It is all up to you! “I didn’t ask to be here,” “It doesn’t really matter,” or “It depends on my teachers, not me,” are some typical comments that assist, support, and excuse students from their responsibility as students. Of course, there are many other excuses, but they all come down to one essential idea: “I am not responsible for my life.”
The excuse, “I didn’t ask to be here,” is a reason that can license any behavior or activity. It is an excuse that says, basically, I do not have to worry or be concerned about my life. It is my parents’ fault, not mine.
The easy counter to such an excuse is much like the one used by those who question our presence in Iraq. They dispose of any discussion of Iraq by saying, “We shouldn’t be there in the first place.” The problem is that such a comment is irrelevant: we’re there! The question is, what should we do now? The clear question to those who use this excuse is: “Okay, you’re here, so what are you going to do about it?” When you stop blaming, you start gaining.
The second excuse, “It doesn’t really matter,” assumes that the first excuse has been resolved. It is easy to look at life and think of yourself, your life, and all that you do as insignificant, meaningless and inconsequential: “I’m just one unimportant cog in a giant machine that I can neither see nor understand. The world is just too big, and I am but an ant in a colony of thousands or even millions of ants — going nowhere, doing all sorts of work, and seemingly (from all human appearances) aimless and purposeless.
Fortunately, this excuse can be directly countered with evidence. Whether it is the value of a college experience (or any educational opportunity), the contribution that a single individual can make to society, or the value that purpose, direction, and goals can play in your personal life, all demonstrate with startling clarity, that life matters and that each single life can matter highly.
With just a slight attitude adjustment — the realization that “I am in charge of my life” — the results can be an important quality: that if I just take some time to look at where I’ve been, where I am now, and where I would like to go, I can begin to find order in the chaos, direction in the disorganization, and certainty in the confusion. It all depends on me!
The third excuse, “It depends on my teachers, not me,” often is trumpeted as a reason for disinterest, detachment, and boredom. There is no question that there are boring teachers in this world. Anyone involved in education knows this, and it is too bad. But, with a slight attitude adjustment, as mentioned above, students can achieve at new heights, discover new horizons, and come up with new truths. Teachers are not responsible for how much students learn! Learning occurs in students, and anything in this world can be a stimulus, a prompt, or an inspiration. Teachers are but one, textbooks are another, but there are other students, television, the Internet, the whole educational experience, and a whole world full of ideas to explore.
Here is the point: students are totally and completely responsible for any learning that occurs, and there is no situation in life that is devoid of opportunities to learn and discover. Even though teachers may be disorganized, drone on in sleep-inducing monotones, cover material you have already read in the textbook, or offer no questions or challenges of any kind, it doesn’t mean that learning cannot occur. It takes a vigilant, attentive, perceptive, and observant student to create meaning, produce substance, and develop something worthwhile. But, it can be done.
If students stop viewing their role in the process of instruction as a passive vessel just waiting to be filled and, instead, view their role as an active, involved, committed, and devoted participant in the process who is there as a sponge just waiting to assimilate, integrate, and appropriate information, the process of instruction becomes an active one that is alive with possibilities and potentials. Learning is a process of looking for information much as a detective looks for cues.
“I didn’t ask to be here,” “It really doesn’t matter,” and “It depends on my teachers not me,” are vacant, superfluous, trite excuses that hold no water. You may think they free you from responsibility, and they may, indeed, offer some momentary freedom for pleasure-seeking, self-gratification, and high living, but each one will come back to bite you where it hurts the most. That is, you will pay dearly in the future for your momentary hedonism. Drop the excuses, change your attitude, and recognize that it’s all up to you!
From the web site http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n109_v28/ai_13885868 at Bnet (Business Network) read the terrific essay, “Student Responsibility for Learning,” from Charles S. Bacon. He reports, “The present study was an effort to better understand student perspectives on responsibility for learning as suggested by the distinction between being responsible and being held responsible.” It’s a sophisticated essay, but it is both interesting and illuminating.
The essay at http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/93-8dig.htm is by Todd M. Davis and Patricia Hillman Murrell and is entitled, “Turning Teaching Into Learning: The Role of Student Responsibility in the Collegiate Experience.” It discusses what it is, why it is important, the foundation for it, and how it can be encouraged. Very good information is at this web site.
