Our Legacy: What is Important

 

Our Legacy: What Is Important?

By Jill Jenkins

As an educator and as a parent, I wondered what is the most important lesson I wanted to instill in my daughter and my students. I recognized that the world I was preparing them for would be so immeasurably different from the world I knew or could imagine.  Do we find the answers in the countless lessons: karate, violin, soccer, little league baseball, volleyball or is it something we need to provide in our homes like the lesson I learned from my maternal grandmother who always served tea at ten A.M. with toast and at four P.M. with a sweet treat?  She made the tea from tea leaves and let it seep for a long time before pouring it into china tea cups. We sat together and chatted about our lives. She would explain that the Americans are always in such a hurry, but by taking our time and enjoying each other’s company is how we became civilized.  I found this advice useful when I taught alternative education.  When a student needed correction, I provided refreshments although not in china tea set, let them talk about their situation and quietly asked questions to lead them to resolve whatever behavioral problem I wanted them to correct.  The conclusion was theirs or so they thought and they felt someone cared because I took the time to listen.

My Family’s Legacy

My mother’s childhood revolved around surviving the great depression. My grandparents used whatever means was possible to feed, and house their children including bootlegging, illegal cock fighting, running a family chicken farm while my grandfather worked full-time as a glazier. My maternal grandparents not only raised six children of their own, but my grandmother’s two brothers and her sister’s two children after her sister’s husband shot his nine-month pregnant wife, and abandoned his two children. Furthermore, they shared the responsibility of caring for my grandfather’s eighty-year-old, widowed mother.  Although my mother wore dresses made from flour sacks, the family still found the resources to feed sack lunches to whatever stranger knocked on their door who might be riding the rails to California.

My father lived with his divorced mother after his alcoholic, philandering father abandoned the family.  His mother took her two young boys: John, five years old and Keith, three years old, to live with her affluent parent’s house.  My father told me he learned the value of a job well done from his grandfather who paid John and Keith five cents for mowing his lawn, which was enough money to go the theater on the corner and I buy an ice cream afterwards.  Each time the boys completed the task, his grandfather would shake his head and say, “It’s not good enough.” They often mowed it three times before they earned their nickel.  Seeing the devastation that his father had caused his mother made him vow that he would always take care of his wife and children and never allow his wife to work. 

 

My Life

My family was never affluent or even middle class, but we did have a loving mother who was always home when we came home from school and a father who provided not only a split-level in a working-class neighborhood, but weekend camping trips and vacations to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Disneyland, and we traveled from the Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Mexico in our Chevy Suburban and Shasta Trailer. Although we didn’t have the luxury of little league, violin lessons, piano lessons, karate lessons, soccer practice or football little league, we did take tap lessons for twenty-five cents at the Neighborhood House and we had a large extended family who loved us and enjoyed our BBQ on our back patio and our famous Christmas parties.   There was love and structure.  For each meal the table was heaped with food and if an unexpected guest arrived my mother reminded us of our manners, only take a little so everyone gets some.  The food was passed from right to left after a blessing was said and each only took his or her share. Once everyone was served my father would begin and we were free to eat.  It was a happy place but all of us remembered our manners and showed respect to whatever guest we were sharing our meal with. Service to others was one of the most important legacy that my parents left me. My father never passed a stranded motorist without stopping to render assistance. My mother’s house was filled with children of neighbors, friends, and family that she gladly watched while their mothers ran errands, worked or just took a break.  For three years she cared for her elderly mother until she succumbed to the cancer.  They both offered financial assistance and meals to children, grandchildren and neighbors.  When my father’s childhood friend’s daughter found herself pregnant with an out of work teenage husband, they sent her to Utah, where my father helped them find work, an apartment and helped paid the medical expenses for the birth of their baby. 

My College Years   

Although my parents could not understand why I wanted to go to college, with the help of my high school counselor, Dee Anderson, I applied, and got a scholarship to a prestigious, private, liberal arts college.  I soon realized that I was woefully unprepared to compete with my more affluent classmates, who had attended private, parochial or more affluent public schools. I was socially handicapped because I could not swim, ski, ice skate, water ski, ride a horse or a bike and I didn’t play any musical instrument.  My solution was delayed gratification. While my friends partied, I studied, asked a lot of questions and read everything I could. I graduated early with honors. The legacy of my grandparents and my parents had served me well. I had been resourceful to get into college and arrange the scholarship and I used my work ethic to succeed.

