We don't have a teacher shortage. We have a shortage of teachers willing to teach in dangerous, ineffective schools.

A dozen years ago, behavior was mostly within bounds. Administrators and staff worked together to ensure safety. Teachers sent any student with consistent disruptive behavior to the office - and the kid received appropriate consequences. The admin decided on the consequence, called the parents, and documented the incident. If a meeting was necessary, the admin arranged it. One office had a complete picture of all behavior - which is necessary.

Only lazy admin automatically suspended students. It was far more effective to remind them that participation in sports, lunch with friends, extracurricular activities, dances, etc. wasn't a right, but a privilege - one of which they took away until re-earned. Any parent who didn't like it was welcome to enroll their child elsewhere. The school's policies were in the handbook. The line was held; parents did not run the show.

Sadly, too many admin were lazy or incompetent and simply suspended. Kids stayed home and gamed all day while their parents went to work as usual. Too much of a bad idea was noticed and there was backlash from the feds. Too many suspended students were disabled, or students of color.

Suddenly PBIS reared its ugly head. School districts accepted large grants to implement school-wide PBIS, and then never followed through. They knew it would never work, but they didn't push back because the alternative would require them to dig in and apply appropriate consequences - ones that were meaningful and that addressed systemic misapplications to vulnerable minority groups - but it would require hard work.

Without any real oversight, administrators didn't step up. They came up with "We will no longer take power away from the teachers by interfering in behavior management. Teachers must provide engaging lessons and use Positive Behavior Interventions to properly manage classroom behaviors." In other words, since they could no longer use suspension as their automatic, makes-their-job-easy, tool, they simply stopped doing their #1 job: keeping schools safe.

It only took about a year of no real consequences for students to catch on. Classrooms are now Lord of the Flies - too chaotic for a teacher to get through the curriculum. Teaching is no longer safe - mentally, physically, and emotionally. Any caring teacher with a lick of good sense is either planning to leave ASAP, or has already left.

How is that going to work out in the long run? OR, even next year?

Submitted April 20, 2024 at 12:54AM by MantaRay2256 https://ift.tt/ACBaiFj