Thursday’s essay, “The Message Students Don’t Want to Hear,” is the third of a number of essays that relate to education. That I write essays on education, as I have said the past two weeks, is easily understood since I spent close to 48 years involved in public education as either a student or teacher. (This week’s essay is the kind that, if taken to heart, can change a student’s life now and forever!)
Share your And Then Some Story about your educational experience as a student. How long have you been or were you a student? How successful are you or were you? Can you tell us some of the factors that have made a difference in your life (that contributed positively to your experience as a student)? What are the characteristics of outstanding students? What would you recommend students do to become more effective? What would be YOUR message? Can you share your tips, stories, or suggestions regarding outstanding students? In what ways can being an outstanding student contribute to one’s life? We would love to hear your story. Do you have a friend, a family member, a neighbor, or someone you just know from a distance who has been an outstanding student? Can you tell his or her story? Feel free to use a pseudonym for the person’s real name.
Thursday's And Then Some Essay preview The Message Students Don’t Want to Hear by Richard L. Weaver II Excerpt: It is all up to you! “I didn’t ask to be here,” “It doesn’t really matter,” or “It depends on my teachers, not me,” are some typical comments that assist, support, and excuse students from their responsibility as students. Of course, there are many other excuses, but they all come down to one essential idea: “I am not responsible for my life.” -------------------------
Have you checked out And Then Some Book I: Essays to Entertain, Motivate & Inspire? And Then Some Book 1 is a collection of essays that lend themselves to the times when you only have a moment to spare. They are quick, positive, and encouraging. Definitely fuel for your spirit! Hear it from the professor himself...
It would be nice to believe all teachers are hard working, competent, and dedicated. Most educators fit that description, but as in every profession, there is mediocrity as well.
Having mediocre teachers “in the system” may be symptomatic of our culture. That is, what was once considered substandard is now considered acceptable. What was once merely average is now above average or excellent. When this social atmosphere prevails, true excellence is feared and must be challenged. If this is the same culture by which criteria are established for measuring competence, it is not difficult to see how it is partly to blame for mediocrity being protected — maybe even being undetectable.
Mediocrity can result from institutionalized incentive programs, too. Teachers have lifetime job security, and their pay is based on salary schedules that have nothing to do with talent, effort, success, or even on how much students learn. Great teachers are rewarded only if they leave teaching for other careers whereas mediocre teachers stick around knowing their weak performance is tolerated.
Another possible explanation for mediocrity is the education system itself. It teaches to the middle and sets goals no higher than average. And, if you were to watch mediocre teachers, the message is often in the nonverbal cues they convey — the way they enter the room, where they stand, how they engage the pupils, the use of insecure gestures, poor classroom positioning, and even the failure to smile. Seldom is it in how much knowledge they have.
Because the clues are, generally, nonverbal, students can judge the quality of a teacher within ten seconds of seeing them, and their judgments tend to be consistently correct.
The question is, to what extent is the mediocrity of teachers harmful to the education of students? One could argue that average is all right since it is so much better than substandard. What the system needs to do is rid itself of the lousy teachers, offer modest retention bonuses to the mediocre, and compensate excellence with pay raises, sabbaticals, free education, available and well-marked parking spaces, quality students, and other perks.
One of the problems may be with expectations. Should parents expect our educational system to turn every child into a genius? Should education be responsible for unleashing each child’s true potential? I don’t think it’s being cynical to mention that most students are average (half above and half below), and many — its true — are likely to grow up to be truck drivers and WalMart clerks. They will play video games, watch TV six hours a day, and surf the Internet— once their true potential has been unleashed, of course.
Our society has become obsessed with the illusion that everyone is special. Every one has some talent, genius, or brilliance that has been unfairly suppressed, and it is the responsibility of education, and teachers as the stewards of that precious commodity, to coax, prod, and goad it out of them. We could become a nation of gods, they believe, if only we had better teachers!
