Back in the days when disruptive students were snatched from their regular classrooms and ostracized to "opportunity classes" next to the furnace or the school cafeteria, it didn't pay to be a troublemaker. Retribution was swift and hardly anyone challenged teachers and principals. They, after all, were the law.
This year, as we observe American Education Week (Nov. 12-18), we know that these autocratic ways of yesterday are long gone. Students and their activities in the classroom are far different today. Just last week, a teacher told me that a student was beat unconscious in the hallway outside his classroom. Within three days, this violent offender was back in school. Based on this, I am wondering if there is any limit to the misconduct of a student that will not be tolerated by our schools.Without discipline in the classroom, it is difficult for teachers to teach and students to learn. One or two troublemakers shouting obscenities or running around the room divert the teacher's attention from teaching to trying to restore order. Some teachers tell us that they estimate at least 10 percent of their total teaching time is spent grappling with discipline and order situations.
Because of our concern about this growing problem, the American Federation of Teachers - Utah (AFT-Utah) has joined with its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, in support of a national campaign: Responsibilities, Respect, Results: Lessons for Life. This campaign focuses on raising academic standards and restoring order in chaotic classrooms. As AFT President Albert Shanker says, "Unless you have order and civility, not much learning will go on. Unless there are high academic standards, school programs become trivial and meaningless. Other educational reforms may work, but high standards of conduct and achievement do work and nothing else can work without them."
Many things do work in our state educational system. Nationally, Utah ranks fourteenth in the nation both in the ratio of students who graduate from high school and go to college. It is second in the nation in the ratio of students who attain a high school education. Twenty-five percent of our population is enrolled in public schools, an impressive 55 percent above the national average of 16.7 percent. Utah's student population increased 51 percent from 1970 to 1992, the fourth highest rate in the country. While our per pupil expenditures are 44 percent below the national average, school spending, relative to personal income, is 14 percent above average. In 1992, education revenues were 44 percent of total state revenues, 29 percent above the national average.
We have a citizenry that values education. That is one reason we feel the need to start now to lay a foundation to cope with potential educational problems which could cloud our future. Any efforts we make to improve education have to take into account that our state has had the highest pupil-to-teacher ratio in the country, which complicates the problem. Secondly, we also spend less per pupil than any state in the nation.
The Lessons for Life campaign calls for a specific set of actions. Efforts to reach these goals will vary from state to state, and from district to district, but the first priority is to make sure that the codes of conduct are in place. Those codes should:
Clearly establish rigorous standards for student behavior. Discipline codes should be brief and to the point, with specific descriptions of what won't be tolerated.
Provide for swift and sure punishment of disruptive, violent and dangerous behavior. Make sure the consequences match the severity of the offense.
Involve parents in disciplinary actions against their children. Guarantee consistent enforcement of the discipline code, without preference or prejudice or political intervention.
Establish and maintain alternative educational settings for chronically disruptive students who cannot function in regular classrooms.
These are the goals that AFT-Utah will be working toward. We will be urging legislators to consider these issues in the upcoming legislature. I encourage parents, teachers, community leaders and elected officials to join us in support of our Lessons for Life campaign to keep teaching the first priority in the classroom. In a classroom controlled by a disruptive child, the other children lose educational opportunities.