Teachers and Principal "On Strike" for more respect from kids? Pathetic!

March 02, 2004

From Joanne Jacobs we learn that all 16 teachers and administrators from a pair of charter schools in Tucson, Arizona went "on strike" demanding more respect from students and more dedication to school work.

This is one of the most pathetic stories we've heard in a while, those teachers and administrators should be ashamed of themselves for several reasons. First, for going on strike and leaving children unsupervised (older students had to spontaneously fill in), because apparently parents weren't informed! They should also be embarrassed because this entire "problem" is entirely of their own making! How dare they blame their shortcomings on students!

We're deadly serious here. We do not fault students (or parents, or the neighborhood, or any of a number of irrelevant external factors) for school discipline problems. Discipline is the domain of the adults, period.

School discipline, like all other areas of school reform, is not rocket science.

The Tucson Citizen covered the story, which listed some of the strike placards carried by the teachers:

• "We're tired of excuses." No doubt the students are tired of your whining. A student uses an excuse for exactly one reason: it works. If you remove the currency value of excuses, students won't use them even a tenth as much.
• "I Quit Until You Care." This fairly begs the student response: "I don't care if you quit!" (Duh.) Our suggestion for the teachers? Quit worrying about whether students care, and do your jobs! If you are competent at teaching--rather than whining--you just might find students will in fact care.
• "Quit Wasting Your Time." Translation: "Transfer to a school that is not a waste of time." Good thing Tucson has a cornucopia of other charter schools (are you listening, parents?) from which to choose.
• "Quit Stealing Our Time." Is it being stolen, or is it given away? If teachers or administrators permit a student to disrupt the learning of others, the operative word is not "disrupt" but permit. Get it straight.
• "Try, Damn It, Try." It's not clear why grown ups felt the need to use profane language to get a point across to students, but why the plea for students to try? This only makes sense if students can survive in those schools (pass tests, pass courses, earn credits, be promoted from grade to grade, etc.) without trying.

The principal (who participated in the strike), Sister Judy Bisignano seems like a real progressive paragon:

"When students are disruptive, they're cheating you also. So why don't you tell them, 'Knock it off'?" Bisignano asked.

Yeah, that's real effective. Students just love it when folks do more talking in response to discipline problems. Talk, talk, talk, blah, blah, blah. Heaven forbid the two schools should employ consequences for disruptive behavior, oh, that students might respect?

"We had peers on our back this morning," 14-year-old Stephanie Lopez said yesterday, adding that the strike was like "the school just gave up on us. We're all a community so it's everybody's problem. We never said anything when someone was being bad in class. Sometimes we'd even laugh."

While we're tempted to throw a Pity Party, the reality is that these kids are caught in the middle. We adults cannot expect students who're given no behavioral guidance whatsoever to always do the right thing. That's sort of why there are adults in the school, to help guide students in a positive direction.

Absent this guidance, these kids can be expected to behave like kids.

"I really didn't realize how I was affecting the teachers," said Michael Muñoz, 15, who comes to class late and sometimes goofs off so the teachers can't teach.

Poor Michael was completely unaware of his negative behavior, oh, probably because he never received any consequences. They probably patted him on the head and told him how wonderful he was (and reminded him for the umpteenth time that the Mayans invented Zero, natch).

Rubbish. Might we dare suggest that Michael knew exactly what he was doing? Not that we fault him of course, it's fun to disrupt school when there's no piper to pay!

The students and teachers planned to continued their discussions today. "We don't know how it's going to end," said strike organizer Dace Park, an English teacher. "We'll make mistakes as we go along because that's part of life. But everyone has made a commitment to make changes and solve the problem."

Translation: "We don't know how it's going to end because we don't know what the heck we're doing or what we want. In fact, we don't even know the cause of the problem, but we're trying to score points by admitting that we're making mistakes as we go along, although any untrained observer could have told you that. What's important is our commitment." (Like syrup of ipecac for the soul . . . )

Park hopes the strike will encourage students to become good problem-solvers. "We need to find creative ways to understand the choices people make have consequences."

One symptom of chronic terminal progressive education syndrome is the inane ability to tie everything and anything to "problem solving." Note the focus is on "understanding" when these folks could use a few lessons in consequences.

"Are you still striking?" asked one girl at the end of yesterday's meeting. "I don't think we're still striking," Park began.

Real organized, knuckleheads, way to inspire confidence. Small wonder the students don't respect you.

"We're negotiating," hollered another teacher in the back of the big room.

"I think there's a good possibility of ending our negotiations tomorrow," Park added.

Could someone please tell us with whom in tarnation these morons are negotiating? (Oh, and way to sound like a union thug, although the overall effect is one of rank amateurs. Nice try.)

"I'm more hopeful than I've been in a long time," Bisignano said. Shortly after classes ended a parent called asking if she should send her child to school the next day.

"Absolutely," Bisignano said. "This is the best learning day we've had in a long time."

Hello? Let's get this straight, first you don't tell parents that you're going on strike, then you leave the kids unsupervised for five straight hours, leaving that job up to the older students. You then tell a parent that this was the best day of learning you've had in a long time?

That makes us wonder what kind of "days of learning" those schools usually have!

On the picket line, one striking teacher carried a sign asking "What part of respect don't you understand?" Memo to Principal and Staff: Students don't respect you because you're not respectable. Don't get it twisted.