One point that is missed in all of this is that our teachers — mediocre or not — are far better than most students could ever utilize. Even mediocre teachers can offer more knowledge of higher quality than 90 percent of their students can absorb. Giving students a mediocre education is far better than teaching them answers to standardized tests. It was Robert Hutchins who said, “It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts...it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.”
The goal of education must always be recruiting quality teachers who can get students to think. The problem is simply that judging whether or not future teachers have this ability is like judging — before a marriage — whether or not a future partner will be satisfactory.
There must be more in-school training, more observation, more focus on the micro-skills of teaching. We can better utilize technology to coach and analyze what goes on within and beyond classrooms. With digital technology we can record then freeze-frame and analyze body language — how potential teachers use gestures, intonation, facial expressions, and eye contact — verbal mannerisms, as well as the proxemics of both trainee and established teachers. Why not have experienced teachers who are considered “master teachers” use microphones to coach and give trainees who are equipped with earpieces, instant advice and feedback just as it occurs in sports? Why wait until the end of lessons for retrospective, stale advice?
There need to be far more observations of trainees by a wide variety of teachers, and not just those who teach the same subject. Why not create a cradle-to-grave approach to staff development that expects career progression from all staff members beginning from their earliest years? Those who dare to teach must never cease to learn. Potential teachers must visit a variety of teachers to see how lessons are taught, knowledge conveyed, classroom interaction occurs, and students are challenged.
Performance management must focus on the skills teachers need to make them better teachers rather than on the hoops they need to jump through to get more pay or higher rank. Also, cradle-to-grave approaches to staff development should not just recognize the essential skills and experiences of older staff but use them — even retired “master teachers” — to mentor and tutor rookies.
William Arthur Ward, the educator, author, poet, pastor, and motivational speaker, said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” I contend that with cradle-to-crave approaches to staff development, all of these can be contained in a single teacher — not four separate individuals. There are times for telling just as there are times for explaining, demonstrating, and inspiring. We need to recruit quality teachers, true, but we need to train them, too, to strive for quality because to teach is to touch lives forever.
“Outstanding Teachers Share Tips for Success,” is an essay written for The Honolulu Advertiser, and it can be found at: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/18/ln/ln09p.html The tips here are from Katherine Nakamura and Clyde Hashimoto, and the article is written by Treena Shapiro, the Advertiser’s writer on education. These are great tips and useful for every teacher.
Thursday’s essay, “Dealing With Mediocre Teachers,” is the second of a number of essays that relate to education. That I write essays on education, as I said last week, is easily understood since I spent close to 48 years involved in public education as either a student or teacher.
Share your And Then Some Story about teachers you have had. Have you had mediocre teachers? Outstanding teachers? Can you tell us what’s the difference? What are the characteristics of mediocre teachers? Of outstanding teachers? Can you share your tips, stories, or suggestions regarding outstanding teaching? In what ways can outstanding teachers contribute to one’s life? We would love to hear your story. Do you have a friend, a family member, a neighbor, or someone you just know from a distance who has been turned on or turned off as a result of a teacher or teachers? Can you tell his or her story? Feel free to use a pseudonym for the person’s real name.
Thursday's And Then Some Essay preview Dealing With Mediocre Teachers by Richard L. Weaver II Excerpt: Having mediocre teachers “in the system” may be symptomatic of our culture. That is, what was once considered substandard is now considered acceptable. What was once merely average is now above average or excellent. When this social atmosphere prevails, true excellence is feared and must be challenged. If this is the same culture by which criteria are established for measuring competence, it is not difficult to see how it is partly to blame for mediocrity being protected — maybe even being undetectable. ------------------------- Share your 'And Then Some Story'
And Then Some Publishing, LLC wants to hear your story. Whether you share your story through our website, link to your blog, or have a website to share your story we want to hear it.
We hear the results in a wide variety of places. At a local nursery, the owner explained why most all of his helpers were women by using his thumbs to indicate that men’s problems could all be traced to a preoccupation with handheld video games. “All they want to do is play,” he said. Another local employer of part-time helpers explained that it is impossible to find qualified males saying, “There are few men who are even interested, and those few lack the qualifications. They don’t know much, and they don’t care.”
