Dear H.C. the Problem is P.P.P.

While pondering my options during the Medicare sign up process I took a break to read the letters to the editor section of the Indianapolis Star.  One letter was entitled, "More effort needed to keep students in school", was submitted by H.C.  After I finished reading the letter my first thought was H.C. you are neither a teacher nor work in a school.  The following is taken directly from the letter to the editor submitted by H.C.  "Perhaps there is a need for schools to do more to identify potential at-risk students during their early school years and institute special programs involving school administration, the community, the parents and the students designed to ensure the children's successful education."  Interestingly H.C. makes no mention of the teacher in his letter to the editor.

I'm in total agreement with H.C. that potential at-risk scholars need to be identified early in the education process and they are.  If you want to know who the at-risk scholars are don't ask administration, don't as the community, and for God sake don't ask the parents because most at-risk scholars are products of P.P.P., just ask the teacher.  Ok, here you go.  The acronym P.P.P is piss poor parenting.

My view from the back of the room sits right in the middle of the classrooms that teach kindergarten and first grade.  During the last school year I was introduced to five scholars that fall into the category called at-risk and they all came from a kindergarten classroom.  You met one of them, Little Dude, back on the April 16th post.  He was easily the most disruptive but sadly the other four weren't far behind.  It makes me smile a little when I think back to the first time I walked into the kindergarten room and observed the behavior of these five young scholars.  As I walked up to each of them with my best I'm serious and you better straighten up look I was actually thinking young scholar what and the hell is possessing you.  Interestingly when I placed these young scholars on their butts in a chair right next to me in my classroom the disruptive behavior ceased. Well, mostly ceased with the exception being Little Dude.

So the issue of identifying at-risk scholars as H.C. mentioned is not really necessary because the teacher can easily tell you who they are starting in kindergarten.  The real issue is once they are identified what do you do with them.  H.C. mentioned special programs and I'm fine with that with once exception.  Whatever the program is it can't have the word "special" in it as that will assign permanently the tag "special education" and that is a label no scholar deserves.  So, what are our options to get these five young scholars at my school and potentially thousands across the country back on track?  I have two thoughts and they have to be implemented simultaneously.

Here is my first thought, any scholar that is identified as at-risk needs to be removed from the general population and put into a small class size so that the proper attention can be given.  The way I see it this at-risk scholar has been the product of P.P.P. for at least five years.  She/he is way behind socially, emotionally and academically and being in a classroom with fifteen to eighteen other scholars makes it impossible for the teacher to focus on the skills needed to get caught up.  Ideally the class size for these at-risk scholars needs to be limited to five or six.  A class this size immediately causes a funding problem but I guess you have to answer this question.  Do I fund the classroom or just let the at-risk scholar continue to be totally disruptive, struggle in school, drop out in the ninth or tenth grade and then have the potential to turn into a menace to society by getting involved in criminal activities?  I'll let you decide if you are in favor of additional funding or just wash your hands of the whole situation.

Here is the second thought and the one that will be the real challenge.  As a good friend of mine in Michigan said "why don't we teach morals anymore?"  I suspect that it hit a nerve with a few of you but before you go off pontificating state your qualifications to disagree.  Here are my friends qualifications to bring the subject up, thirty five plus years in a classroom and has seen personally the damages caused to hundreds of scholars because a parental unit failed miserably at teaching self respect, having integrity, keeping self control, keep a promise, telling the truth, be tolerant of differences and treat others the way you want to be treated.  In addition to the matter of a lack of morals in school are these two comments from my friend.  I see with my scholars a "permissive parenting style...parents don't tell their kids no which causes a lot of problems." She went on to say I also see the same issues in Flint, MI that you see in Indianapolis, "babies having babies, or teaching girls that they don't have to submit to every guy that comes along and that men take responsibility for their actions."  I don't have nearly the classroom experience that my friend has but I believe see is dead on about the lack of morals being taught in school and that needs to change and quickly.  Still disagree about morals being taught in schools?  Fine!  Just answer these questions.  Do you think an at-risk scholar who is five years old will get lessons in morality from her/his nineteen year old single mother?  Do you think an at-risk scholar who is five years old with get morality lessons from his father who was great at planting his seed but has literally disappeared from the scholars life?

As I said at the beginning H.C. was right in stating more has to be done to identify at-risks students and special programs needs to be developed.  Fortunately the special program that is needed does not need to be developed as it already exists.  It calls Morals 101 and it will fit nicely with the other special programs at my school that we call P.E., music, and art and it needs to start with the 2014/2015 school year.