Teaching

  Burdened with student loan debt, instead of continuing my education and becoming the attorney I dreamed of being, I took a teaching position at the same high school that I had attended.  I thought I would postpone the dream that I had had since the government had taken my grandmother’s house to built the interstate.  They didn’t give her enough money to buy another chicken farm, so she had settled in a small cottage and my aunt and uncle still living at home had taken out a mortgage to finishing paying off the difference.  I thought this was a huge injustice to a 65-year-old woman with cancer and I dreamed to rectifying such injustices.  However, I soon learned I could make a difference by teaching high school.  I was determined to provide my students with a more rigorous education than I had received. I would cringe when I heard my older colleagues announce that my more rigorous curriculum was unnecessary because these were working class students who rarely attended college.  Like my parents, they saw the world through a generation that had already passed and I felt it was wrong to pigeon-hole students in predetermined futures. My parents legacy of serving others had provided me with a satisfying career.

Parenting

After twelve years of teaching, I became a parent.  As a parent I made a list of all the activities and skills that would have made my colloquial experience easier and I made certain that my daughter experienced them. I sent her to parochial schools, gave her violin and guitar lessons, took her ice skating, roller blading, bike riding and horseback riding. I sent her to drama camp, museums, theater and all kinds of musical performances. I sent her traveling all around the United States and Europe while sacrificing my own vacations, new clothing, and selling assets to pay for her trips: my piano, and my car.  She did well, receiving a BA from my alma mater and MA from a prestigious college in New York.  Although I rarely see her, she has become a successful photojournalist and musician in the Big Apple.

In Conclusion

Life isn’t fair.  Some people have abundance and waste their lives because they never learned to appreciate their luck. Some people have little, but are rich in all the ways that really matter, because they freely share their meager bounty with others.  Lucky for me, I experience life with people of that nature. They gave me everything I needed to be successful and happy.  What is important for children to know:

·         First, a sense of responsibility for themselves, their families, their community and the world;

·         Second, a sense of being loved and valued as a human being;

·         Third, this is a highly competitive world and they are going to need to be highly skilled in some auxiliary activity:

o   The arts

o   Sports

o   An intellectual endeavor.

Schools and parents need to recognize this and provide opportunities for students who are financially handicapped. We can not know where our children’s or students’ lives are going to take them, but we need to teach them to respect one another, have a generous heart, and how to challenge themselves to develop skills.

Why We Must Teach the Consequences of Hatred

 Why We Must Teach the Consequences of Hatred

by Jill Jenkins 

I have always loved science fiction because the literature freely exposes social evils and ethics without overly offending “those so blind they will not see.” For example in H. G Wells novel, War of the World, aliens attack and invade earth destroying everything and everyone in their path, until they are killed by a virus.  Likewise, the European attacked, enslaved and murdered indigenous people in the Americans, but unlike the aliens in Wells’ novel, the indigenous people are destroyed by the virus.  The parallel between the science fiction is rarely discussed in schools, because revealing the atrocities in history are often denied by some parents and may cause conflict.  Education should not be controlled by the prejudices of a few loud parents.  Truth should triumph. 

The recent destruction and disrespect demonstrated in the United States Capital reminds us that this hatred leads to violence. As a results, schools shouldn't ignore the threat, but should  teach about the pain such groups have imposed on marginalized people in our history.  The problem created by hate does not get resolved by sweeping it under the rug.  We must embrace the mistakes we have made in the past, teach the consequences of such hatred and teach students the ethics of our constitution: “All men are created equal." 

Even though America is suppose to be haven for free speech and fee thought, schools rarely teach controversial historic incidents.  For example even though I have lived in Utah for 60 of my 66 years, I knew nothing of the Bear River Massacre where over 200 Shoshone men, women, and children were massacred just over the Idaho border along the Bear River. The plight of Native Americans aren't the only persecuted group in the United States.  Recently I was watching a documentary on PBS American Experience “The Chinese Exclusion Act” which described how mutilated and decomposing bodies of Chinese Americans floated down the Snake River in the spring thaw.  A group of Chinese American gold miners were attacked by local White ranchers on the border of Idaho and Oregon who tortured, mutilated them my slicing off body parts before shooting them and discarding their bodies into the Snake Rivers.  Were the murders apprehended, prosecuted and punished? No, they were released and never punished.  

