The end of community
How long before teachers are enclosed in a bullet-proof glass booth or only appear on a video screen?
NWAnews.com: [The] attorney for the Arkansas School Boards Association said there are several legal and financial issues that might push administrators to tell teachers to stay out of fights.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:29 am
Most of my teaching experience as been at the college level, where the students are well behaved almost to a fault. But I taught some summer classes for “at risk” students and was pretty amazed at the level of simmering hatred going on between quite a few of them. There seemed to be a rivalry between the Little Rock and Pine Bluff kids. I broke up one fight as it was starting to happen, mostly by placing myself between the two combatants and shouting them down. Some of the kids are pretty big these days, but I can’t imagine standing by and calling 911 on my cell while they wail away at one another.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Nor can I imagine breaking up a fight between high school toughs; too many of them are influenced by music, video games, and high-fructose corn syrup to have much cognitive function. I guess what I’m wondering is exactly what has broken down in our culture so that teachers, ostensibly key partners in a community, no longer feel safe or in control? Teachers blame parents and parents blame teachers, but it seems to me that these “groups” need to be on the same page. Comes down to teaching as an institution vs. teaching as a cultural role. Nothing that public floggings couldn’t fix, I say (for students, not teachers).