Helping Our

Dr. K. Loftus
Columnist EdNews.org

It would seem that the latest scapegoats for what's wrong with today's schools are the discipline deans. The recent shooting in an Ohio alternative high school has been attributed to everything from too much to too little prior discipline intervention. The "Jena 6" incident in Louisiana has been depicted as some white students being merely "suspended" while some black students were, instead, arrested, as though the dean's offices and the local Police Departments are one in the same. A study just published in Illinois professed how 60% more black students are suspended from school than whites or any other groups. The unspoken premise here is that virtually every faculty member in every school in every city and town is incapable of administering student discipline fairly and without racial bias. What other explanation could there be? After all, kids are kids, right?

Unfortunately, it's just not that simple, but out of an overriding need to place political correctness above common sense, most fail to consider any other potential causes. The truth is that school discipline policies, including required consequences for each offense, are defined and established prior to the beginning of any given school year. It is the job of the school disciplinarians to merely uphold and apply these consequences as prescribed by their governing school boards. Most State departments of education, as well, have very specific guidelines for certain "zero tolerance" offenses, generally the use or possession of a weapon, drugs, and acts of physical violence to another person, regardless of a student's race or gender. Further, in all schools, students have the right to appeal any and all discipline decisions.

Unfortunately, despite these equitable policies, it is true that more black kids are failing, and also failing to avoid multiple discipline consequences in school, than those of other races. But, since we're on the subject of race, for the sake of helping, not chastising this group, let me share with you a few more statistics that were also identified by Bill Cosby in his recent book, "Come On, People:" Because our current system of social support penalizes two-parent households, over 70% of today's poor black high school students were born to single mothers, many under the age of 18, mere babies themselves. Many of these children, therefore, are growing up in abject poverty, while being raised by ill-equipped and inexperienced parents who had to leave school with few skills, forcing them to sink to unimaginable depths just to feed themselves and their children. Some have become addicted to drugs at the coercion of all too persuasive pushers and as a means of coping with their dead end lives. By the time their children began school many were already angry, hostile, defensive, and with little understanding of acceptable social conduct. Males are particularly damaged by these depraved childhoods due to having few appropriate males in their lives with whom to model their behavior.

Too often the normal classroom behavioral expectations are simply too much to ask of these children, with many of today's poorest children virtually running their own lives, finding their own food, and putting themselves to bed by the age of 5. By the age of 13 a significant number have drunk alcohol, tried marijuana, and been forced into some sort of sex act. Few have ever owned a book, let alone had one read to them. Further, before entering school, most have never heard what is now being referred to "academic" English, that is, Standard American English, with appropriate pronouns and verb tenses. As a result, the "language" of school is almost as foreign to many inner city children as it is to other "non-native English" speakers. But, unlike children born into other non-English speaking homes, these kids are afforded no bilingual services.

Teachers and schools are stretched to the limit trying to meet the burgeoning cognitive and social/emotional needs of this group, while minority activists bemoan the over-identification of minority students for much-needed specialized services. Still, it is impossible for schools to have sufficient resources to address all of these students' academic and emotional needs, regardless of how many NCLB sanctions are imposed.

One key difference I have observed between middle-class and lower-class high school students is that practically all of those in the former group have part-time jobs, while the percentage of students living below the poverty line who ever had to cope with the demands and expectations of paid employment is quite low. Most middle class kids pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stifle their bad habits sufficiently to be able secure and hold down part-time minimum wage jobs, or else forego most of their teenage "needs" of iPods, cellphones, name-brand sneakers, and, in some cases, cars. Most know that to keep these jobs either their parents or their schools will require that they maintain decent grades, while their employers additionally demand clear criminal histories and sometimes drug screenings. Having a job gives teens a sense of self-worth, self-efficacy, and self-discipline while giving them greater insight into what career paths they want, and don't want, to pursue.

In the 1990's transitional vocational programming was mandated for all high school students, particularly all students with any type of documented disability affecting learning, by the age of 14. For awhile, middle and high schools around the nation began making a concerted effort to implement vocational assessments, work study opportunities, career days, and job training programs. Then came the No Child Left Behind agenda, and suddenly every American high school was compelled to force all of their students through a college preparatory track, students' individual abilities and intellects notwithstanding. At the same time, the Reauthorization of IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) upped the required age for initiation of these vocational services from age 14 to 16, allowing barely a year for any programming that would assist students with developing appropriate career directions.

The reality is that this is far too late for many of America's poorest high schoolers who, by this age, have already resigned themselves to multiple failures, drugs, crime, pregnancy, and worse. There exists at virtually every urban American high school a significant number of students for whom going to high school equates with a struggle each day just to stay alive. They don't play sports, aren't on the cheerleading squad, don't run for student council or homecoming court. Many are raising their own siblings or children. They dodge gang recruiters, drug pushers and bullies each day to come to school for only one reason -- because they believe what they've been told – that they must "finish" high school to ensure adult success. They've been programmed to believe that merely doing so will guarantee their escape from their disparate circumstances, and that this is their only option. So, many try to understand Shakespeare, Organic Chemistry, Advanced Algebra and World Cultures, without anyone ever explaining how this knowledge will translate into viable and sustainable careers. Many are incapable of ever passing many of these classes, and are actually better suited for learning a construction or automotive trade, technology, nursing, or numerous other practical skills that are severely under populated in this country. Instead of receiving this guidance, many become discouraged and drop out, while a few, instead, lash out with violence.

On a recent episode of Nancy Grace, the caller and the host debated the merits of America's schools being required to conduct psychological evaluations of each and every student, as a monumental and unrealistic means of identifying all those with a potential for mass violence. Here's the question: Why do we continue to force these angry, discouraged, and unwilling students to remain enrolled in a full-day program for four years that is so inappropriate for them that many eventually snap? Most students and their parents are kept unaware of the fact that they actually have other more suitable alternatives. Completing a "home-school" program is a viable option offered by all State education agencies. At the high school level, most of these do not require full-time parental supervision. Many states additionally offer online "virtual" high school courses, while other online and correspondence courses are readily available that meet most State's graduation requirements. Completing high school coursework on a shortened schedule would allow many non-traditional students the extra time needed for employment or job skills training. What also is not widely known is that most community colleges are required to enroll all of its local residents aged 18 or older into any of their programs and classes, regardless of prior completion of a high school diploma. Most additionally offer GED completion programs in lieu of regular high school. While options for later transfer to a four-year university might be limited, the opportunity to complete any of the numerous career certificates or degrees without a high school diploma remains wide open.

Meanwhile, we should stop penalizing marriage, making it more worthwhile for fathers to shirk responsibility to their children. Secondly, instead of declaring 14-year old mothers to be legally "adults," simply by virtue of childbirth, the should continue to be considered to be the children they are, no more capable of adult decisions, nor of being considered heads of households, nor capable of knowledgeable and responsible parenting to infants and young children than prior to producing offspring. These "child-parents" would, instead, continue to be subject to all of the same protections afforded all other minors of the same age. Granting them sole custody and authority over even younger minors is nothing short of child abuse to both children. If their own parents are incapable of providing adequate care for their own children and grandchildren, then both should, instead, be declared wards of their States.

Here's another thought: Those who truly wish to make a significant positive change to American society might want to consider adopting not merely a young child, but the child's teenage mother, as well. Many experienced parents could make such a significant difference to the lives of both these children by assisting the young mother with parenting skills, while also guiding them toward continuing school, thereby making a far better life for both themselves and their children.

Published October 16, 2007

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October 15th, 2007

Dr. Kathleen P. Loftus

Columnist EducationNews.org

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