Why is it ok to glue your shoes to a classroom floor?

My information and experience lead me to believe that this wasn't this kid's first rodeo.  He has disrupted many other classes, many other times.  (I will bow of course, to controverting evidence.)

I believe he would not have glued his shoes to the floor if believed for one instant, that the punishment would feel bad, more than basking in the adulation of some of his classmates would feel good.

There are no meaningful consequences for chronically disruptive behavior.  If there were, there would be no chronic disruptions of classrooms and schools.  

Let's not lose sight of the other students in the room who would rather have been learning than watching the clown.  Students who would rather this behavior were not tolerated; wishing along with their teacher that there was something, anything, they had the power to do anything at all about it.

Why are teachers expected to tolerate chronically disruptive students in their classrooms?  In particular when they are denied as a matter of course, the power and resources to deal with them?

This teacher invested six years learning and practicing teaching, and instead of being allowed to practice her craft, she is expected to deal with kids who would rather glue their shoes to the floor than learn.  Over and over and over again.  Teachers are not the problem, the circumstances that create this level of frustration for teachers, are the problem.

Chronically disruptive students are not reasonably the problem of teachers.

Would you rather pay teachers to educate the students who want to learn, or to try to keep chronically disruptive students from destroying the learning environment?  They can't do both.

There are no statistics available on APS' award winning website that will help you understand the effects on education of student misconduct in general, and chronically disruptive students in especially.

By contract and reason, APS administrators are charged with enforcing discipline in schools.  If schools are out of control, it is an administrative failure.  If a classroom is out of control, it is an administrative failure.  It is not for no reason that there are no records to inspect.

There will be no open public discussion of discipline in schools and in classrooms.  There will be no PowerPoint presentation of the candid, forthright and honest record.

There will be no Journal investigation and report on discipline in schools.

Which is precisely why there will be no open and honest public discussion of student behavior at school and in classrooms.




photo Mark Bralley