I was reminded a story my husband told that he heard from his grandfather.  As a child his grandfather lived in the small mining town of Winter Quarters, Utah.  A community of Chinese American lived and worked in the mining camp.  Fearing the Chinese workers might take their jobs, the mine collected the Chinese population, forced them into a train car and sent the car careening down the canyon.  In the morning, the miners walked to tracks to find the remins of the Chinese workers, but all they found was an empty train car lying on its side.  Despite the horrors of these acts, they were never mentioned in any school curriculum in schools.  Never allowed to be mentioned. 

What about justice for all?

In the November 29, 1864 675 man force in the Third Colorado Cavalry under the command of Colonel John Chivington killed and mutilated 70-500 old men, women and children. Sand Creek Massacre where Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians were wintering.  Since many of the men were on a hunting trip, the majority of victims were women, children and old men.  To distinguish themselves the soldiers created souvenirs from the body parts they severed from their victims.  The outrage felt by Sioux tribes probably led to the destruction of General Custard and his men at Little Big Horn.  I never learned about these events until I was in my 60’s.  Certainly, these events should been taught in schools. 

What about the miners in Winter Quarters?  I guess there was some justice, but it was not delivered in our court system, because on May 1, 1900 the largest mining disaster in Utah and for a time the United State occurred when an explosion killed as many of 246 miners.  Even this disaster was never mentioned in any classroom in Utah. 

Justice for all will not be learned because a teacher wears a t-shirt with the words “Be Kind” emblazoned on it. Hatred is dangerous, as the recent incidents have shown us.  Schools need to hold active discussions abut what respecting one another looks like. Furthermore, those who attack others verbally or thought their actions need swift and appropriate consequences.  Students need to be empowered and taught appropriate ways to confronting and stifling those bullies who continue to derogate others. In Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents she describes an incident in the first class section of a plane, where a white man inappropriately pinned her in while getting his luggage and no one spoke out in her defense.  Students need to learn to recognize inappropriate behavior and stand up for those being marginalized by others.  Empowered children become empowered adults.  This also doesn’t mean that teachers and staff can keep order in their classroom and ignore inappropriate behavior in the halls or the internet. I have seen some truly abhorrent behavior in my teaching career.  Students once filled an expectant girl’s locker with feces because they felt being an unwed mother was immoral.  Children need to learn that treating another human being with such disrespect is even more immoral.  Children who behave in such a manner are capable of behavior even more indecent. Teaching ethics must become the job of the entire staff and administration.  I know of principal who was dismissed because a gym teacher allowed a student to perform in black face.  The principal had no knowledge of the pep rally performance, but he was responsible for happened in the school.  

How do school approach teaching tolerance.  Maybe using science fiction is a start, or discussing the results of other hate filled incidents that have happened in United States, so students are aware the actions have consequences and hatred is a problem in the United States and not just in places far removed from them.  Teach student how to show respect and kindness and how to confront others who treat their peers with disrespect.  Stomping out hatred and violence that results from should be the goals in every school.

This is A Teachable Moment: Using the Pandemic as a Learning Situation

This is A Teachable Moment

By Jill Jenkins

            With the media blasting statistics on the death toll from COVID 19, parents protesting face mask mandates and social distancing and schools struggling to create a safe way to reopen schools, educators have an unprecedented teachable moment to teach curious students about how the human immune system works, the history of pandemics and medicine, and how they can protect themselves today and in the future from viruses. The fruit for learning is ripe for the picking.

Luckily there are some great sources out there. National Geographic just published a great article entitled Stopping Pandemics: What We’ve Learned from History’s Deadliest Outbreaks” by Richard Conniff in the August, 2020 edition. The article includes descriptions of how the small pox outbreak could have been prevented or eradicated in 1721.  It describes how even earlier the European devastated the native population with small pox, measles and other diseases that had native population had no immunity.  Throughout the history of the world, new diseases and virus have decimated the world’s population.  Knowing that the world has faced pandemics in the past could help students cope with the current pandemic.  The article included this list of pandemics throughout history and the number of deaths: 

·         The Plague of Justinian 541-48 in Byzantine Empire 50 million deaths

·         Antionine Plague 165-180 Roman Empire 5 million deaths

·         Black Death 1347-1351 Global 50 million deaths

·         Cocoliztil 1 1545-48 Mexico 15 million deaths

·         Small Pox 1519-1520 Mexico 8 million deaths

·         Cocoliztil 1576-78 Mexico 25 million deaths

·         Russian Flu 1889-1890 global 1 million deaths

·         1918 Flu (Spanish Flu) 1918-1919 Global 80 million deaths

·         3^rd Plague Pandemic 1894-1922 Global 10 million deaths

·         Cholera 6 1899-1923 Global 13 million deaths

·         Asian Flu 1957-1958 Global 13 million

·         Hong Kong Flu 1968 Global 1 million

·         HIV/AIDS 1981-present Global 32 million

 

