Sunday, December 21, 2008

School Discipline

It is no secret that many of our schools are out of control.

First of all, teachers should not have to check their dignity at the front door of the school house. To think that professional educators -- members of our union, the Peoria Federation of Teachers -- are being cussed at, cussed out . . . to think that our teachers are spending the majority of their day dealing with egregious behavior while risking their own safety by breaking up violent acts of mob action several times per week . . . it's unacceptable. We cannot and will not tolerate this kind of madness.

Administrators who chalk up misbehavior to cultural differences or poverty do nothing more than enable students to misbehave. These administrators are worse than drug dealers because they allow a few students to actively destroy the education of all students within their buildings.

For many (if not most) of our students, education is their only key to a future free from the poverty into which they were born. If teachers can't teach and students can't learn, everybody loses.

We will be in troubled schools daily. We will document what is going on and one way or another, positive changes will be made. No one wants to spend the next twenty years simply trying to survive. We are teachers . . . our job is to educate . . . and that's what we'll do.

1 comment:

  1. our union must stand up to the administrators who claims that discipline really isn't as bad as they think. YES IT IS! When a student strikes a teacher yet receives minimal consequence from administration, then returns....what kind of message does that send to other students......hit a teacher and WHO CARES!

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