Public Education

The bell rings, the next class files in and takes their seats, many take out their Science Journals and look up at the board to see what the bellwork assignment is for period; many do not, choosing instead to gossip with other students. Some simply sit in their seats, arms on the desk, staring straight ahead, waiting...

I step to the front of the class, or sometimes I hang back at the rear of the room, and survey the students in their various poses. Each class is as different as if they were individuals. Each class has a collective personality, each class has a culture, each class has a work ethic. I look over the heads of this class, and I see a large majority of the students either chatting with a neighbor, or just staring. Only three have their books out and are writing.

Every student in the room knows what is required of them when they come into the room: sit down; get out your Science Journal and something to write with; look up to see what the bellwork assignment is; do the assignment. This is all to be done as soon as the student enters the room with no further instruction. So why do I have do many students that are NOT doing what they should?

Chatters exist everywhere, and have to be redirected. There will be people that must chat in school, at work, at play, in all facets of life. These are people that cannot stand silence, and must fill it with the sound of their own voice, if nothing else, even when there is absolutely nothing to talk about! I hate having to redirect chatters, but in most instances, a cold glare or clearing of the throat will get them back on track.

The ones that just sit and stare straight ahead, they are the students that I cannot really figure out. These are people that have learned helplessness. They are going to be HELPLESS until someone (they are betting on the teacher - after all, that IS your job, isn't it?) comes along to tell them exactly what to do. Until that moment, they will be unguided babes in a terribly confusing forest, no idea where to go or what to do, no way to help themselves out of this horrible predicament they have found themselves in.

Wow... what a powerful creature I must be. I am expected to tell each and every one of these students what to do - "Take out your Science Journal and a pencil, read the instructions on the board - do what it says to do." - but I must do it *every single day!*

These are some questions I have fielded from eighth grade students in the last month:

"Do I put my name in the space labeled 'name'?"
"Should I write the answer down?"
"Mr. Garland, I can't work problem number 2. Would you work it for me?"
"If we don't know the answer, are you going to grade it?"
"She got a "B" and I got a "D." My answers are almost the same as hers."
"Can I take the test home and take it over?"

I have to wonder what happened to education in general. Our students no longer appear interested in learning, or even interested in grades. I have one class that seems to think they know more about human evolution than I do, and are more than willing to voice that knowledge. If so, then why are they in my eighth grade science class??

Students can now take all the classes we teach in the eighth grade on-line at Florida Virtual School. Why not? I think it would be less expensive to make the schools all on-line, and just leave a few buildings open for those parents that don't want their kids home all day. Then we could just come out and admit that public education has become what many have accused it of being all along: public day care.