The End of an Era

Hello-
I have been gone for a while.  Sometimes when you have nothing good to say, it is best to stay quiet.

You all may be aware that the governor came in and replaced five members of the Dekalb school Board.  Our system is broken.  Our teachers need support.  Hopefully with the intervention from the state our board will start to change their ways.

I am retiring from teaching.  I really could stay in the profession longer-just not in Dekalb county.  I believe that when you breed a culture of fear, instead a system that encourages opinions, that this is very harmful to our actual customers- the students.  Dekalb County does whatever it takes to satisfy a certain clientele and that is not helping the students.  I know other professionals in other counties and their nightmare is a parent enrolling their child into their county.  The parents have trained to think they have the power to tell school officials what to do.  This is pretty much the standard in Dekalb County, but it is not the philosophy in the surrounding counties in Georgia.  If you go to school in Rockdale, Gwinnett or Cobb counties, the school decides what your class schedule should be.

Last week I had a parent of a student that had been placed in jail two months ago, ask me to have him make up his work.  Now- he was in jail for a week and he threatened the life of another teacher at my school.  He came back to school and did nothing in class(as he had done the whole year).  He had four weeks to try to make up his work missed and did not.  Now he has transferred to another school and his mother wants him to have a passing transfer grade.  So next Friday I get to stay after school and administer a test he missed in January-because he refused to take it then.  Does any of this make sense?  Don't you think that the most important lesson at school should be that if you make the wrong choices that there should be consequences for your actions?

I refuse to fight.  The reason for this is I will get no support from my administrators if I refuse to let him make up his work.  The truth is:  he was a special ed (Behavior Disorder-go figure) student in a class of 40 other students.  He never did his work on his own.  He copied all the time and he was always disruptive in class.  Did he deserve to pass last semester- no!  He made a 70 then because his special ed teacher and I did what we could to make him turn in his work.

I feel helpless as a teacher as far as discipline and attendance are concerned.  I have students that have 15-20 days tardy and i have assigned them detention and they don't show up.  I have called home and the parents are generally supportive but they really don't have any answers or suggestions. The only thing that matters is that their child passes my class.

Don't get me wrong- I love a majority of my students.  I love engaging them and challenging them to learn new material.  The problem is that when you have 15 students in a class that want a challenge, 15 more that do not care to think and 10 that are disruptive, that is a recipe for disaster.

What are the most important things that Dekalb Schools need to do?  Get tough on discipline, ignore the parents who are enabling their children and focus on attendance issues.  Support your teachers!!!!

Oh sorry- I guess I ignored the first line in my little story!  Oh well-it needed to be said!
Momma T