I am CuTRis

Yesterday, I went back to a full day of substitute teaching, fourth graders. It was a new district as I had taken some time off, because the district I was working at previously, banned me after I stopped a student from assaulting his classmates. So yesterday, at a new district, in a new school, with different kids--within the first 30 minutes, a fight broke out, and I had to stop it. That's kind of risky, because once you make contact with the kids, even to pull them off of each other, someone can lodge a complaint and you can lose your job. Also, notable about yesterday, was the level of disrespect and lack of discipline. Their teacher had been absent for a while, so they closed the door of the classroom and then started throwing things, running around screaming and playing games on their computers. There was no making them stop, and there's not enough support from the school. I'm not working today, and I don't miss it. And I don't miss being told by a 10-year-...

The issue of bad behavior and violence in schools has gotten worse not better. And it could be, because the trend is to manipulate the numbers on spreadsheets, rather than to address the issues of the bad behavior. Because certain demographics show up more often for behavior problems, the answer from governing bodies and echoed by administrators, is to stop targeting those individuals. The result is that teachers have to play the "game," of not reporting incidents, or asking for help. Because if they do, the behavior problems are often "thrown back at them," as if it is due to their (lack of) teaching ability. The true answer lies in finding out why certain groups have more behavior issues, rather than not reporting them—just to manipulate the numbers. The fix involves trying to understand and alleviate the problems at their source. So far, many people won't accept this, because it shifts the responsibility back onto the students (and families), who have difficu...