How Do We Hold Students
Accountable?
Over
the years of teaching I have met many parents who used a variety of methods to
hold their children accountable. Some of
the parents were successful, and some were not. Two parents stand out in my
mind were the Gunderson and the Martinez families. Mrs. Gunderson had a set of
twin boys who were caught A.W.O.L. (absent without leave or as we say in the
education business: sluffing.) The two
were given a week of out of school suspension by the administration. Mrs. Gunderson insisted that school provide
her sons with all of their textbooks, missing assignments and assignments that
they would be missing during their forced absence. The school complied. The first day, she locked the two boys in
their room with their books and assignment.
As hour later, she went into the room to check on them. They were both gone. They had climbed out their bedroom window and
were gone A.W. O. L. again. When they
returned home later that day, Mrs. Gunderson was waiting for them. She had removed every article of clothing,
and every piece of furniture from their bedroom except a small table and two crates. The two boys were confined to their room in
only their underwear and instructed that as they successfully completed each
assignment they could earn back their furniture and when it was all completed,
they could earn back their clothing. The
next day the boys did not climb out the window.
They completed all of their assignments: both missing and newly assigned
and they never were missing from school again.
A
second memorable parent, Mrs. Martinez, required that her son, Aaron, to make
his bed before leaving for school every day.
Aaron was in my first period class and he had forgotten to make his bed
that day. His mother arrived at the
school and took her son home. She had
disassembled his bed and put it on the front yard, so Aaron had to reassemble
his bed and make it before he could return to school. It seems a bit harsh and irresponsible to
require a son to miss instruction time to make a bed, but this was a life
lesson. Her lesson was that even if he found making
his bed distasteful, he should never shirk his responsibility. Since I still know Aaron, I can assure you that
he grew to be a responsible husband, father, grandfather and executive in a
company. His mother’s lesson of holding her son accountable for a meaningless
task was an important lesson.
I
have heard parents (especially single mothers) tell me that it is just easier
to do the task yourself than to fight with a teenager to make sure he or she does
it. As I was a divorced parent when my
daughter was growing up, I know that it is easier, but is really what is best
for the child? I don’t think so. I wanted my daughter to be
responsible, but as a full-time teacher keeping track of everything she did and
didn’t do became difficult. When she was in middle school I learned she was
doing poorly in her religion class at the parochial school that she was
attending. Her excuse was she wasn’t
Catholic so it didn’t matter how she did in that class. Regardless of her
excuses, she was enrolled in that school so it was her responsibility to do her
best in each her classes. I gave her two weeks to raise the grade and during
that time she could not leave our apartment to socialize with her friends. After two weeks I called her teacher and the
problem was solved. I realized that this
was not only grounding her, but grounding me too, but as an adult I could
accept that consequence to teach my daughter to be responsible.
As
teachers, we require our students to do many trivial tasks every day. We ask them to bring their books, their
pencils, and their papers. We have due
dates for assignments and specific dates for tests and projects to be
completed. I have heard parents complain
that these are trivial and students should be able to complete assignments on
their own time schedule. If we are
preparing students to be responsible for the real world, they will need to
learn to make deadlines. I have heard
parents complain that their child should not be required to write essays or
read books because they don’t like to do that. In the real world, people have
to complete many tasks that seem unpleasant to them. I tell my students I don’t like to clean up
after my dogs, but what would my yard look like if I didn’t.
How
do we help our students become more responsible? As a teacher when we receive a substandard paper,
we should return it and require them to do it over. It is more work for the
teacher because the teacher will have to grade some papers three or four times,
but the holding the student to more rigorous standard may help the student
develop high standards for himself. Maintaining rigorous standards can be
difficult if the entire staff is requiring the same rigor. Students and their parents will often shop
for the easiest teacher, because they are often more focused on the student’s
grade point average, instead of the learning.
Your school is only as strong as the weakest link, so please try to get
everyone on board.
All
of us should learn a lesson from Mrs. Gunderson and Mrs. Martinez. Making
students accountable for their actions is a shared responsibility between the
parents and the teachers. To teach students to be responsible, teachers need to
act responsibly themselves. Teachers
need to be available before school and after school to help students and meet
with parents. Teacher need to grade
assignments in a timely manner to give students quality feedback on their
work. Teachers need to communicate
effectively and often with parents so all groups can help the child become a
responsible person. Parents need to make
certain students have a quiet place to study and that they are actually
completing their assigned works and turning it in. Parents need to check grades regularly and
contact the child’s teacher regularly.
The
truth is it is easier to let rules become slack and not hold students
accountable, but it is in not what students need. Students need rules. If you hold students accountable for the
small tasks, the big tasks will take care of themselves. Parents and educators need to be work together
to help students learn to be responsible.
