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The other day I was up by Grand Avenue Middle School in Bellmore....I happened to glance at their little motto on the sign outside and it read:
RICE - Respect Impulse Control Compassion Equity
You'll notice there's nothing about learning. Respect, compassion and equity are all well and fine....but IMPULSE CONTROL? When did we stop aspiring to educate and challenge the minds of our children and start settling for docile and well behaved? It blew my mind, how can this pass for education? This is a well regarded school in a well regarded district....and they're telling these kids that the most important thing in life is to sit on your hands every time you want a candy bar?
I have a bunch of friends who are teachers on LI, and I dated a HS math teacher (at one of LI's best districts) for way too many years....and let me tell you, these people scare me. Everything they were taught in college and everything the districts look for isn't teaching ability, it's test scores and behavior control. Education on LI (and probably everywhere else), in my eyes, has just become a really expensive form of babysitting. Keep up appearances, and push the product down the assembley line....I personally think it's nuts.
Anyone else have any thoughts? I don't have any kids myself, so I can't comment on what the end result of modern education practices are.
No it's not education. And it doesn't really matter about "impulse control". If the kid acts out in the slightest they're sent to the school psych and the parents are told either drug them up or they'll have to go to spec. ed. Bull. The teachers need to learn how to control these kids, thats a skill not a doctrine.
Apparently schools in LI are very different than NYC (at least in terms of what Sickofnyc99 said about school psych and special ed). Only a parent can request a special education evaluation if a student is not already assigned and IEP. As for the sign, my students (both special ed and general ed) have very little impulse control, probably because there are no consequences for their behavior.
I think the sign is ridiculous, but then I'm not really a fan of any of those signs. Yet I can understand the need to teach impulse control to impulsive students who think that they are entitled to do whatever they want. The reason why schools have become little more than babysitting is because every possible deterrent has been designated "corporal punishment" - writing an essay about one's behavior = corporal punishment, detention = corporal punishment, even what you say to a student can be deemed corporal punishment if it makes them feel bad about themselves in any way. My students are very savvy about this. Some students have even threatened teachers with cries of corporal punishment.
There are some students who want to learn, some parents who will help to discipline their child if they are disruptive, but there are also many students who have no interest in learning at all and whose parents feel that their job is done once the kid has left for school.
I do my best to make my lessons as interesting as I possibly can. I try to teach my students skills not just information, and some of those skills are behavioral such as impulse control and how to communicate effectively with authority figures so that they are actually heard.
Some students tell me (unsolicited) that I'm a good teacher, but my statistics wouldn't back them up because a sizable percentage of my students fail. Why? Mostly because they don't come to class. They cut school or they cut class and there is very little that I can do about it. Phone calls, letters home, referrals for home visits, etc., but all that does is CMA it doesn't change anything.
There are times that I absolutely love my career, and there are times when it is the most depressing job I can imagine. Add to that, the near constant criticism from strangers who believe that they know exactly what I "should" do, what I'm doing "wrong," or why I shouldn't get paid my salary.
I gave the same test to a class today all of whom had the same lessons, same test review. High score 100% Low score 27% - Did I teach the 100% student better and the 27% student worse OR is it simply the law of averages OR is it that some students are paying more attention and care about their grades? The greatest variable that I've witnessed in my 5 years of teaching is how much value is placed on education by the student and their family.
I want to teach, not babysit. My greatest joy is when a lesson plan gels and the students are so engaged that its controlled chaos. The comments from students are coming fast and furious. It does happen but not as often as I like.
Of course, the overcrowding in schools doesn't help. Its hard to get a lot of enthusiasm going at 7:15 am which is when my first class starts because we have 5000 kids in a building designed to hold 2500.
This is a long post so I'll wrap it up. The sign you mentioned also mentioned equity. I tell my students daily that education is the greatest asset they can have to building their personal equity. I can teach them all the tools they need for success, but they have to choose to learn them and use them.
The other day I was up by Grand Avenue Middle School in Bellmore....I happened to glance at their little motto on the sign outside and it read:
RICE - Respect Impulse Control Compassion Equity
You'll notice there's nothing about learning. Respect, compassion and equity are all well and fine....but IMPULSE CONTROL? When did we stop aspiring to educate and challenge the minds of our children and start settling for docile and well behaved? It blew my mind, how can this pass for education? This is a well regarded school in a well regarded district....and they're telling these kids that the most important thing in life is to sit on your hands every time you want a candy bar?
I have a bunch of friends who are teachers on LI, and I dated a HS math teacher (at one of LI's best districts) for way too many years....and let me tell you, these people scare me. Everything they were taught in college and everything the districts look for isn't teaching ability, it's test scores and behavior control. Education on LI (and probably everywhere else), in my eyes, has just become a really expensive form of babysitting. Keep up appearances, and push the product down the assembley line....I personally think it's nuts.
Anyone else have any thoughts? I don't have any kids myself, so I can't comment on what the end result of modern education practices are.
This is where parenting is left up to the school teachers and not the parents. Drives me nuts.
The mentality of parents these days is amazing. Everything should be geared SPECIFICALLY to MY kid...my kid isn't doing poorly in school, the school is doing poorly for him!! Not surprising that most of the parents grew up in the 70's and 80's with the "me first" mentality (by the way, so did I). Do you think that this is how things were done in 40's, 50's and 60's when our education system supposedly worked better?
The bottom line fact is that for a classroom of 30 kids to function, YOUR KID NEEDS TO SHUT UP WHEN HE Or SHE TOLD TO SHUT UP!!! That's the "impulse control" portion of the equation. I think the sign is silly too, but I've run into so many "working class" types who make a living without having to be educated in a school who can't understand why their kids don't succeed in a school environment..maybe because they come home and are told by their parents that they don't need school to succeed, or that teachers are lazy and overpaid? And then on the other side you have the upper middle class who've spoiled their kids to death, and can never accept the fact that their kid did something wrong..Trevor came into school drunk today..."Not my kid, must be that the teachers class is boring!! That's why he isn't doing well!!"
Take some responsibility, folks. Teachers in schools have been made powerless to deal with discipline issues because for the vast majority of parents, their kids can do no wrong, and the first impulse is to sue anyone who dares to stand in the way of Trevor, who is ENTITLED to go to Harvard because he popped out of Theresa De Escalade and Vito Guiduici or whoever.
How's that for a rant.
In all seriousness, most of our issues with schools are the result of bad parenting and the schools catering to poorly raised kids.
I am familiar with this term. It is to address character issues in students. Unfortuantely, parents tend to not teach their kids correct, respectful behavior. Now schools need to do that. Rice is a national program about teaching respect.
Why would you criticize. Schools isn't all about test scores. It is about making better people. I take offense to the criticism of teachers. I teach HS and respect is a big componant.
I sure as hell hope this person isn't an English teacher.
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Not surprising that most of the parents grew up in the 70's and 80's with the "me first" mentality (by the way, so did I). Do you think that this is how things were done in 40's, 50's and 60's when our education system supposedly worked better? 
