college but obtain a master’s degree. Public education offered me opportunities my dad didn’t have, and public education prepared me for what was needed to succeed as an adult. Just one generation separated me from a history of illiterate ancestors, and now my sons, both college graduates and one with a master’s, are successful in their chosen fields.

My dad would be bursting at the seams with pride of he could see them now.

I’m not saying everyone should go to college. But everyone deserves to learn and develop the skills needed to enjoy a good quality of life. Public schools give everyone that opportunity.I know public education has its flaws, and I will be blogging about those flaws in the future. IMany states are pushing for bills to send money to private schools so parents have more choices in their child’s education, and I can appreciate the parental concerns that drive that. But I have concerns for public education and what will happen to it if funds are diverted away from it? What will happen to those students whose parents can’t afford private school tuition even with public funds being sent to offset some of the cost? What will happen with students whose parents who, like my grandfather, do not appreciate the value of a good education? What will happen to the teaching population if the pay drops and the best teachers leave the profession, with mediocre teachers left to impart knowledge to an already-struggling group of children?

There are many things the general public do not understand about education. The federal Department of Education, for example, is what oversees laws for disabled students and students with learning disabilities. Does the department need to be revamped? I think so. But I don’t have all the information needed to determine how it should be changed.

Parents, the best thin you can do for your children is to be involved in their learning. Know what they’re studying. Know what’s being taught. Work with them on homework assignments or quiz them to prepare for tests. Most teachers give study sheets from which the test is created. Most of all, hold them accountable for their effort and work. Failing a class because of seven zeroes that grading period? It’s not the teacher’s fault. It’s your child’s fault. Help them be successful, and if you can’t do it, reach out to the school for someone who can.

We teachers are not perfect. We’re human, and we make mistakes. But most of us truly care. Yes, I’m retired, but I will always be a teacher at heart. Our kids deserve the best education possible whether they plan to attend college, go straight to work after high school, go to trade school, or complete a specific program of study and training not requiring a four-year degree. Maybe public education isn’t the answer for all. But I believe it should be the answer for most.

My next blog will be about what’s wrong with public education and how I believe it can be fixed. Just my opinions based upon research and experience, but, hey, isn’t that what blogging is all about?

What I Miss About Teaching

by Pam Harris, "blind" writer
Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com

I know many of you teachers both retired and still working, are rolling your eyes at the title of this blog. Allow me to explain.

Obviously this photo is not of me. It is one I found online, and I’ve used it before. But what I miss about teaching is not what we see in this photo.

I don’t miss getting up at 5:30 AM. I don’t miss teaching the same lesson five or six times a day. I don’t miss dealing with discipline issues. I don’t miss my principal and supervisors popping into my classroom to do an evaluation. I don’t miss state testing. And I sure don’t miss long days of teaching followed by a night of working the gate at a ballgame.

I do miss the interactions with the kids and fellow teachers. You see, I taught high school Spanish or French for 25 years and served as a middle school principal for seven years. Each job had its drawbacks, and to be honest, I enjoyed being a principal for the most part. I loved working at the school in the summers when I could dress casually and work on scheduling and plans for the next year and interact with the teachers/coaches who were in and out of the school during the summer months as well as the interacting with the custodial staff.

Being a principal gave me a new perspective when I returned to the classroom. I understood more why principals had to do the things they did, and I understood that principals were not looking for what teachers were doing wrong. Instead, they (most) were looking for what teachers were doing right. I learned so much from the teachers I evaluated and incorporated some of their methods when I returned to the classroom.

It’s the students, though, I miss the most. They kept me young at heart and up to date with what was going on in the teen world. Sure, I was one of those teachers who thought I had to teach bell-to-bell (our supervisors told us to do that), and if I could go back and do things over, I probably wouldn’t do that all the time. I like to think my methods improved over the years, and as I learned how to do things in different ways, I think learning improved. I hope so.

Back to the students though. Most of them were great kids. They made me laugh. They made my day when they told me they finally understood something they’d been struggling with. I loved it when they came to my room before or after school just to chat.

To those of you still teaching, I get it. Summer break is wonderful and desperately needed to refresh and regroup. I know you’re burdened with a mindset of parents unlike any I had to encounter. Parents today, from what I’ve been told, don’t believe in holding their children accountable for anything, and I saw some of that in my later years of teaching. Like the parent who called me one week before school was out to give her son a passing grade when his absenteeism had been extremely high and he’d never made up the tests and quizzes he missed, resulting in a failing grade for every six weeks, yet she called one week before school was out? So I have an idea of what you’re putting up with. A slight one.

You may be discouraged and feel you’re not accomplishing much. You may feel students are not learning responsibility and accountability. But keep working at it. Keep trying. You’re making a difference with some if not most.

And someday, when you retire and find yourself no longer important or needed in the lives of students, you might miss it.

I know I do.