Wishes and Horses

  

By Kristin

I haven't seen "Mike" in class for four days and the online attendance system shows he's skipping most of his classes, so I phone his mother during my prep period to let her know.  Mike and his mom don't have internet, and she's not home when the automatic system calls to report an absence.  This is the third time I've called her in two weeks; she is not happy to hear from me, and I don't really blame her. 

She vents for about ten minutes, and I listen.  Mike hates school and she doesn't know what else to try.  I tell her I care about her son, and that he needs to come to class before I can help him love school.  But I know he hates school - I can see it in the way his body refuses to settle into the desk -  and I feel like I'm lying to her.  The call ends and I call "Steven's" home.   

Both Steven and Mike have a difficult time sitting still, and they both cut school.  Like many teachers I try to give students the chance to move but let's be realistic - my classroom is filled with desks.

Washington's Becca Bill , the legislation that works to fight truancy, recognizes that not every child will attend school if he has to sit all day. The Becca Bill requires schools to try different interventions to engage a child.  One of those interventions is to offer vocational programs.  Vocational programs?  We have classrooms where the metal and wood shops used to be.  We still have an autoshop, but the classes are already too full. Why were the other programs cut?  Because the state test kids have to pass to graduate doesn't test carpentry skills.  The state would like to say that every child will succeed in college, even though it's unreasonable to expect a child to pay to be as miserable in college as they are in a traditional high school.

If a child needs to attend school in order to be taught, shouldn't the state be paying attention to the strategies that help children attend school?  Here's my advice to policy makers:  return vocational programs to the schools.  They give us leverage to engage every child.  Academic skills can be taught through the medium of a vocational skill, but I can't teach reading to a child who doesn't come to class.  Let's use taxpayer money to create productive, successful, happy and healthy citizens and stop fooling ourselves that the only route to success is through the machinery of a university education.  It is not for everyone.

I wish I could steer Mike and Steven toward their passions and that my school had a variety of programs, but if wishes were horses beggars would ride.  Tomorrow I'll be on the phone again, or maybe Mike and Steven will be in class and I'll tackle the riddle of how to turn them on to reading and writing.  But really, I'm begging.  The horses were sold to make room for academics, and the pastures are filled with desks - some of them empty.

Comments

[kristin]

I think the answer is to provide a variety of incentives so that every child is motivated to get an education.

Right now the push is for the incentive of a college degree to appeal to each child. And, our policymakers say, if the child isn't interested in college it's our job as educators to make them interested.

That's ridiculous, as ridiculous as if the push was for producing poultry farmers. What if we were told that every child should be prepared to be a poultry farmer, whether he wanted to or not? How many children would stick around for that?

Anyone who spends time with kids knows that their interests and talents are as varied as those of adults. We should be working to help them develop their talents, even if that means we're graduating kids who can build boats, wire homes, or build canals alongside kids who will be doctors, lawyers, and scientists.

[chelsea]

I completely agree that we need to offer vocational training. I wish I could say that most of my kids are encouraged to do well in school because of their parents' expectations, the idea of going to college, sports, or something else. But, to be honest, the last couple of years it seems that I have almost as many that just don't seem to care as those that do. It is absolutely draining and defeating to try to put on a dog and pony show day in and day out just to get these kids to do the simplest of tasks. Especially when you know that you are sacrificing time spent with those kids that do care. Arrrgggg, what is the answer???

[Mark]

Good point, J. Broekman. I think what we're battling is the culture of Now, some would call it entitlement. However, I think that Brian's idea of the payment being in the form of post-secondary vouchers is intriguing. Though, as has been addressed above, many adolescents don't have the maturity yet for that kind of forethought to consider a few years down the road. We see that anyway.

I don't know what the answer is, but I agree that cutting vocational programs is not the answer.

[J. Broekman]

Mark and Brian,

I have students who get paid for grades. They don't cut, but they also don't have any interest in learning for its own sake: it's all about the grade.

I do think that paying students for grades should be an option for kids whose families would otherwise be pressuring them to drop out and get a job, or to leave homework undone to do other things. But, those kids need the money right away (not when they graduate) and other kids need not to be given money they'll spend on the latest $500 jeans (and then spend the next week complaining because someone spilled soda on those pricey jeans). I do think the intervention team should have some money they can use for paying students to be students, just as they now bring in food for the kid whose elderly guardian doesn't believe he needs to eat more than she does.

[Mark]

I like Brian's idea. I say we do it.

[Kristin]

Evin, One of the characteristics of adolescence is the lack of foresight. Many of my students know first-hand what it's like to wrangle with the housing authorities and survive on welfare. Many of them have parents who are undocumented and work long days for less than minimum wage. So, it's hard for me to grasp why they don't understand that if they work hard know they won't have to work as hard when they are adults. But they're kids, so they don't get it. Plus, I think they simply can't imagine a life different than that of their parents. There are organizations that do a good job of countering the cyclical nature of poverty - UW's Dream Academy, which pairs college students with high school students, MESA, and other programs like Summer Search work to show kids what an educated life might look like.

I benefit daily from an educated life. I also benefit by being white and growing up in a peaceful country with educated parents.

Despite the benefits of a life with a master's degree, I think there are many rewarding livlihoods out there that don't require the straight SAT - College - GED - Graduate School route. Boat building, landscaping, wood working, being an electrician, builder or plumber - all are great professions. I wish public schools acknowledged this.

Tom, yes, most children need some hook to get them to work. For me, it was my parents' expectations and the carrot/stick approach from home. My sport was a city team, so my grades didn't even matter for that. I think most of our students are slogging away for that college transcript, sports eligibility, or to keep mom and dad off their backs, but there are some kids who can't handle deskwork even in the face of all of those incentives.

And if we're not allowed to leave even one child behind, shouldn't the funding be there to meet the needs of every single child?

[Tom]

Having something other than academics is important. Sports kept my father in school, and he went on to a successful career as a cty manager. Music and dance kept my wife in school, and she's now an elementary school office manager. Our perpective as adults is vastly different from that of a teenager. It's easy to tell a kid to focus on school and it'll pay off in the long run. Of course it will. But kids, for better or worse, see it differently.

[Evin]

You know, Kristin, I've also been thinking about this very question. I would also like to say that EVERY student to go to college. But to be completely honest, not every kid is smart enough for college, or at the very least has the drive to go to college. However, I do tell my students that if in the next ten or so years, I see them on the street, I DO expect them to be in a family-wage job. Otherwise, they "best not say I was their teacher." McDonald's is only good enough for so long -- when you're single and without kids is fair. When you're paying rent and hospital bills? Not so much. And of course, my minority low-income students are the MOST likely to have kids at young age, so it only makes sense that they prepare themselves now for family-wage jobs.

Does every kid NEED to go to college? No. SHOULD every kid go to college? Absolutely not. However, it is crucial that we prepare students to be able to compete with the global marketplace. Because let's be honest: Many of our kids are competing with kids from other schools and countries that are "better than" them, however you choose to define that.

[Brian]

A friend of mine had an idea: pay them to come to school. $1,000 a year from Kindergarten through high school (five dollars and change per day). Payable upon graduation as a tuition voucher for college or vocational training, or held in a trust and paid at the age of 23. I know, it's crazy. Or is it?

[Mark]

I guess my comment is more about us than them... what can schools do? The answer is in Kristin's post, I think...we need to realize that not all kids are university bound and that's okay.