Furthermore, the article gives detailed descriptions of medical advances beyond those in the small pox developments of 1721. During the Chorea outbreak of 1842 Edwin Chadwick’ revolutionary idea that the cause of the disease was raw sewage in the drinking water was revealed in his publication of The Sanitary Report. Chadwick led people into the home of an impoverished citizen where three feet of human waste had backed up. He described that the filth from the jailhouse holding 65 prisoners ran down the street. Making the connection between sewage and drinking water revolutionized sanitation through out the civilized world. Learning about his accomplishments could help students understand how pandemics advances medical development

Another example of how pandemics promotes solutions to medical problems is the story of John Pringle described in this article. The article describes how 75% of Napoleon’s solders died of Typhus in 1812 and more soldiers in every army died from disease than war wounds, until John Pringle an army physician suggested sanitation changes in his book Observation on the Diseases of the Army.

            In my lifetime Polio afflicted 15,000 people in the United States every year according to the article.  Most of my generation knew a friend or a family member who was afflicted.  Now the disease has been virtually eradicated from earth.  The article discusses the development of the vaccine by Dr. Salk, who began human trials in 1955, but it wasn’t until 1957-58 that communities were given sugar cubes soaked in the vaccine in local schools.  Students will gain a greater understanding of the difficulties in developing a vaccine for COVID 19 and how important community support is to eliminate a disease, but it can and has happened with other diseases. Giving students hope is paramount.

     Understanding past pandemics means understand the history of medicine. For years people believed disease was caused by bad humors or filth and refused to believe a germ too small to see could cause disease.  Germ Theory developed by Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur’s research significantly changed the approach to infectious disease.  The article describes their work and even describes the Ebola disease in Africa. Inspiring students who might want to pursue a career in medicine or medical research is possible.

     The article describes the development of penicillin by Howard Florey.  This was particularly interesting to me because during World War II significant amounts of penicillin was manufactured (2.3 million doses for D-Day).  My father was serving in the Philippines when he fell ill from bacteria spinal meningitis.  He was the second sailor to be given this new medicine, which had never been given for that malady. He was the second sailor whose life was saved by a disease that until then was a death sentence. Students believe that history is far removed from them.  Helping them understand the medical developments have happened in their parents, their grandparents and even their lives will give them hope. 

Knowing how important these medical advances have been, I think it is important to grasp this moment and teach children about them.  Having students read this article and select a disease or medical breakthrough to research on their own and write a research paper could help them understand the situation we are now facing. 

Other important materials that a teacher might use might include either of the two books:

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John Barry.

 

  Or even more fascinating is Pale Rider: The Spanish Flue of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney

Since students learn more from a variety of mediums, an appropriate film for students to view to gain greater understanding is the CDC movie, The Influenza of 1918.

 

     The teachers could create a variety of writing assignments from researching one of the many pioneers of medicine and writing about how their work and dedication is an honorable pursuit.  The teacher could coordinate with a history, a science and/or a health teacher and write about how individuals contributed to modern medicine. More importantly by studying the past, students who might be fearful about COVID 19 may learn how people in the past protected themselves and the mistake that were made and develop a personal plan to move through the current pandemic.   

According to National Geographic Magazine November 2020 Volume. 5 “The Science We Must Trust by Robin Marantz Henig LIn Andrews, director of teacher support at the National Center for Science Education have created a five-part lesson plan with ten of her colleagues. The unit focuses on epidemiology and the scientific process. By exploring milestones in epidemiology like when the British scientist, John Snow traced the outbreak of cholera to the drinking water even before germ theory. Check out the article if it could be useful in creating a teachable moment from an educational dark age.

 

Black Lives Matter: Make Education More Inclusive

Black Lives Matter: Make Education More Inclusive

By Jill Jenkins

The NAACP proclaimed in a public service announcement,  “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This is still true today.  Education is the key to improving the quality of life and upward mobility to all people and with the growing gap between those who have and those who have not, quality education is even more important for the success of any individual.  More Black and Brown people have been provided fewer financial and educational opportunities for decades, but making education more inclusive could make a tremendous difference in the quality of education they receive.  How do we make education more inclusive are: first, invite unrepresented minorities to join extra curricular activities; second, provide academic and emotional support; and third, help families solve problems with flexible and personal solutions.          

