Do you think that we coddle and over protect our students? Are we making things harder for them in the long run when they have to face the real world?
I'm not so sure I agree with everything that we have to do for our students, especially some of the special ed/behavior problem students. How will these students ever become productive citizens? No boss anywhere is going to modify anything for them. They will be expected to behave themselves and follow the rules and do their jobs just like every other employee. The boss is not going to give a flip that they had an IEP, a "behavior modification" plan, or anything else to help them get their school work done. The boss is going to want them to get the job done or get out.
I don't think any boss any where would put up with the behavior that we put up with. The boss is going to show them to the door and tell them not to let the door hit them in the a$$ on the way out. Kids have to learn to appropriate behavior or they will not be able to function in the world.
I read an article from a GA Tech advisor. She was describing what she called "helicopter parents." These are the parents who "hover" over their kids to check on things, to do things for the kids that the kids should be doing for themselves. She said the kids are not kids anymore. They are adults, yet they don't know how to take care of their own business. They expect mama and daddy to bail them out of every situation. The students don't have any idea of how to handle their own business.
Are we encouraging this behavior? By modifying everything, by not allowing the student to fail and learn from his mistakes, by coddling and over protecting and hovering, are we doing a disservice to all these students???
Connie,
ReplyDeleteI see students everyday that somewhere someone told them they had some kind of problem and instead of making the problem right, someone found a name for it. They decided not to fix the problem but excuse it with some kind of scientific study they heard about. There was a police officer that came to our school to talk about the drug problem in our society today and to inform the teachers of what to look for. When one of the teachers asked the officer why the police didn't stop the drugs because anybody can tell where the drug houses were. His response was he did not want to get political but the liberals make it so hard to prosecute that you have to make your investigation perfect or the person would just be out on the streets the next day. That's a lot of what is wrong with the schools today. There is no disipline because there is a name for every posible disiplanary problem because politicians are more worried about votes than what is right and they don't want to loose any votes so they just excuse actions and give it a name. I think that the only way these problems will end are to start punishing the ones who do the crime not giving them an excuse. Make people responsible for their actions. We are teaching the kids of this Nation that no matter what they do it's O.K because there is someone out there who will find a name for it and that they don't have to be responsible because Dr.Feelgood says it's o.k.
I agree with you that some teens are way too coddled by their parents today. I think of my own grandparents, both children of immigrant families who had to work at very young ages to help support their families. My grandmother lied about her age, saying she was 16 in order to get a job in a dog biscuit factory at age 13. Then, my own parents married and started a family while my mother was still in her teens. I think previous generations were more responsible and better behaved because their struggle for survival depended upon being mature, polite, and resourceful. I'm not sure how much we as teachers can make in-roads against the tide of immaturity and irresponsibility we face in our students. All we can do is establish the ground rules for behavior and success in our classes, and then stick to our guns. It's tough because our message is not a popular one, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteConnie, you said what I've been wondering about for years now. It's sad the way some of my students seem to think that "mommy or daddy will take care of it". Take, for instance, the child who has a parent on the school board. It's all so politically minded and if the student is mad enough and tells his school board parent, you usually don't have a chance to give your side of the story because their mind is already made up. My own children are homeschooled for many of the reasons we have blogged about lately. While my oldest has a learning disability and will not be able to be the star student, she is learning LIFE SKILLS that she wouldn't have learned sitting in a high school classroom that will make her a better person. I know from experience that not everyone is book smart. We as a society need to realize that too and focus on those who are being labeled for the sake of making excuses for lacks in other areas.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a world where a materialistic approach is the norm. The majority of people want more(look at the forclosure problem, some people want bigger and better even if they can't really afford it)than they can afford and are not willing to wait for it. It takes both Mom and Dad to work in order to pay a lot of needless bills. When Mom and Dad both work little Johnny and Sara get neglected. Then they grow up with the same bad habits and the whole thing becomes one big nasty cycle. It's a loss of real values that is to blame for a lot of these problems. It's the trend that our country is taking.
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