For the past 2 months, I’ve been at war with a student, his parents, and the entire system. We’ll call this student “Mike”.

Mike has over 80 write ups. Now that it’s said and done, it’s closer to the 90 range. Mike spent the last part of last semester in in-school suspension and wasn’t allowed in some of his classes anymore because of his behavior. His behavior consisted of more or less seeking attention, acting out, never doing his work, and constantly socializing and disrupting class. The kid cannot handle a normal class setting. A lot of these kids that I teach can’t, but this one especially.

So, in January, I’m blessed with his presence. He was moved into my room because it just didn’t work out with his last social studies teacher. Within 2-3 days, he’s already kicked out of my room because of his behavior and attitude.

This goes on for a daily basis. If he’s not kicked out of my room, he’s kicked out of another teacher’s room. The administration is not doing anything about this. Write up after write up is sent regarding this kid. So, I then decide to make it a personal mission to get this kid removed from the school entirely and I simply write him up whenever he comes to my room and kick him out as soon as he enters. If he’s caught skipping and not going to the principle’s office, that’s simply something else you can tack on.

So, he has a manifestation meeting. This more or less means this is a meeting where we determine whether or not this kid can stay inside the school. The kid ends up staying inside the school. Now, mind you…this kid has over 80 write ups and is a chronic behavior problem and cannot function in a normal classroom setting. Fine. Whatever. This is the system I work in. I’m going to keep at it because kids like him need to be in an alternative school and not a mainstream classroom.

Same ol’ story. Chronic misbehavior. Finally, some action is being taken on him and he ends up being suspended for a few days. He comes back and immediately lands 10 write ups in a 3 day period. He has a second manifestation meeting. What happens here? His parents make excuses for him. Saying he needs “time to adjust” from his recent out of school suspension. Never mind the previous 80 write ups and never mind the previous 6 months of misbehavior and overall idiocy that he displays (I don’t care if that’s PC or not. That’s the truth).

He survives the second manifestation meeting. Why? Because the parents “did not know” of his behavior. Which is crap. Because there is extensive documentation of parental contact and attempts to call. There is extensive documentation regarding his behavior and attitude. Ultimately, the parents tell the school that their son is staying. And the school caves in and allows the child to stay.

Even better? The kid was not even supposed to be in our school the first place. He slipped through the cracks and nobody in his elementary school enforced his behavior plan. He was supposed to be sent off to the alternative school back in August. Nobody paid attention, parents didn’t say a word, and he ends up in a regular classroom when he clearly cannot function like a normal human being.

At this point, I’m just irate. I’ve never been this angry before. Because this is a prime example of what is exactly wrong with the community and school that I teach in. The administration will not take care of a kid who is clearly a problem. People are not doing their jobs regarding behavior plans and are keeping them in a mainstream classroom when they clearly don’t belong. The parents continually make excuses for the kid, and the school caves to the parents because they are too afraid to put their foot down.

Mike then gets sent home for 10 days to do his school work from home. I send off his work. I, of course, don’t receive it when he returns.

Last Friday, after being in school for a whopping 3 days, he cuts my class. He asks to use the bathroom and disappears for 45 minutes. I was not in that day, and receive word of this when I return on this past Monday. I am told that morning that there is yet another manifestation meeting for him on Wednesday from his case manager (who has been a saint throughout all this).

During this final manifestation meeting, Mike gets up and walks out of the meeting. At that point, the school decides he no longer belongs in the school. It took him walking out of a meeting for it to happen. Unbelievable.

It leads to the question of what would’ve happened if this kid brought a gun or knife to school (wouldn’t surprise me) and hurt someone after the first, or second manifestation meeting. What would happen then? What if someone got hurt, or even worse, killed? Where would the blame fall?

But that’s ok though – because the parent’s “didn’t know” of his behavior.

It’s a damn joke.

No child left behind, clearly.

There’s something to be said about U2 and their music; it often puts me in a contemplative mood and it’s easy to get lost into. There is something very special about the weird atmosphere created by The Edge’s minimal delayed guitar riffs, Larry Mullen Jr.’s drumline snaps, Adam Clayton’s mysterious basslines, and Bono’s very powerful yet sometimes very incomplete lyrics.