Invite Students to Join Extra Curriculum Activities

In many schools Black and Brown students often do not participate in any extra curriculum activities beyond sports like track, basketball and football.  Although these sports often help elevate these students by offering scholarship opportunities, they do little to help the student who is not athletically inclined.  Even though participation in drama, debate, journalism, creative writing, student government or even chess club also help students earn scholarships, many of these activities are dominated by White students.  Students may avoid participating because they are working to help their financially strapped families.  Others may not join because they don’t see any of their peers participating.  Adolescence is a very social period.  To alleviate this problem, one school where I taught personally invited groups of friends to join.  It worked, they joined and they did well.

Problems

As the debate coach and drama teacher, I experienced some difficulties.  For examples, when I took a group of debaters to an predominately White school, two of my debate team members were cornered by a group of White students who were jeering and yelling derogatory racial slurs.  Luckily, another team member retrieved me and I was able to intervene and ended the incident.  However, at another school a similar incident happened to a student with less self control who retorted to their ugly comments with some vehement of his own.  The principal of that school asked me to give him bus fare and send him back to school.  When I consulted my principal, he agreed with the solution; however, today, I would have taken my entire team back and ended the competition.  When I sponsored an after school debate meet at my school, one little girl from a local parochial high school was so frightened that she locked her knees when she stood up to speak and fainted. 

Solutions:

•              1.  Luckily the district decided to cut costs, and required that the three high schools share buses when going to week-end debate meets.  The social interaction between the students from the poorer area of town (my students) with the more affluent areas created a community that looked out for each other.  As a result, there were less incidences of racial conflict.
•             2.  Collaborative work with people from differing race groups and social-economics improves relationships and understanding.  A better approach to help all stud enters interact in a more positive way and learn the argumentative skills for debate might be a workshop where suburb and predominately White schools and urban Black and Hispanic schools take workshops taught by debate coaches from both types of schools.  Activities might include discussions on controversial topics, not necessarily racism, where each student has to paraphrase what the speaker before him says before adding to the discussion.  It teaches listening and the students learn that they have more in common with each other than they believed.  Then, pair the students with a student from the other schools mixing races and economic backgrounds and given the research material and the time, they collaborate to debate together as a team.  The next day, the new teams debate one another. Although winning the debate for the school, would be lose, but learning to work with new people could be an invaluable life skill.

Another Problem
 

            Another problem that I encountered is when I cast an experienced young acting student as Alice in Alice in Wonderland who happened to be Black.  I was called into the principal’s office because a parent had complained that she didn’t understand why I had cast a Black student when her daughter, who had no experience in theater, looked exactly like Alice. When I was the artistic director of Self Inc., an improv psycho-socio drama troupe, I was called into the principal’s office again because another parent had complained that seeing mixed racial families in improvised scenes about communication in the home made her feel uncomfortable.  Be prepared as a teacher to justify doing the right thing and if that doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to call in members of the community, ACLU or NAACP.  They are all friends to education.

Add Emotional and Academic Support Programs

At another urban school where I taught 90% of the students enrolled where minorities and 10% were White, but the enrollment in the honors programs was 90% White and 10% minorities and most of them were Asian.  The administration designed a program called Century Club, similar to AVID developed in San Diego.  Low performing, but bright students were identified and interviewed.  Forty students were selected and enrolled in honors classes, but given a support class where the teachers monitored their grades, made certain they did their assignments, tutored them and taught them study skills. Since many of these students were from parents who worked several jobs to support their families or were single parent households, some lacked the language or academic skills to help their children, the school simply stepped in and helped the student get the support that was usually available in most middle class families.  As a teacher, I also helped students get counseling, social work or drug rehabilitation help when they brought me a problem I couldn’t solve. 

            In other schools I have seen students fall through the cracks because schools failed to provide additional support.  For example, I taught one young man who was a refugee from a village in Africa.  He spoke a language that no one in the district spoke and understood and spoke, no English.  He was enrolled in a class with 35 other 9^th grade Language Arts students and expected to do the curriculum.  When I complained to the administration, I was told to buy a few programs for your IPad for him and just pass him.  I tried my best to help him, but feel it was less than adequate. Many students fall behind for reasons that aren’t in their control. I had another student whose mother was so afraid of ICE she would pull her children out of school and take them to sit in the hospital whenever her husband went into the hospital for dialysis. As a result, all of these students were years behind their classmates.

