Affect Change in YOUR School!

As a high school teacher today, I see a lot of adolescents, and can't help comparing them to how I and my peers were two decades and more ago.  Now, though, I also see the other side of the coin.  As a teacher, I am involved in all of the faculty meetings, the politics in the schools, the politics of the public education system (although I VEHEMENTLY disagree with politicizing our children's education, it is IMPOSSIBLE to separate the two...), and I am amazed at how similar the adults in the school are with the students. 

I recently read the book "And the Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth" by Alexandra Robbins.  In it, she examined four students and their school cultures, as well as school cultures around the country.  In it, she found that middle and high schools were very cliquey places, and that this was a reaction to the schools attempting to fit the students into a "mold" of what they viewed their perfect "graduate" to be.  This view is one of a person who can follow directions, can merge with society and does not "stick out" in any way, shape or form.  So, to give you an analogy, think of the schools as trying to churn out students that fit one of the kids from "Ozzie and Harriet" or "Leave it to Beaver." 

Our schools are products of a 1950s mentality where their graduates need to fit into society's views of what they need to be, and not buck the system.When I graduated in 1991, my school was like that.  Every graduating senior I have seen in my eleven years as a teacher has been shoehorned into that mold.  If they didn't fit it, they usually didn't last - especially at a private school.  Today's world is very different from that of the 1950s, though.  We live in a much more diverse and global society.  People are very different across the world, but we are trying to shoehorn our kids into he same mold that we used in the 1950s, where graduates usually stayed local and in a society that was very homogeneous.  In the 1950s, kids NEEDED to fit in to get by - today, they can fit in SOMEWHERE if they look hard enough!  Our schools need to change with the times!

When I was a kid, there were the same cliques there are today.  There were the populars, the jocks, the nerds and geeks, etc.  I was a loner.  I had a few close friends, but not many.  Today's high schools have the same cliques.  They start in middle school, just like when I was a kid.  However, there are more schools available for the outliers than when I was young.  For example, I teach now at a Magnet School for students interested in the Performing Arts.  Most of the students there would have been either loners, like me, or members of outcast groups.  But here, they all fit in and get along.  Many of them came here BECAUSE they were outcasts in their home districts. 

This is the kind of school where students can be a part of the culture and, when they graduate, are not shoehorned into a standard, 1950s mold.  However, even here, the political and corporate nature of the educational system has created an environment of cliques and outcasts.  Magnet schools are often known as having poor academics.  After teaching here for one year, I can understand why.  There are cliques of teachers, just like in my high school.  I am, once again, not in one of the cliques, but am a loner.  I have those teachers I consider "friends," but they are, like me, not full time.  They are struggling to make ends meet.  They are constantly looked down on as NOT arts staff and, therefore, second class teachers. 

Teacher turnover is high here, especially for the math and science teachers since they can find jobs elsewhere.  At my last job, a private school for students with Asperger's Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Differences, students didn't have cliques, mostly because, like at my current school, they were all outcasts in their other schools.  They were also the same since they all had the same disabilities.  I got along very well with the students.  But, once again, I butted heads with some of the faculty and administrators.  I was different, I was stubborn and had a different idea on what the students needed.  Those teachers and administrators that I butted heads with were trying to shoehorn students into a "mold," just like the mold that public schools use. 

Instead of being the place where these kids could thrive and be themselves, they were told that they had to be the same as and fit in with the rest of the world.  When I tried to speak up, certain administrators tried to quiet my voice.  It took them 6 years before they were able to convince enough people that I was a detriment to the school, but they finally got rid of me.  I left to find another school, one that was different and allowed students to be themselves.

Ultimately, the failure of our schools is their failure to grow with the times.  They are still stuck in a mode of education our children from the 1950s, and the world has changed.  The cliques and the crowds prevalent in our schools are a result in our schools' efforts to shoehorn students into one specific mold.  By trying to force them to fit in, we are eliminating their creativity, their ability to be themselves, and their ability to see others for who they are rather than what group they belong to. 

As teachers and parents, adults and voters, it is our job to force these schools to change with the times.  Promote unique activities, volunteer in your local schools, run after school programs.  BE INVOLVED!  Only by being active participants and being a voice for change (or, as my graduate school calls it, a Change Agent) can we change our schools for the better.