I should be in bed right now, gearing up for that 7:30am meeting with an unruly child and a parent that may or may not show. But I can’t help but to think, get lost in some Irish post-punk, and to write.

I’ve been sitting here tonight thinking about where I was a year ago with my life and how I ended up to where I am right at this moment. My life in the past year has been a complete and utter roller-coaster. It’s been confusing and exhilerating. I have gone from my highest highs to my lowest lows. A year ago at this time, I was looking at jobs back in Cleveland and thinking about moving back because my job was completely and utterly unbearable at the time. I was getting ready to head to Savannah with my best friend at the time for St. Patrick’s Day. And in a bizarre turn of events, I had a friend from college profess her love to me, and told me she had planned on visiting me this time a year ago and wanted to have a long distance relationship.

I never did find that job and never did move back. I had a blowout with my best friend on that trip, and an even bigger blowout in the summer and we’re more or less no longer friends. And that girl who was in love with me never did visit or start that relationship with me.

Achtung Baby is better than Joshua Tree, I’m telling you.

Not that I am all complaining about my state of happiness currently. It’s just bizarre to think about the whirlwind that my life has been ever since I’ve moved down here. It feels like eons since I’ve moved here, and since all of these things have happened. Though, the one regrettable part in all of this is the losing touch of friends up north. I suppose that’s why we have internet and email. But there’s something missing lost in all this wireless communication. And no matter how hard you try to stay in touch, deep down, we all know that it’s not just the same.

Losing friends is hard business. Business that I’ve always had a hard time dealing with. Business I’d much rather not ever have to deal with.

About 4 months ago I started to date one of my closest friends here in Georgia. She was one of the very first people I met and befriended here in Georgia. I had met her at work orientation 2 days after I had moved into Great and Growing Griffin. We became close and eventually just started to date. It was never forced and it all feels very natural. She’s been my rock and has kept me afloat through a lot of the crazy things that have happened to me down here. She has improved my life 100%, no doubt about it. And I’m much happier, healthier, and positive than where I was a year ago. She makes me completely and utterly happy. I’ve never had anyone like her in my life, and I thank God everyday that she entered into my life.

Despite my social and personal life being in great shape, I cannot say the same regarding my professional life.

I’m not entirely sure what I want to do when I grow up. Today was one of those days where I was on fire. I knew the kids learned something and it was one of those days when you walk out of the building and you say to yourself, “This was good. This is what I want to do with my life.” When I can teach – I am unstoppable. I am the Social Studies Colossus; there’s no way of stopping me when I am on my A game.

However, those days are rare and too far in between. On most days I put out fires rather than teach, babysit rather than educate, and spoon feed rather than enrich. It’s a tough job and there are a lot of days where I feel like I can’t cut it.

With work, it feels like it hasn’t gotten any worse but it hasn’t gotten better. At the beginning of the year, that was fine. But at this point? I want more. I want this school to progress. I don’t want one step forward, two steps back. I demand more from the administration, the kids, and the community.

There was this study that was just released and it said that students who listen to music such as Beethoven, U2, Radiohead, and Sufjan Stevens tend to be more intelligent and do better on the SAT  than those who listen to Lil’ Wayne, T. I. and Aerosmith. Maybe that’s why the kids resent all my music…

To be honest, I can’t complain at all about my life here in Georgia. There’s been unbelievable progress from a year ago. It’s weird to think about. Sure – the job is a drag and I come home more frustrated than anything else regarding our crumbling public education system and the failures of today’s American family. But most people hate their jobs – we’re all in this together. I have good friends, an amazing supportive family, and an unbelievable girlfriend. Things have finally settled down and I feel comfortable. I can finally call this place home.

Not only is Bono saving the African children from AIDS, playing rock ‘n roll, but he’s also making the world more intelligent with his music. He’s really doing it all. I want that life. And his sunglasses.

