SCHOOLHOUSE/MADHOUSE: shame on us

Some schools resemble madhouses rather than schoolhouses. For instance, there are public schools in Philadelphia with a daily absentee rate of 20%. That's right,, one fifth of the youngsters are absent on any given day. And those who do show up often are an hour or more checking in. Nevertheless, their teachers are held to account when these same kids score poorly on high stakes tests. It is plainly ridiculous, even Kafkaesque, to hold teachers accountable for failing to teach children who aren't there. Nevertheless, it happens. Indeed, it happens — regularly.

Thousands more children are physically present, but emotionally and intellectually absent. Instead of focusing on learning, they are wondering where their next meal is coming from, if they will end up homeless, if Mom is going to be "entertaining" still another guy, if she will be high or drunk again, or if she might end even up beaten half to death by an abusive "boyfriend." There also are kids who are scared to death that they are going to be assaulted, even killed, by a gang. Others are too depressed and/or angry to give a damn about school. Some even make far too much money standing sentinel for drug dealers or peddling drugs themselves, to think school is anything but a place where you can drop by from time to time, raise disruptive hell, or take shelter from bad weather.

In this other America, schools are so chaotic that learning and teaching border on the impossible. This is particularly true when their"educational leaders" fail to back teachers in matters of order and discipline. That's when schools devolve into scary mad houses. No one, no matter how skilled or determined, can teach, or learn, in the midst of such chaos. Yet "management" fosters the pretense that teaching and learning are taking place and teachers are expected to join in the charade.

Engulfed in chaos, kids who actually want to learn tune out and turn off. But a surprising number of teachers put up with it. Are they just waiting to retire? Are they demoralized to the point of inaction? Have they bought the teacher "accountability" nonsense and blame themselves? Do they desperately need a job? It's hard to tell why these teachers tolerate the intolerable. But it is easy to determine that holding teacher's feet to the fire while ignoring anything and everything that makes teaching impossible is damnable, dishonest and foolish.   

It's not as if these impediments to learning are invisible. They could not be more obvious. Yet few, if any, allowances are made. Instead politicians demand that teachers produce positive results. "No Child Left Behind!" They blithely ignore reality and hold teachers "accountable."  And that means teachers are held to account for failures that they have no means to correct. There is no surer way to demoralize and embitter a caring teacher. There is no better way to drive the best and the brightest out of teaching. No one should be held accountable for things they can't control. As my life-hardened Granny puts it, "Ya can't pick boogers with gloves on." 

Where does that leave us? With an acute shortage of qualified teachers. Instead we are filling the ranks with whatever cannon fodder can be dredged up. Of course, many of them will also be gone in no time. This is not a way to prepare America for tomorrow. But we are so busy quarreling, playing "gotcha' and biting each other in the ass, that this looks like it's the best we can do. If so, shame on us!