Show Some Respect to This Great Nation

I’ve been a substitute teaching just over fifteen years now and I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in the classroom, from bad apples who try to ruin your teaching time on purpose to some of the best students in the world who must in reality be geniuses because they have the ability to focus in the midst of all the classroom chaos caused by the bad apples.

The old saying, “One bad apple can spoil the who bunch” is a pleasant thought when you have 3-5 bad apples in each of your classes. It only takes one to spoil your teaching time, but 3-5 is almost unbearable. Why? Because you spend probably at least one-third of our teaching time per period telling the bad apples to stop talking, stay in your seat, what are you doing, don’t curse in class, just to name a few.

I consider myself a strong sub who can handle almost anything, behavior-wise that is. However, the other day, I must admit, I was speechless at the defiance of this one particular home room class.
As is customary in most schools, middle and high school, during homeroom period, the morning announcements begin with the Pledge of Aligence. This particular class was 100% Hispanic. As the voice over the loud speaker came on and said, “Please stand!”, I noticed that no one in a class of thirty students moved a muscle. I jokingly motioned through gestures throughout the pledge that they should stand up. Still no one moved. Instead, the students just looked at me with blank faces which I took as quiet defiance.
In my fifteen years of teaching, I have never experienced that kind of group defiance to follow a teacher’s instructions. I acted like it didn’t bother me at first. So as the announcements were being read over the P.A. system, I took attendance, still steaming at the defiance I had just witnessed. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. As I finished the morning role call, I immediately said, “Ok, just for my knowledge, I’ve got to know. Why don’t you guys stand up for the pledge?”

One kid, who sat a few seats away from my desk, calmly said, “We never stand up for the pledge.” As the student coldly said that statement, I flashed on all the soldiers who have died for this country, past or present. How would they react seeing such unpatriotic and disrespectful behavior towards our American flag? I thought about all of the immigrants, many who sacrificed everything to come and live in America, the land of opportunity for their families. How would they feel if they watched their kids disrespect the pledge for the country they fought so hard to move to?

I decided it was time for a class lecture on this subject whether they wanted to hear it or not. They seemed actually surprised at my reaction towards this behavior which let me know automatically that the regular teacher, also Hispanic, must say nothing about it.

I basically told them that I can understand why a terrorist would not stand for the pledge because of his hatred for America and all it stands for, freedom and opportunity – the last thing a dictator would want his people to know about. Why, because if you don’t know freedom exists, you would never desire to escape to a place with better conditions. In your reality there, there is no better place.

I also told them that their sitting lifelessly during the pledge is also a slap in the face to their parents, many of whom busted their butts to get to the United States “legally” to make a better life for their family. “How would they feel to see you disrespect the American flag in this manner?”  Whenever I’m at a soccer game when I hear the Mexican National Anthem, I stand simply because that the respectful thing to do for any country’s national anthem.

I was reminded a while back when immigration issues were hot in the news and talk about illegal aliens was on everyone’s tongue, I kept hearing the phrase, “It’s all about Mexico!” My question is, if it’s all about Mexico, why are you living here in the United States? Those issues were not all about Mexico. They were setting the standard for immigrants and illegal aliens from countries outside the U.S.

My whole point for this entire blog is to say, “Show some respect for the country you live in. If you don’t like it here, leave! That’s one great thing about America, freedom of choice. For those who fall in the disrespectful category, it may be a great idea to refresh yourself as to what living conditions are like in other countries to get a better understanding as to why so many people are migrating to the United States. It is a wonderful melting pot. But only by respecting each other and each other’s cultures can we really be successful in cohabitation.”

Bring Corporal Punishment Back into the Schools

After teaching for 17 years and observing the deterioration of classrooms in the today’s schools, I have come to the conclusion that the chaotic state of affairs in the schools today is the result of the decision to take corporal punishment out of schools years ago that has now gotten to the point where it is jeopardizing good teachers and good students and giving power to the bad kids who could care less about learning anything.

            What used to be called a problem in the inner city schools has now spread into schools in all areas in and around Los Angeles.  In many schools, the kids are running the school due to weak administrations more concerned about getting money from the state for each kid’s attendance than being concerned about that same kid’s poor behavior or learning abilities.

            Parental support is becoming a thing of the past as parents could care less what their kids are doing in school as long as the teacher is handling them, doubling a well paid babysitter.  If you are a parent participating in your child’s activities and well being at school, then your job is as challenging as the teacher’s challenge in doing whatever it takes to get your child to learn what they have to know in order to survive and be productive in this world.

            Countless students from a variety of schools have told me that the reason their homework wasn’t done was because it is too many distractions at home, some complaints have been to the point where we teachers are required by the state to report certain conditions under the child endangerment, child abuse laws.

            Parents too busy, a home too noisy, out of control siblings making the home  everything but an atmosphere for learning.  What does this do to a classroom?  Answer, it turns what should be a learning environment into out of control den of pure chaos for 6 hours a day where some students after all that, still seem to be able to concentrate and complete their assignments on time.  

Does the movie, “To Sir with Love” ring a bell?   For those who don’t know the movie, it is about a new teacher who is assigned to a classroom from hell and transforms it from a class of out of control barbarians to a class of focused students who want to make something of their lives.

Unfortunately, that is what teachers today are expected to do over and over again because of the problems mentioned above.   The problem is more and more good teachers are burning out and leaving teaching all together because of the same problems.

Why, because the classrooms have turned into total madness, not because the teacher is not a disciplinarian, but because since the removal of corporal punishment, kids know their rights.  They know they can’t be touched, and as a results, they will push a teacher to the point of road rage, heart attack, panic attack and any other health problems caused by this kind of stress.

At first, before the mid- 90’s, when corporal punishment was taken away initially from teachers, at least it was still administered by deans.  That intimidation and fear still maintained control in the classroom.

But when corporal punishment was taken away from the administrators, all hell broke loose and has gotten worse and worse over the past several years to the point now where students are confronting teachers, cursing at teachers, standing up to the teachers’ backups, security personnel and sometimes, even the administrators themselves.

Even though the current trend is to give bad kids “time out” to think about their actions and consequences that follow, that technique, though effective for some, as proven repeatedly, is not effective for those who come from streets of violence, gang-banging, abuse at home and other traumatically violent backgrounds. 

The boot camp programs have been heavily criticized over the past years due to some out of control techniques applied by certain instructors.  However, tough love programs, when applied correctly, have been successful in converting hardcore kids who have no respect for anything, not even themselves.

Something has to be done and quick before the worst generation to date consisting of more and more disrespectful, out of control kids take the baton and ruin what’s left of this chaotic world.