I work in a “needs improvement” school. There are a lot of behavioral problems within the school. I am not one of those teachers who will write you up for every little thing. However, I will write you up if you decide you’re going to talk back to me or disrespect me. I would wager that 90% of my write ups are because of this. Many kids think it’s somehow OK to talk back to a teacher and not do as they are asked. That doesn’t sit well with me, and it shouldn’t sit well with anyone who cares an iota about education.

Our AYP status is affected by the number of students with suspensions, both in school and out. Lately, the discipline has been lacking on part of the administration. The bottom line: the more kids that are suspended, the less of a chance you have in passing AYP.

The kids aren’t getting much in the way or discipline and it’s encouraging the bad behavior and disrespect.

So, just so we’re clear here:

Kicking X number of kids out = not passing AYP because your school is seen as “dangerous” and the number of kids out on a daily basis hurts you.

Keeping these bad kids INSIDE the classroom each day = not passing AYP because the teacher is spending more time disciplining and “managing” than actually teaching.

So, tell me. How exactly are we supposed to pass AYP? And how is this supporting teachers?

My suggestion? Take the hit now and remove the bad seeds from the school. It’ll take 2-3 years, but eventually the culture in the school will change. If you drop the hammer on the kids, and send them to tribunal and expel them, it will send a message to the community that this type of behavior will no longer be tolerated.

Teachers need the full backing and support of the administration. And if the teachers are not getting supported, what are we supposed to do?

No child left behind? Of course not because all it is is pushing quotas and passing kids off who don’t deserved to be passed.

This was just one of those days where I leave the building and I wonder how the hell I continue to do this day in and day out, and whether or not I can keep doing this.

We get a week off after next week. I’m trying to hold out on taking any mental health days before then. But the freshmen are really, really pushing me.’

I don’t understand how a girl can be sexually harassed and the boy only gets one day of out of school suspension. I don’t get how a kid with over 70 write  ups is even allowed to be in the building. I don’t understand how they can all of a sudden call a parent-teacher conference at 4 in the afternoon. I don’t understand how freshmen just can’t sit down and do what they’re told.

I’m attributing freshmen on why my hairline is receding.

Argh.

It’s been a minute. Times are busy, both in and outside of work. If you’ve left a comment on some past entries, I apologize for not responding to your questions. I’ll answer them soon.

There’s not been a huge improvement in terms of discipline. It currently feels as though the inmates are running the asylum. It’s shocking to see so many kids walk the halls in between classes, and to see how many kids there are who simply stroll to class even after the bell rings.

The discipline is still a joke. Last week, I had a student who had a wad of tobacco in his mouth, and then proceeded to spit it on my floor; it was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen and experienced. His discipline? Simply one day out of school suspension.

I’ve cut down on the write-ups. I’ve never been one to really write up kids. I’ll do it at the beginning of the year to make a point, but I tend to ease off and do other things. By the end of the year, you have to do something really obnoxious to get a write up from me.

The classroom management this year is so much better than last. Although the past couple weeks have really tested me. We’ve received some kids from the alternative school who have “re-entered” a normal public school. Some are toxic, others are not. The ones I have are, of course, toxic and are messing up the chemistry in my classes that I have busted my ass off for an entire semester to create. Just yesterday, one of them refused to leave my room after he decided to disturb the class in the middle of testing.

I wish they would’ve arrested him. He’s been nothing but problems since and doesn’t deserve to be here.

I feel like I can teach at any school at this point. Drug dealers, thugs, wannabe thugs, gang members. I can’t even imagine how disturbingly easy it would be to teach at a private school.

If Obama wants to more create jobs, the best idea he could have is to build more boot camps, especially down here in the deep South. Some kids can’t handle normal public schools, some can’t handle alternative schools, some can’t handle prison, so lets build boot camps and see what happens.

It’s the end of the semester. I think back to a year ago and where I was mentally – and I can say that I am not quite as burnt out as I was a year ago. That, my friends, is progress; slow, ugly, but evident.

I gave out my final and it went, as expected, brutal. About 75% of my kids failed. Aside from a couple of exceptions, you failed my class if you did not show up to my exam. I don’t know how I feel about that, because many of those students do not deserve to pass.

