High School Education Today

One of the many hats I wear is as a part time high school teacher. This blog is a portion of a letter I wrote to the faculty in response to a teacher asking me to postpone a test I was about to give because she had been told by some mutual students that my tests were too difficult and she wanted to modify it before I gave it to my students. The content of the letter is as follows:

For a while now I have been getting reports from both students and teachers that my history class is too hard. To be honest I'm tired of the whining. History is the easiest subject in student curriculum. There are no complex formulas, concepts or relationships like algebra, chemistry, grammar or computer science. It is a story (if you can remember Little Red Riding Hood you can learn history). It is the study of human events and human nature, so if you are a human you already have a step up in the class.

This is how my class runs. We cover a chapter a week. Each chapter has about 5 or 6sections each. The first 5-10 min. of class is spent reviewing what assignment/test/ projects are coming due and answering any questions, the next 15-20 min the students are given time to read the sections we are covering that day in class (because they sure aren't going to read at home), we spend the remainder of the class discussing and taking notes on what was just read. Usually toward the end of the week we watch a film, if I can find one, that touches on the material we have covered. We have a test every two weeks (covering the two chapters we just covered) on Monday so that the students have all weekend to study (because supposedly they are soooo busy). So how is my class so hard? Its only hard because my students don't want to apply themselves. (A hurdle race would be hard to run if you weren't willing to jump.) All I hear is "we don't want to take notes", "can we watch movies", "can we just hang-out", "lets take a day off today", "can you make us a study sheet that has all the answers to the test", "do we have to do this project", "can we take the test open book or use our notes". You know what is sad these students have had history two to three years before they take it in high school. High school history should be a review and yet they know nothing. I don't know if anyone else has the illustrious privilege of having the whole freshmen class in class together but I do and with a few exceptions they are the most disrespectful, lazy, insubordinate, undisciplined, entitled, pampered, unaccountable, group of individuals I have ever encountered.

Sadly, I think the freshmen class is a product of pampering and coddling. The principles of respect, discipline, accountability, work, diligence, are attributes that everyone needs to succeed in life whether they are going to college or going into the work force. I don't know of any college professor who decides to let his students watch movies because they need a break or an employer that makes a work assignment easier because the employee complains it is too hard. Either the employee learns how to complete the task or the employer finds a new employee who can. What made the US great was rising to and overcoming challenges. We didn't go to the moon by saying it was too hard, we didn't build the nuclear bomb by saying can we take a break and watch movies, we didn't win World War II by being lazy, insubordinate, or undisciplined. In the long run I don't care if my students know the basic principles of history but THEY WILL learn discipline, respect, accountability, hard work, and obedience.

I also think we need to be careful how we use the terms "level the playing field" or "make accommodations". To me those phrases are very dangerous. I agree that every one should have equal opportunities to get an education in a way they understand but in my opinion this mentality can lead to injustice and fraud. The great thing about this country is the opportunity to fail. You can not make a person succeed. The fear of failure is one element that motivates people to achieve and not allowing people to fail is dishonest to them and to the people who have done what is necessary to succeed. I was told that a parent said that her child was not allowed to fail because her daughter had special needs. That is the exact mentality I am speaking of. ANYONE can fail just as ANYONE can succeed.

So rather than supporting the students in telling them that my class is to hard (notice it is only my history class that is supposedly too hard. I teach three other classes), please encourage them to embrace the principles that are going to make them successful in school and life.