Flexible Rules that Solve Human Problems with a Flexible Approach

            Schools are designed to accommodate the “Leave It To Beaver” families of the 1950’s and few families, especially families in Black neighborhoods are that family. In most working class families are financially unstable as a result both parents work and older children either work or are burdened with caring for younger siblings.  If one or both parents are incarcerated, the high school student is often attending school, raising younger siblings and supporting the family financially.  Families in stress often need a little wiggle room in the rules to survive.  Often it is a small alteration, like one of my students who watched her younger siblings when her mother left for work.  When her father arrived home, he took her directly to school, but she was usually five or ten minutes late.  Excusing such a tardy seems trivial, but it can help a family immeasurably.  I had two students who were failing their first period because they were terminally tardy, when I called their mothers, I learned that both students were single parents and woke their children before leaving for work, but the two lollygagged about and were tardy.  I suggested a solution.  I would call the two everyday before I left my apartment and pick them up on my way to work (something because of liability teachers could not do today).  For a week the two were on time, but because teachers are required to be in the building 30 minutes before school started, they decided that they could get to school on time without my help.  They did. 

             Another situation arose where a young Black student began submitting papers that were illegible and illogical.  I showed his papers to the counselor who decided to call his parents in for a meeting.  From the meeting, we learned that the student’s mother had recently passed away and he was living with his father and paternal grandfather.  Since his father was an elementary teacher two blocks from the high school, we decided that during his last period of the day, we would walk to his father’s school and tutor his father’s students.  The extra time and the helping other students, brought out of his depression and his academic skills returned.  Thinking outside the box often helps student who are suffering some personal loss.

In Conclusion

            In conclusion, schools need to become more inclusive if students of color are to succeed.  We need to invite students to participate in extra-curricular activities and advocate for them when they meet obstacles.  We need to provide emotional and academic support for students to perform in a rigorous academic curriculum.  We need to communicate with families and in a personal and flexible manner help them resolve problems they might be facing.  “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Lets not waste any.

Following CDC Guidelines When Returning to the Classroom

            When I taught in middle school and high school, classes were crowded with 35-40 students and hallways during class change were like a cattle stampede with 1500-1600 students in the middle school running to their next classes while crowds of 9^th grade students milled in large groups to socialize.  In the high school it was worse.  Three to five thousand students trudged like a large organism shoulder to shoulder.  They were packed so close together that it would have been possible to crowd surf over their downturned heads while the din of half muffled of yells and altercation when someone accidently stepped on a toe or the back of heal filled the hallways and the rustle of students weighted down by cumbersome backpacks filled with heavy textbooks slowly lumbered to their next class.  In both the middle school and the high school the smell of perspiration rose like a dark cloud over the hallway.  So, how do school even begin to imagine schools can keep students six feet apart? How do you keep students safe from Covid 19 when the air they breath is recirculated through the windowless classrooms all day long?

            One idea is to only require students to attend classrooms one day a week.  Teachers would work in teams: one English language arts teacher, one social studies teacher, one science teacher and one math teacher all teaching the same grade level. Each classroom would house ten to twelve students arranged in desks six feet apart where each teacher would teach his/her academic discipline for 40 to 45 minutes before the teacher, not the students would rotate classrooms; thereby, reducing the close contact found in class change times. There would be four rotations making it possible for each student to be instructed in English, social studies, science and math before lunch.

            For lunch each teacher could escort his/her students to the cafeteria to retrieve lunch and either eat in the cafeteria, spread out or return to the classroom to eat.  The food could be delivered to the classroom, but the problem of disinfecting the classroom before and after eating food could be a problem.  During the H1N1 Virus, teachers in my school disinfected the students’ desks and chairs after each class and met the students at the door with hand sanitizer before the class began.  The teachers’ not the district paid for these supplies, but today finding disinfectant wipes, let alone hand sanitizer is almost impossible.  Furthermore, my classroom had carpeting on the floor and walls making it difficult to sanitize.  So, extra supplies and manpower would be needed if needed.  

            The other problem with the plan is the poor teachers haven’t had a break from the students to use the rest rooms or eat lunch.  Team teaching with another teacher in the same discipline might rectify this problem; however, with teacher required to organize and teach classes and provide on-line assignments and zoom classes for all students at least four days a week, more teachers are going to be needed and many states are suffering from teacher shortages.

            What about electives?  Whiles these 40-48 students are taking their solid classes: English, social studies, science and math, 40-48 other students are taking elective classes: computers, art, dance, physical education, drama and any other elective.  Now, the two groups rotate.  The next day another 80-96 students repeat the process.  