We talk a lot about “passing kids on”. These kids were passed on from elementary to middle and to now high school. They will once again be passed on into the real world, and I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to many of them. I have students who can’t read or write, and students who are pregnant or on their second child. It’s frightening. We resent the passing of kids on, but we ourselves do it. I don’t feel comfortable doing it  but if you have “too many” failures, the adminstration will hound you because, after all, it’s the teacher’s fault if a student fails – there’s never any shouldering of parents, the students, or the community. That’s not to say there aren’t any bad teachers (because there are), but students shouldn’t be numbers. Education should not be about numbers. When 80% of your school is failing at least one subject, this is beyond any teacher. This goes into the heart of the community. If students fail – they fail; they should be held back and accountable for their failure and not passed off because of fear of not passing AYP or meeting state or federal standards. It is utterly unacceptable to have a 17 year old who cannot read or write.

It doesn’t matter if there is a new principle next year, or a new superintindent because the culture will not change. No Child Left Behind is a band-aide on a deep wound that cuts to the very core of this country’s problem. There not only needs to be government reform on education, but parental reform as well.

I’m still here.

I just haven’t found much time to write these days. Sometimes, I find it hard to even check my email. I’ve been slacking on my school stories and my life in general on here.

I will say that I’m in a much happier place these days.

I’ll do some writing in the next few days and around Christmas time.

A student of mine told me this yesterday, and it made my day:

Student: *looks at picture of Teddy Roosevelt in my room* Teddy is the same as Theodore Roosevelt, right?
Me: Yup, absolutely.
Student: Yeah, he’s awesome. I like the stories you tell of him. You really got me into him.

It’s a warm 75 degrees outside, the sun is shining brightly and George W. Bush is no longer my president.

What more could I ask for?

Thank you, America for saying “Enough”.

I read an article in the latest edition of Wired, and it blew my mind. I had a similar conversation with my friend Jim a few weeks ago on the issue of Facebook/Myspace and why we’re still friends with many of those people on there, even though we never speak or see them anymore. We live in an age where we can find old friends in an instant, and hang onto friendships that died years ago. Thinking about it more, the whole thing is just weird and not natural; sometimes, it’s best to just let go of past friendships and move on.

I just looked on my Facebook and realized I don’t talk to 90% of these people anymore. What do I have in common with them? What brings us together now? None have really gone out of their way to talk to me since I graduated college. So what’s the point of just having people as “friends”? People just become numbers in a some sick popularity game.

You can read the entire article here. But here’s an excerpt:

It has been argued that this Infinite Friendspace is an unalloyed good. But while this plays nicely into our sentimental ideal of lifelong friendship, it’s having at least three catastrophic effects. First, it encourages hoarding. We squirrel away Friends the way our grandparents used to save nickels—obsessively, desperately, as if we’ll run out of them some day. (Of course, they lived through the Depression. And we lived through—what, exactly? Middle school? 90210? The Electric Slide?) Humans are natural pack rats, and given the chance we’ll stockpile anything of nominal value. Friends are the currency of the socially networked world; therefore, it follows that more equals better. But the more Friends you have, the less they’re worth—and, more to the point, the less human they are…

…Third, and most grave, we’ve lost our right to lose touch. “A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature,” Emerson wrote, not bothering to add, “and like most things natural, friendship is biodegradable.” We scrawl “Friends Forever” in yearbooks, but we quietly realize, with relief, that some bonds are meant to be shed, like snakeskin or a Showtime subscription. It’s nature’s way of allowing you to change, adapt, evolve, or devolve as you wish—and freeing you from the exhaustion of multifront friend maintenance. Fine, you can “Remove Friend,” but what kind of asshole actually does that? Deletion is scary—and, we’re told, unnecessary in the Petabyte Age. That’s what made good old-fashioned losing touch so wonderful—friendships, like long-forgotten photos and mixtapes, would distort and slowly whistle into oblivion, quite naturally, nothing personal. It was sweet and sad and, though you’d rarely admit it, necessary.

“The right to lose touch”. I like that. I really like that. It’s time to clean out my Facebook.