In a report by the Independent Women’s Forum of Washington, D.C., entitled, “Taking the Boy Crisis in Education Seriously,” (April 2007), Krista Kafer makes the case that, “Boys, not girls, are being left behind by our nation’s schools.” She backs up this conclusion in an astounding paragraph of findings:
Girls surpass boys in reading, writing, civics and the arts. Girls get better grades and more honors; they have higher aspirations, are more engaged in school and are more likely to graduate from high school and college. Boys, on the other hand, are more likely to be suspended or expelled, need special education, smoke, drink, and do drugs, repeat a grade, commit suicide, become incarcerated, leave school without attaining literacy, drop out of school or be unemployed. Marginal advantages in math and science for boys pale compared to the sheer advantage girls enjoy throughout school.
Kafer makes it clear that this is no “manufactured crisis” or a “backlash against the women’s movement” as some feminist authors have suggested.
A survey of high-school seniors found that girls are more likely to participate in music and performing arts activities, academic clubs, student council or government, and join the newspaper and yearbook. Also, they are more likely to participate in community affairs, or volunteer once or twice a month. The only extracurricular activity boys are likely to take part in is athletics.
A survey of high-school sophomores found that girls are more likely to perform community service, take music, art, and language classes, read at least three hours a week of non-school reading, and talk on the phone. Boys work on hobbies, drive or ride around, visit with friends, play sports, watch television, and play video games. Of those who said they watched 6 or more hours of television, 22 percent were boys and 15 percent were girls.
The public education system must respond with innovative strategies and environments that help boys and girls, because the consequences of these conditions are serious. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 60% of the new jobs being created in our economy today will require technological literacy, yet only 22% of the young people entering the job market now actually possess those skills. By 2010, all jobs will require some form of technological literacy, and 80% of those jobs haven’t even been created yet. Students must be prepared for a world that even we ourselves cannot completely anticipate. If students do not know how to learn, and if they do not have a desire to learn, adaptation to and flexibility within a new, uncertain environment tomorrow is unlikely.
What both educators and students must understand is that scientific knowledge is doubling every few years. As a result of breathtaking changes—the sudden growth of information technologies, medical breakthroughs, and advances in genetic engineering, for example—most major societal institutions are in a state of change. Yet schools remain much the same institutions as our grandparents attended. Faced with this flood of change—in large measure driven by science and technology—we are, as a society, failing miserably to produce an informed and scientifically literate populace.
We are in dire need of a serious discussion in this country about the importance of public education, what our children actually need to be taught, and the extent to which quality instruction currently exists. Schools need to increase everyday standards for classroom attendance, behavior, homework completion, and academic participation and cooperation. And consequences for not meeting these standards also need to be increased and enforced.
Failing to hold students accountable for inappropriate behavior and unproductive academic performance is a recipe for lowering standards to the point where individuals no longer believe that the rules apply to them. Often, students spend more time complaining about educational requirements they are expected to follow instead of attending classes and figuring out and using constructive strategies for passing.
Once we focus more on instilling academic values in our students instead of worrying about bruising their egos, damaging their self-esteem, or stifling their voice, our schools will finally begin to recover the ground lost to the specter of low expectations. Doing so will do more to indicate increased standards than any exit exam ever could.
Good schools that help boys and girls reach their potential exist in both the public and private sector. The existence of some of these schools, however, is insufficient. Public education must embrace innovation and encourage the replication of strategies—wherever they can be found—that will help boys and girls reach their potential. If this means allowing families to choose schools, single-sex schools or classrooms, new charter-school laws, unique scholarship programs, or instituting new math and science requirements, the development of innovative strategies must be the goal if we are not just to give every boy and girl the chance to succeed, but if we are to be successful in providing society with an informed and scientifically literate populace. Kafer writes that, “Successful single-sex classrooms and single-sex schools can have a positive effect on student achievement for boys and girls. Such environments can break down stereotypes and help girls attain high achievement in math and science and boys attain high achievement in reading and writing.”
Public education is important, but we need to approach it in such a way that we both recognize and emphasize its importance, but, most importantly, strengthen and improve it.
This Wikepedia essay on public education is outstanding. To read the essay, go to the web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_education Here, you will not just find the reasons for, funding and history of public education, also you will find an explanation of its development in Israel and Scotland as a foundation for the system eventually established in the United States.