            Are there problems?  Yes, this solution would require a lot of teamwork and planning.  While one set of teachers is in the classroom, other teachers are planning on-line assignments and teaching zoom classes.  Despite the teacher shortage in most states, more educators would be needed all who are well versed in their discipline, but also in technical skills.  Organizing students’ schedules might be challenging because not all students who are in advanced classes in one discipline are in advanced classes in another.  Furthermore, parents who had students in different grade levels or different schools, might want them to attend school on the same day which might be difficult if not impossible.  Teaching two or three sets of academic classes simultaneous on differing levels might make integrating students into the groups possible, but it would take detailed scheduling. 

            Physical contact with students will require faculty, staff and students to be screened and tested daily and requiring everyone to wear gloves and facemasks will make communicating difficult.  Students with autism and learning disabilities might find the situation unbearable.

        The advantages include buses would only transport 20% of the students daily which would make social distancing possible. Hallways would be virtually empty between classes. Although students would only have one day per week of face to face time with teachers , that time could increase learning and provide an emotional connection students’s need.  In the end districts might decide that on-line classes are more practical and economical.  All we can do is hope for a vaccine soon and that all faculty, staff and students are willing to get it.  

            

Covid 19 Who Is Responsible

It’s All On You

When I began my teaching career in the mid ‘70’s, the philosophy was schools provided an educational opportunity. Whether a child decided to partake of this opportunity or not was his/her choice. As a result a higher percentage of students from lower-socioeconomic groups or those with learning disabilities did not complete high school. Some families encouraged their children to drop-out to seek employment and enhance the family’s economic situation and those with learning disabilities or language acquisition left public schools frustrated that their needs weren’t being met.

Pass if Possible 

In the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, the philosophy changed. The student became less responsible for his/her education and the teacher became responsible for students’ academic success. Students were expected to succeed at his/her personal best. To guarantee this, administrators looked at the teachers’ failure rates, not the students’ mastery of learning. The administration monitored grades and confronted teachers whose failure rates were too high. Instead of evaluating a teacher’s instruction methods and student learning, teachers were encouraged to pass if possible. Teachers called parents  to increase a student’s attendance and completion of assigned work As a result grade inflation occurred. This continued into the ‘90’s when grades, not learning, became more visible for parents who could access teacher’s grades on on-line roll books.  During this time, parents would wait outside my classroom to inquire why their son’s assignment handed-in five minutes before didn’t appear in the on-line grade book. Worse yet, was the parent who e-mailed me about her son’s research paper that I hadn’t yet graded while I sat in intensive care beside my husband who was in a coma recovering from a near death heart attack. The responsibility had shifted completely away from the child to the teacher.

Mastery For All

When end of the year assessment began in the 2000’s, the philosophy changed again: the teacher was now not only responsible for every students academic grade, and learned the material to his or her potential, but that every student successfully mastered the learning objectives developed by the state and federal office of education for his/her grade level. Data on students’ test scored were aggregated by subgroup and displayed on state websites so the pressure was not only on the teacher, but the entire education system to improve education for all students. This meant the teacher had to make certain every child completed every assignment and test successfully, but provide scaffolding activities for students’ with learning disabilities, language acquisition issues and behavior problems. Teaching had become more complicated with fully integrated classrooms after mainstreaming became more prevalent. English language learners, students with autism, learning disabilities and behavioral disabilities were housed in the same class with 40+ other students on every learning level. While teachers were held to an even higher level of responsibility, students were encouraged to resubmit assignments that they performed poorly on and retake tests. Even students who plagiarized papers were encouraged to rewrite them without penalty,  Achieving learning goals became the goal rather than accepting responsibility. Still, new instructional techniques and the integration of technology improved instruction.

Working Together At Home

Then came the Corona Virus and the student were sent home to learn on-line. Surprisingly, despite a plethora of high level interactive websites, conferencing with teachers on Zoom,and virtual tours of museums, zoos,and aquariums, some students have never even logged on. After 40’s years of giving the entire responsibility for education to teachers, parents and children must assume some portion of responsibility for their child’s education. Returning to the days when students were responsible for either accepting or rejecting their education seems untenable because 50% chose to fail. We should not be surprised that some parents and children are having difficulties? Teachers need to call these families. If the child has no internet connection Comcast offers low or no cost internet to low income families or parents can call 844.488-8398 and Spectum also offers free internet. If the child or the parent needs encouragement to sit together and work on the assignments, the teacher should offer it. Analyzing and improving techniques to reach the reluctant learners will improve outcomes. The education of the child is not just the child’s responsibility, not just the teacher’s responsibility, but a collaboration of the child, the parent and the teacher. Responsibility for a child’s education  truly belongs to the entire community.

