RGHS cure

It is time to recognize the fact that education guided by learning
and not by teaching.

We determine what we teach,
they determine what they want to learn.

You really cannot make someone learn against their will.
You really can't make a horse drink.

We have made school an unpleasant experience for students,
and then we wonder why they aren't engaged.

We wonder why they come late and leave early.
We wonder why they don't graduate, join gangs, use drugs
and fail in greater numbers than ever before.

The cure for RGHS is to figure out what these kids want to
learn about, blend it respectfully with what we want them to
learn about, and create a school they want to attend.

Start enforcing the rules.
Make sure that every "rule" is a hill worth dying on,
and then enforce the rules absolutely.

And if a kid says no, the administration owns the problem;
and I mean the administration from the top down.

It is unrealistic to expect the district's least powerful employees,
to own the districts single worst problem,
without meaningful administrative intervention.

Do we want to use teachers to help students learn,
or do we spend them on kids who don't want to learn,
and who then have nothing to do except disrupt their classes.

It isn't teaching that burns out good teachers,
it's the never getting to teach at all.