From 2008 to 2010, Frank Beard taught at a Kansas City middle school as a Teach For America corps member, where he concluded that our schools are failing their students — but not in the way that the “experts” would have you believe:
When people ask me what I believe was the number one barrier to student achievement at my school, I always offer the same answer: the failure of the school and district to address chronically disruptive students. It was a problem created by negligent leaders who willingly allowed a free-for-all environment that was conducive to chaos instead of learning.
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Everything was great for the first three weeks, but then a few students began testing the limits of what was acceptable behavior. It’s one thing when a student throws a paper ball at his friend, or when someone utters a rude comment. It’s quite another thing when a student tells you that she’ll “crack” your “bitch ass” or demands that you “get the fuck out of [her] face”. Unfortunately, as the students soon discovered, our principal offered no support whatsoever. Nearly ever discipline referral sent to the office was returned with a polite reminder to please contact the students’ parents. Clear and consistent consequences simply did not exist — even though they were mandated by the district’s code of conduct.Once that realization spread, the school effectively went from quality to chaos overnight. The following is but a sample of what an average day looked and sounded like:
- Students standing in the hall and kicking classroom doors for five to ten minutes at a time
- Students fighting
- Teachers pelted with paper, pencils, erasers, and rocks whenever they turned their heads
- Assignments torn up and thrown on the floor the moment they’re passed out
- Teachers cursed at, threatened, and sometimes even assaulted
- Classroom supplies vandalized or thrown about the room
- Groups of students running the halls and showing up to one or two classes at most
- Constant yelling and shouting from the hallways
- Gang writing written on the walls with permanent markers
- Students talking and yelling so loud in the classroom that nobody could hear the teacher
By “students”, I’m of course referring to the 15-25% that were chronically disruptive.