While I was working at a summer camp a few years ago, I witnessed an eight-year-old boy punch a fellow camper in the face over a capture-the-flag dispute. I removed the perpetrator from the field, gave him a stern lecture, and told him he would have to sit out for the rest of the game. The boy/criminal sat quietly, obviously embarrassed, on the side of the field, and when he returned to the game he was well-behaved. The boy realized he had made a mistake, and he was quickly rehabilitated.
A couple of days later, I learned of another counselor who had given a similar punishment to one of his campers. The difference was that the ten-year-old boy threatened to sue. Sure enough, the counselor soon found himself in the front office, in front of his camper's parents. They wanted the counselor fired.
Thankfully, the camp directors dismissed the claim and removed the child from the camp instead. The directors said that all campers must obey the rules or they would not be allowed to attend. They trusted their staff to govern to the best of their ability, and the administration gave us their full support.
I was surprised. I expected the counselor to be reprimanded severely, numerous hearings to be called in which the parents would reveal their list of demands, the camper to be pardoned/applauded for his actions, and for "sensitivity focus group meetings" for the entire staff to be created. I thought that a sensitivity trainer would be added to the staff to troll around the campus. Since the child was a little on the rotund side, I expected to be lectured on respecting people's differences.
Fortunately, the camp directors were not mindless adherents to political correctness, and the "problem" was quickly eliminated.
I wish my bosses at this camp were in charge of the public school system in this country.
There was a time when teachers were allowed to punish students as they saw fit. Over the years, the power has shifted to lawyers, who control what teachers do in the classroom. Parents have the ability to call hearings when they feel their son or daughter has been treated unfairly. Many teachers are terrified of the repercussions of discipline in their classes, and as a result the students do not respect authority. Then, our "experts" wonder why public schools are "underperforming." The answer is so clear?um...not enough money?
Money is not the solution for schools. Study after study shows that the amount of money spent per student has a weak correlation to how well the students perform. It is a fact that inner-city Catholic schools far outperform their public counterparts?for far less money. However, problems facing public schools are almost always attributed to lack of money.
The real problem is that a bureaucracy built on political correctness has taken over education. Teachers are muzzled. Power is taken away from the teachers and given to the students(!) and their parents. Teachers must defend their decisions to the administrators, student, and parents instead of focusing on their work. Gone are the days where the teacher made the rules. Now, the teacher must appeal to a governing body of lawyers who have never taught a class.
To make matters worse, the process of becoming a teacher has become increasingly muddled, thanks again to government bureaucracy. Instead of college graduates teaching classes in the subjects they majored in, they must get certified to teach first. What further certification do you need beyond an expertise in the subject you are teaching? The truth of the matter is that attaining your "certification" means getting brainwashed by political correctness. Potential teachers do not learn how to best teach a class, but how to make every student happy.
Now, the "experts" wonder why college graduates flock to teach in private schools, even though they get paid significantly less to do so. First of all, they do not need to be certified, yet the quality of the education in private schools, in most cases, is far superior to public schools. Sure, students sent to private schools are often times more educated and motivated, but does that mean that public schools should always remain second-tier? In private schools, teachers get more control over their classroom; they receive more support from their administration; more freedom to teach in their area of expertise, they receive much less red tape and no brainwashing.
Until our education "experts" recognize that money is not the solution to our schools' problems, we will continue to fail. Power must be returned to our teachers.