At http://www.engines4ed.org/hyperbook/nodes/NODE-40-pg.html the essay is entitled, “Why Schools Fail Our Children,” and the essay is strong, but more important are the links to further brief essays on the role of the teacher, what does the future hold, why children lack motivation, and at least a dozen other topics.
Thursday’s essay, “The Importance of Public Education,” is the first of a number of essays that relate to education. That I write essays on education is easily understood since I spent close to 48 years involved in public education as either a student or teacher.
Share your And Then Some Story about public education. Have you been involved in public education? As a student or teacher? What was or is your experience? Can you share your tips, stories, or suggestions regarding public education? How successful have you been as a student or teacher? In what ways has public education contributed positively or negatively to your life? We would love to hear your story. Do you have a friend, a family member, a neighbor, or someone you just know from a distance who has been involved in public education? Can you tell his or her story? Feel free to use a pseudonym for the person’s real name.
Thursday's And Then Some Essay preview What is the Importance of Public Education? by Richard L. Weaver II Excerpt: The public education system must respond with innovative strategies and environments that help boys and girls, because the consequences of these conditions are serious. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 60% of the new jobs being created in our economy today will require technological literacy, yet only 22% of the young people entering the job market now actually possess those skills. By 2010, all jobs will require some form of technological literacy, and 80% of those jobs haven’t even been created yet. Students must be prepared for a world that even we ourselves cannot completely anticipate. If students do not know how to learn, and if they do not have a desire to learn, adaptation to and flexibility within a new, uncertain environment tomorrow is unlikely. ------------------------- Share your 'And Then Some Story'
And Then Some Publishing, LLC wants to hear your story. Whether you share your story through our website, link to your blog, or have a website to share your story we want to hear it.
You are responsible! I don’t mean giving your children “a safe environment for their growth, providing for their basic needs, allowing them to develop their own identity, nurturing their self esteem, installing moral and social values, respecting them, educating them, or even spending time with them” as explained in an ezine article on Parental Responsiblity by Nigel Lane. I consider all of these expected, obvious, and necessary parental duties.
In this essay I will discuss violence, obesity, reading, and manners. In each case, I hold parents responsible for the results each of us witnesses every day in our society.
“Childhood meanness always has been a part of growing up -- taunting other youngsters, playing malicious practical jokes, indulging in gossip and put-downs, vying for pecking order in snobbish (or rebel) cliques,” writes B. K. Eakman in an essay entitled The Seven Deadly Sins of Parental Irresponsibility. “Adults, especially parents,” Eakman continues, “used to rein in such conduct, being ever vigilant of youthful excesses. They looked around when they changed the beds, paid attention to the company their offspring kept (and idolized), said ‘No!’ to inappropriate apparel and entertainment, quashed disobedience and punished foul language.”
This is not to suggest that there aren’t other factors than parents alone in influencing children. But my position is that parents must bear the primary responsibility. Eakman writes, “The tendency to give smaller offenses a free pass as in ‘don't sweat the small stuff,’ especially in areas such as tact, propriety and orderliness, so that a child views life as a constant challenge to test the limits of parents' and society's tolerance.”
Finally, Eakman makes my case for parental irresponsibility: “Even toddlers recognize that, for the most part, adults today just go through the motions of child-rearing, occasionally mentoring, not wishing to appear unyielding, inflexible or dogmatic.”
Childhood violence is just one example, obesity is another. Phil Ian Goode, in an essay entitled, Teenage Obesity A Growing Problem Parents Must Not Ignore, writes about who is to blame for the poor eating habits and lazy ways of children and teens. He writes, “The blame has only one doorstep to be laid upon, that of the parents. If the household food purchasing patterns include maximal amounts of processed foods, foods high in fats and moreover high in sugar and/or takeaway/fast foods, then this is simply parental irresponsibility in practice.” Goode continues, “The same goes for habitually buying large shipments of mega-sized soda and cola drinks. These beverages are frequently caffeine based and therefore in effect ‘addictive.’ Parents who have developed the taste for literally gallons of soda a week in their children have a great deal of blame to shoulder if their child has turned into victims of teenage obesity!”
