touche

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Home : 2004 : November : 19

touche
By joanne

My district is very much like yours. Especially in the secondary school (I sub all grades), it’s a good day if maybe 30% of the students are doing their work and no one is actively yelling, fighting, or running around the
classroom. (I don’t know how you manage jr. high: generally 3 students are doing their work, and the rest are standing on the tables, running out of the classroom, or pouring glue on each other).
After the fifth student is sent to the office (at least two for fist-fighting), the others will ask me if I am mad. My usual response is, “No, I’m not mad, just disappointed. It doesn’t have

to be this way.” It really is incredibly disheartening. The teachers spend all of their time dealing with behavior issues, the actual material gets incredibly dumbed-down, and in the end very little is taught. (I was teaching a 12th grade Biology class once and the topic of the day was “Development”: This means things *grow*, or “change over time”.)

On a positive note, though: I am white teaching in a primarily minority district. I was originally worried about this but was pleasantly surprised when I found it to be no problem at all. The students were beautifully colorblind and except for not being referred to as “sister”, I’ve never been treated any differently.