Don’t Weaponize Grades

Don’t Weaponize Grades

by Jill Jenkins

Recently, I recently joined an old grade school friend for lunch. During our conversation she described how a junior high math teacher had treated her unfairly.  Being a bright girl, my friend finished her exam earlier than many students and began chatting with those sitting around her.  The teacher said nothing; he didn’t attempt to correct her behavior; he didn’t chastise her; he didn’t accuse her of cheating; however, at the end of the quarter he gave her a failing grade from the class despite the fact she had completed all of the assigned work and performed well on all of the tests.  In disbelief, her mother went to school and confronted the teacher who explained that because she had talked in his class after she finished a test he had failed her as he considered it cheating.  After some negotiating he agreed to give her the better of two grades on her semester grade if her behavior improved.  It made me wonder about the students who looked at their grades in disbelief and no understanding as to why they received a failing grade and whose parents would never go to school and question a teacher’s judgement.  I was one of those students.  I too had a teacher who lowered my grade because of my behavior and I was left to my own volition to correct the problem.  The wrong was never righted.  Grades should never be used as a weapon against a student that a teacher finds annoying.  Grades should be a reflection of a child’s learning.

A child’s behavior in a classroom is often a reflection of his/her level of maturation. Children from ten to eighteen are going through puberty and their brains are flooded with hormones.  Sitting still, paying attention and being quiet are almost impossible for them.  Teachers need to adapt their teaching techniques to accommodate their biological needs and help them learn appropriate behavior, rather than punishing them for being a child.  I remember a substitute teacher complaining to me about a student who hummed when he took a test.  I told her that his engine was running.  Many students nervous noises and click their pen or hammer with a pencil on their desks when they are under the stress of test taking.  These are behaviors that the teacher needs to accept.  Students who are particularly bright will often talk when they complete an assignment or a test, so having alternative activities that can engage their brain can help them maintain quiet while others finish their tests.  It is also important to differentiate between talking because a student is bored and talking to share answers.  Cheating is different than socializing.

Why do students talk? 

• ·       Most students talk because they are social animals. When they complete a test or assignment, they are going to talk.  Some students will talk to anyone, so when you move their seat away from their friends and next to you, they will talk to the teacher.  I know because I was that student.  I recall in sixth grade being sent to the principal’s office for socializing.  I talked so much to Mrs. MacDonald, that she put me in an outer office to answer the telephone telling me that I was “in charge of answering the phone.”  When a group of firemen arrived and asked to speak to someone in charge, I told them that I was in charge.  Mrs. MacDonald rescued them laughing, “She really thinks she is.” 
• ·       Some students talk because they don’t understand instructions.  Asking a class if they have any questions is useless.  Adolescent brains are clicking off and on faster than a strobe light at a disco.  The solution is to have random students throughout every corner of the room, repeat the instructions.  If you offer an incentive like a piece of candy, they are more likely to listen more closely when they are given instructions.  Otherwise, expect the students to sound like a flock of chickens at the beginning of each activity.  They would rather ask each other for direction than the scary, old teacher. 
• ·       Sometimes they are exchanging answers, but be certain before accusing a student.  When accusing a student or a pair of students take them out in the hall away from the other classmates.  Ask the student to explain what he/she was doing.  Confront the student about what you saw and explain to the students why that behavior is destructive to their learning and their moral behavior.  Failing the student for that test is appropriate, but not failing the student for the class.  It is better to give the student a chance to make amends.  It would be more advantages for the student to be forced to right the wrong and still accept responsibility for his/her learning than to just draw a line in the sand.  For example, you could give the child a chance to retake a different test on the same learning material before school or after school, but only receive 80% of credit for whatever grade he/she earns.  Both parents and administration should be notified and the child should have to sign an official contract, taking responsibility for his/her behavior, and the learning being tested.   Make a big deal about it, because learning moral behavior and facing consequences is also important. 

Grades should never be used as weapons by teachers to retaliate on student behavior that he/she finds abhorrent.  That is a misuse of power.  They should never be used to punish inappropriate behavior.  They should only be use to evaluate the student’s learning.  Using grades as weapons destroys a student’s enthusiasm for learning and can reduce the child’s changes to future academic opportunities because grades are used for acceptance to college and qualification for scholarships.  Besides, it’s dishonest and vindictive.