Like most unhealthy, unattractive, and unnecessary childhood and teenage problems and characteristics, parents need to set good examples, discuss the issues, and keep a close eye on their children and teenagers. Sure, society can serve up junk food, soda and cola drinks, and candy, but parents control what is purchased. Of course there will be times when children and teenagers are in control — at school or at a friend’s house — but these times are minimal compared with time at home and the influence of good parental models. There is no excuse, and the worst one of all, of course, is, “I didn’t see it until it was too late.”
There is another aspect of parental irresponsibility, too, that bears directly on obesity and laziness as well. Randall Seltz writes in the Western Herald, Legislation Will Not Prevent Obesity for Apathetic Kids. In his essay, he states, “Many currently obese or overweight children spend more hours sitting in front of a television playing sports video games when they could be outside actually playing the sports. Parents need to encourage their children to make healthy decisions when it comes to recreation, while also providing nutritional food for them to eat, rather than fatty junk foods.” If the amount of time spent viewing television, the Internet, playing video games, and watching movies is not under parental control, then parents are not in control — and they must be!
Violence and obesity are two examples, but poor reading skills can, too, have a damaging long-term effect on one’s life, and parents are responsible here as well. Damaging long-term effect? Children who read well have higher IQs, do better in school, are more creative, develop strong language skills, and have more information. A child who says, “I just don’t like to read,” or “I don’t read well,” or does poorly in school (often traced to poor reading skills), is a child of irresponsible parents. Parents must introduce children to reading early, read to them regularly, provide a model by reading themselves, and make available reading material as an alternative to television, the Internet, playing video games, and watching movies. Not to do this will continue what has already begun: the production of a generation of semi-literate slackers.
Finally, in the area of manners, parents are responsible. The loud, obnoxious, and rude behavior of children and teenagers emanates in the home. Scott Wardell, in an essay entitled, Teaching Manners — Why Parents Need to Set An Example, writes, “We all want our children to have good manners. Manners can and should begin to be taught to children as soon as they begin to speak. Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are common manners. Parents who model good manners in front of their children often see the children beginning to use appropriate manners.” Wardell offers seven steps for teaching good manners at his website.
If we are to have a generation of civil, slender, readers, with manners, then it is mandatory that parents take charge. Children and teenagers will be as responsible as their parents were in raising them. Sure, it’s a message parents don’t want to hear, but it is a message of parental responsibility that is important to society as well as the next generation.
Thursday’s essay, “The Message Parents Don’t Want to Hear,” is the third in a series of such messages. The first was, “The Message Men Don’t Want to Hear,” and the second in this series, “The Message Women Don’t Want to Hear.” You can still read those two previous essays. They are listed in the alphabetized archive on the menu down the left-hand side of the home page of this web site. There will be further essays in this series; stay tuned!
Share your And Then Some Story about other messages parents may not want to hear. Are you a parent? What advice can you give to other parents? Can you share your tips, stories, or suggestions? How successful were you as a parent? Would you recommend parenting to those without children? Why or why not? In what ways has parenting contributed positively or negatively to your life? We would love to hear your story. Do you have a friend, a family member, a neighbor, or someone you just know from a distance who has parented? Can you tell his or her story? Feel free to use a pseudonym for the person’s real name.
Thursday's And Then Some Essay preview The Message Parents Don’t Want to Hear by Richard L. Weaver II Excerpt: If we are to have a generation of civil, slender, readers, with manners, then it is mandatory that parents take charge. Children and teenagers will be as responsible as their parents were in raising them. Sure, it’s a message parents don’t want to hear, but it is a message of parental responsibility that is important to society as well as the next generation. ------------------------- Share your 'And Then Some Story'
And Then Some Publishing, LLC wants to hear your story. Whether you share your story through our website, link to your blog, or have a website to share your story we want to hear it.
It is all up to you! “I didn’t ask to be here,” “It doesn’t really matter,” or “It depends on my teachers, not me,” are some typical comments that assist, support, and excuse students from their responsibility as students. Of course, there are many other excuses, but they all come down to one essential idea: “I am not responsible for my life.”
