Chancellor Dennis Walcott has proposed a significant weakening of the student discipline policy, especially in the classroom. For example students can no longer be suspended for cursing at a teacher, using their cell phones or ipods in the classroom, or defy a lawful command by the teacher. Moreover, the student can no longer be removed from the classroom for excessive lateness or their failure to work in class. These new rules are in draft form and can be found here. What is really amazing is that our next potential Mayor, Christine Quinn, otherwise known as Michael Bloomberg lite, wants to weaken it even more. Just unbelievable. Maybe these people should spend some time in the classroom before they develop these flawed education policy directives.
The new draft regulations recommend counseling for many student infractions and limits teacher authority to remove a student from the classroom. Weakening the student discipline code is short-sighted and harmful for the student in the long term. What the weakening of the student discipline code will do is to further reduce student responsibility and make them ill-prepared for the adult world. I have seen first hand what happens to a school when the Administration allows the students to run the school.
Can you imagine a student who went through high school showing up late to class, always text messaging in the classroom, and frequently being unprepared to work (no notebook or pen) and the only thing that happened to him or her was to take an occasional online "credit recovery" course that took less than a week to finish. The result is that the students receives an undeserved diploma. In my present school this happens far to many times and is a way to artificially raise the graduation rate.
Now this academically unprepared student tries to join the work force and since he or she is used to showing up late, having poor work habits, and disrespects authority guess what happens? Right the now ex-student cannot hold a job because companies will not tolerate lateness, poor work, or lack of respect.
These ex-students move from short-term low paying job to the next and may never become a productive member of society and the reason is that the schools never held these students responsible for their poor academic work. I actually saw this at my usual breakfast spot.
Rather than weaken the student discipline code, we should strengthen it and hold students responsible if they are to become responsible and productive adults. Did the Chancellor ever hear of "tough love"? Oops, there I go again using a bad word (love) I hope the Chancellor does not sic SCI on me.
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And I have seen first hand how they come in to college. It is a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteChaz, it is just another way that they can blame the teacher for lack of learning. In my next job (assuming I get one) because I work in one of those schools being "closed" and a new school (i.e just changing the name and number of the school, so they can fire the staff school) in its place, I might just say screw it. Why put my neck on the line? As a teacher of a non tested subject, why not just fly under the radar and let everything go? The DOE does not want teaching anyway.
ReplyDeletewhatever happened to the 'genorous' buyout for atrs?
ReplyDeletesorry...I agree with the Chancellor on this one. We need teachers in classrooms that can handle the students they get.
ReplyDeleteThere are just too many teachers who lack classroom management. I firmly believe that if you cannot handle a certain type of student, you should not be in that school. there are plenty of schools with a majority of well behaved students.
Suspensions is not a good solution and it is nice to know that the DOE is moving away from that.
We need more teachers in these classrooms that can actually manage the classroom.
ReplyDeleteHey Coach, or should I say DOE puppet, I agree, management is important, but here's my question: What do you do when administration does not have your back, you can't raise your voice at the student(verbal abuse), you try calling home and six numbers are out of service and when the kid knows that what you do is wrong and that he can lie about you and faces no form of being reprimanded if he/she lies.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know, you are gonna give me the polyanna 'that doesn't happen' line, but it does. Remove your lips from the mayor's back side, please coach
Why don't we hold the parents responsible? If your kid cannot control himself/herself, he/she is with the parent for the next 5-7 school days. Here is the work. Your job. No free daycare, no more free lunch(literally), and the parent will have to do what their highly paid babysitter(teacher) do on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteI said this to an AP and her jaw dropped and she slipped the phrase,'you can't say that although it's true' under her breath
Let's take this a step further. Since Mr. Bloomberg has authorized these rule changes, these must be the rules in effect at Bloomberg LLP. So cursing out your boss of a daily basis is acceptable. Using a cell phone and computer for personal use on company time is acceptable. Arriving late and missing meetings is acceptable. Arriving at the workplace and completing zero number of defined work tasks is acceptable. Lastly, telling your boss that you PREFER not to complete certain work duties is acceptable. This must be the new business model and we need to explain to our students that this is what is expected of them when they go out into the adult world.
ReplyDeleteI have excellent classroom management and the Chancellor and all who agree are wrong. This is not about training the teacher's in classroom management.
ReplyDeleteStudents who refuse to behave as students in a classroom should be kicked out and administration must deal with them!
These are tactics to place teachers in situations where it makes it extremely difficult to achieve a high percentage of passing students. Then, their evals are low, teacher's are in danger of being U rated, terminated.
BAM! Walcott obtains ultimate goal.
IT IS NOT ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S EDUCATION!!!!
IT IS ABOUT THE REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH!!!!
Unless the SAVE law has been repealed, that law supercedes any language in the discipline code. In fact, Chancellor's Regulations on student discipline outlines the procedure teachers must use in order to remove any student who interrupts instruction. The SAVE Law is a state law and cannot be trumped by the discipline code or regualtion. I doubt many staff members know the SAVE option is in existence.
ReplyDeleteWow, no story on wackjob principal (former) John Chase who is now hanging out as an ATR A.P. at Wings Academy in the Bronx?? Chaz, even the Post and Daily News hasn't gotten this yet! Dumb ass parents at Wings can don't even know, not that they care.
ReplyDeleteHey coach, I agree with your comments but what percentage of the schools in NYC have a large percentage of students with well behaved students. Are there any in the inner city?
ReplyDeleteCoach:
ReplyDeleteWhile it's true that most students are well behaved and respectful, the 5-10% of students who are the root of the problem are not disciplined by the Administration. The result is called the "broken window theory" when the normally well behaved students see no consequences they soon act up themselves making it harder for the teacher to control the classroom.
Given the anti-teacher policies of this NYCDOE, I don't think they can really be trusted as a fair arbiter for what is or isn't right for students. I mean when "Are they really doing this in their misguided interests of the students? OR is this just another way of putting the screws to classroom teachers" becomes a question that's actually worth taking a moment to ask, I think there's a general trust issue with the leadership.
ReplyDeleteI spent part of Thursday in a training session about this and the typical anti-teacher sentiment over it was, as usual, palpable.
You need to be a lawyer to interpret this new screwed-up discipline plan. It shows that Walcott has never ever been in a school incognito. Let him walk in to sub one day as a civilian at most any middle or high school. Though this plan though lays out a detailed step by step plan, I've had children killed and raped on the street for talking trash and aggressive behavior. They weren't thinking The Plan. What does this new plan teach or enable? More lousy acts of violence the school system, in kissing the ass of parents, will teach our kids to perpetrate. This is the end of most schools. So many kids do poorly in school for bad behavior....I need a lawyer to bring back, "in loco parentis", Latin for those who don't know, "in the place of a parent".
ReplyDeleteStudents are required to obey Education Law §3210(1)(a), and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it!
ReplyDeleteRead Schwartz v. Schuker (298 F. Supp. 238).
http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19690327_0000024.ENY.htm/qx